18 tips to How to make your resume stand out [ Checklist ]

Resume is your front gate towards recruiters and HR representatives. It could be the reason why they take action and have a call with you to set up an interview. So, make your resume stand out is very important to give you the chance of occupying your dream job. 

Also, a strong resume will give you the privilege to compete with the other candidates. To know how to create a strong resume that stands out between the resumes of the other candidates, keep reading this article as we will explain to you some tips to create a resume that stands out. 

Importance of a resume

While applying in any job vacancy ad, you should provide a resume. This resume plays a big role in introducing your competences and capabilities to the recruiters. It’s about your passport that will help you to become a member in any company. 

So, you should pay attention while creating your resume to make it stand out, in order to give you the chance to gain a new opportunity and grow in your career path.   

How to make your resume stand out

Finding an answer for this question is considered as a tool to make a successful resume that will catch the eyes of the recruiters. For this reason, we will provide you with some tips that could help you to make your resume stand out. Try to apply all the following tips carefully. 

Read more: 3 Best Resume Formats Tips

• Customize your resume for your industry

Each industry has its own requirements, expressions and responsibilities. To reach out to any opportunity in any industry, you should customize your resume to fit the industry. 

Your resume must talk as an expert in this industry, by mentioning the responsibilities that fit with the industry. 

Also, the industry will push you to adopt certain designs, fonts, or layout. For example, if you work as a marketer, designer, or sales person, you should create your resume based on the most required skill in your industry which is creativity. On the other hand, some industries don’t need to do a big effort while designing your resume.  

• Include keywords from the original job posting

Each HR representative put in the job vacancy ad some keywords, or expressions. And, 70% of recruiters search for these keywords in the received resumes. And when they find these keywords, they call this candidate to set an interview with him.

But what are these keywords and what is their role?

The keywords are some words or description of the job role that the candidate will do in the company. Your role is to customize your resume to fit with the job description. Doing this will make the employer feel that you put in a lot of effort to read the job description and make your resume customized instead of sending the same resume to all the job vacancy ads. 

The right keywords will get you noticed by recruiters and show employers why they should hire you.

Andrew Fennell

Read more: Resume tips to Land Your Dream Job

• Be clean and concise

A resume should be one page but with a lot of experience, how could you do this? The answer is to become clear and concise, try to use concise words that describe your role while using simple words instead of long sentences. 

Choosing strong verbs will make your resume stand out. 

Include a header and summary or objective
In your resume, you must start with a summary or objective, especially when you want to make a shift in your career or to have a higher position. In this summary, you will mention the reason behind your objective to let the recruiters know your motivation level. But, take care, this summary should be between 2 to 3 sentences. 

Don’t forget to create headers in your resume, the most important one is the header containing your contact information. 

The role of the header, summary and objectives, it will help recruiters to find out all the needed information. Due to many studies, the HR representatives stay on each resume for 6 to 7 seconds, so you should grab their attention to your resume during these seconds. 

• Write a pithy objective

The objective in any resume will show to recruiters how do you think about your future and your career. It will help the employer to understand you, define your mentality and your personality.

In this part as we mentioned before, talk about your professional vision and how this job vacancy will help you to reach this objective. Don’t make it long, just 2 or 3 sentences.

• Research the company’s culture

Each company has its own culture, and while hiring a new staff, they search for an employee that fits with this culture. 

Your role here is to understand the company’s culture by doing deep research on this company, know their direction and what is their brand image. Then, try to use this culture in your resume to make the HR representative feel that you are the suitable one for this job position.

• Reach out to your network

After applying for the job vacancy ad in any company, try to search between your network on LinkedIn or your connections, for an employee in this company. So, you could know all the updates, help your resume to be reached by the HR representative. 

Also, if you have an interview, don’t hesitate to tell them that you searched until founding a network in this company to explain to you the company activities, culture, target audience and all the information related to the company to be aware of the simple details. 

• Understand what the hiring manager is looking for

The hiring manager is the person who reviews your resume, so understanding him well and creating a resume dedicated for him will duplicate your chance to have an interview with him.

Understanding will be by reading the job description carefully, checking which words he uses to articulate the job description, company culture to be able to create your resume based on these words and on his way.  

• Add pertinent skills

Skills are a very important part in your resume, and to fit with the job vacancy ad, you should check the skills needed, then customize your skills part based on the skills mentioned on the job vacancy ad.

• Make it visually appealing

One of the most important things you should respect to make your resume stand out is the appearance. Create a harmony between margin, font size, font type and colors.

• Margin: Your resume should have a margin between 0.5 inches to 1-inch.
• Font size: should be between 10 to 12.
• Font type: you could choose between some font types like: Calibri, Times New Roman, Georgia or Helvetica. 
• Colors: choose the black color as a basic color in a white background and a secondary color to use as a highlight.  

• Submit a cover letter

Some work vacancies don’t ask for a cover letter, but sending it with your resume will give you a privilege.

In the cover letter, you will re-articulate your resume to make it like a letter. But in the cover letter, you will be asked to explain why you are the best person for this job vacancy by mentioning your previous works, your skills and your value that you will add to this company.

So, try to make a cover letter to each job vacancy, even if they don’t ask you to submit it. 

• Demonstrate results with numbers and metrics.

To persuade the recruiters and the HR representative, work on mentioning numbers and metrics in your achievements and work experience sector. 

They prefer to see your impact translated into numbers, for example, don’t say Work on reducing the company’s expenses, and say Reduce 40% of the company’s expenses during 6 months.     

Read more: How to Write Work Experience on a Resume

• Craft a career snapshot.

The career snapshot is the replacement of the objective section. In the career snapshot, imagine that you have to answer this question “How would you describe your work experience?” 

Your answer will combine your job experience related to the job vacancy, and what were your achievements and accomplishments that you have realized during your job experience. Also, you will mention your top skills.

The career snapshot role is to catch the eyes of the HR representative to your skills, accomplishments to make them interested in your resume and continue reading. 

• Optimize your text.

Many companies use ATS “applicant tracking system”. This system works on filtering the thousands of resumes received every day, to provide the hiring manager the accurate resume based on keywords.

From your part, you have to optimize your resume, by reading carefully the job description published by the company, then insert the keywords on your resume, to avoid being rejected by the ATS. 

If your resume didn’t pass the ATS, the recruiter will never see your resume. It’s easy to pass from the ATS, if you provide the right document format and make your resume optimized and filled with the keywords inserted in the original job vacancy ad.

• Think beyond your job duties.

Job duties in your resume will make it a normal resume with no difference with the other candidate. So, to make your resume stand out with a different format, work on substituting the job duties with the job achievements and accomplishments. 

Doing this tip will make your resume totally different, as your achievements are totally exclusive to you.  

• Use the right language to stand out.

Choosing words will make your resume strong. The power of words will make employers become impressed with your resume or not.

For example, here’re some strong action verbs, try to mention them on your resume: Achieved, established, improved, and designed. 

On the other hand, these words: professional, results-driven, details oriented are on the medium level. And avoid using these words: Team player, go-better, and go-to person. 

• List your social media profiles.

A lot of hiring managers use social media to screen their candidates, by checking their opinion, activities on the different social media to measure if they fit with the company culture or not. 

So, to make it easy for the hiring manager, list your social media profiles, especially your LinkedIn profile on your resume, to let them access your profiles in a quick time to understand your culture.

Read more: How to write Resume for Undergraduates

• Proofread

Before submitting your resume, check it in terms of grammar, spelling errors. There should be zero error. So check your resume many times, ask for help from your friends to review your resume and help you to correct any grammar error or spelling error. So, don’t underestimate this step, it’s a very important step.

In conclusion, to make your resume stand out in front of the recruiters, you should pay attention to each detail, starting from the design until the spelling error and choose the right words. In this article, we list to you the top tips that would help you to create a professional and strong resume that stands out, just follow them!