How to Make Your Resume More Appealing

Once you score an interview, you can turn on the charm. You can react to the ebb and flow of conversation. You can engage with the people making the hiring decisions on a personal level.

However, you can’t do any of that if you can’t get in the room. Without a stellar resume, you’ll never get the chance to uncork the charisma.

Resumes, by nature, are cold and official documents. It’s hard to infuse them with any of the personal charm you can bring to an interview setting. But they don’t have to lack all spark. You can take some steps to improve engagement, so the resume can open the door to your next opportunity.

Here are five steps you can take to make your resume more appealing:

Constantly Consider Your Format

Resume formats can seem boring, but they can actually be quite dynamic. Expectations change all the time.

If it’s been a while since you last looked for a job, the file currently saved on your Word 2010 file might look outdated. The first step in preparing your resume should involve thorough research about the current gold-standard format.

Periodically Re-Proofread

A bad habit sinks in when you apply to a lot of positions in succession. You write the resume, assiduously proofread it once, then blast it out unread to dozens of potential employers. However, if an error snuck through your original review (one “there” instead of “their,” etc.), you’ve now shotgunned that error all over the Internet.

You don’t need to read through your resume every time you send it. But every so often, give it another once over just in case.

Target Keywords

Many employers use software to speed the recruiting process, especially the tedious task of sifting through resumes. These programs use algorithms to look for particular keywords. Make sure your resume scores well on these products.

You might roll your eyes at the prospect of gaming a computer system to get your resume looked at by an actual person. However, it’s a necessity of our times. Every time you send a resume, make sure it includes appropriate keywords. Use the job description to figure out likely suspects.

Focus on Concrete Achievements

Remember: to score a job, you have to separate yourself from the competition. It’s not enough to be adequate. You have to be the best suited among the candidates applying.

As such, don’t spend a lot of time proving your competence. Underline your exceptional qualities instead. Don’t just list the positions you’ve held. Describe how you excelled in them.

Customize Your Resume for Each Opportunity

Don’t assume that one size fits all when it comes to resumes. Different positions require different points of emphasis. It might seem like quick-fire submission of a generic resume to a large number of companies will increase your overall chances of landing an interview. But your chances for each individual position are diminished.

Treat the resume you have saved as a template. For each position, tweak and tailor it until the document exactly suits the opportunity. The process might add a few extra minutes for each submission, but you’ll significantly increase the chance of a response.

Need more advice on how to land that perfect job? A strong recruiting partner, like SmartTalent, can give you the expert guidance you need to keep your career moving forward.

Contact SmartTalent today to find out more.