how to get a resume noticed

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How to Get Your Resume Noticed (And Out of the Trash Bin)

• Kristi DePaul

Five ways to catch a recruiter’s attention.

Eye-tracking research has shown that an HR professional will review your resume for a mere seven seconds, and companies are increasingly using automation to screen resumes.

• The days of sending a generic CV are out. You need to be able to stand out and make the connection that lands an interview.
• Experts share five fresh and practical ways you can do this: 1) Outsmart the robots; 2) Show off your skills; 3) Don’t restrict your work experience to just “work”; 4) Let the numbers do the talking; and 5) Keep your cover letter personal.

How long does it take a recruiter to decide if you’re right for a job? It’s actually around seven seconds, according to eye-tracking research. To put that into perspective, close your eyes and take two deep breaths. That’s the time, on average, hiring managers spend skimming your resume, sizing up your history, hopes, and dreams before either tossing it into the trash or moving you to the next round of the application process.

• KD Kristi DePaul is a content creator whose writing on career navigation and personal branding has appeared in international outlets and has been cited by prominent think tanks and universities. She is founder and principal at Nuanced, a thought leadership firm for executives, and serves as CEO of Founders , a fully remote content agency focused on the future of learning and the future of work. She earned a master’s degree from the H. John Heinz III College of Information Systems and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University.

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How To Get Your Resume Noticed by Employers

Quick Tips to Make Your Resume Stand Out From the Crowd

• How to Get Your Resume Noticed
• Be Sure You're a Good Fit for the Job
• Show That You're Qualified

Focus on Formatting

Make a match, share your achievements, stick to the basics, get rid of the clutter, before you send your resume, resume example.

It can be a challenge to get your resume noticed by employers, but there are ways to tweak it and move it beyond the  applicant tracking systems  (ATS) that employers now frequently use to provide an initial screening of the dozens, if not hundreds, of job applications they receive.

There are a few simple changes you can make to help your resume stand out from the crowd when a hiring manager reviews it.

How to Get Your Resume Noticed by Employers

These quick and easy-to-do tips will help get your resume past the screening systems and noticed by recruiters. Here's how to  update your resume  in just a few minutes.

Be Sure You're a Good Fit for the Job

Make sure you meet the qualifications.  Qualifications for being considered for a job are usually listed at the bottom of the job ad. Make sure you have at least the  minimum required qualifications  to be considered. Otherwise, you’re wasting everyone’s time, your own included. Review these  tips for decoding a job ad .

Show the Employer That You're Qualified

Customize your resume.  Don’t send the same generic resume in for every job. Take the time to customize it by including the qualifications and skills the company is looking for so the employer knows you have the right stuff. As well as writing your resume to match the job, take a few minutes to  update your job descriptions so they make the best impression .

Focus on your accomplishments.  The employer wants to know what you accomplished, not just what you did. Focus your resume upon what you achieved in each job, not your job responsibilities. Review these  tips for including accomplishments on a resume , and make sure you've included your most current achievements.

Include your most relevant skills.  The screening system that employers use matches your resume to a designated set of qualifications. Include keywords on your resume that match the  job-specific skills  the employer is seeking.

Add a cover letter.  A cover letter, even if it’s not required, is the best way to highlight the specific qualifications you have for the job. CareerBuilder reports that sending a cover letter is 40% more likely to get your resume noticed. You can use your cover letter to focus on the experience that best suits you for the job. Here’s how to write a cover letter for a resume.

Use a connection.  Getting your resume into the hands of the right person can help you get an interview. Your goal is to get your resume read; knowing someone who can help that happen will make a big difference in the outcome of your application. Referrals are the number one source of new hires. Here’s how to get one .

Use a basic font.  The  best font to use  is a simple font such as Times New Roman, Arial, or Calibri. Be sure to use a font size that’s readable—10 to 12 points works best. Use bold and italics to highlight job titles and employers.  

Add a skills section.  Adding a skills section to your resume is another good way to show that you’re a good fit for the job. Here’s  what to include plus examples .  

Add a headline or profile.  A brief, eye-catching headline or profile is a great way to grab the reader’s attention. Be sure that it focuses on what you can offer the employer, not on what you want from a job. Here’s information on including a  profile instead of an objective on a resume .

Move the education section to the bottom.  Focus on your work experience (typically in  reverse chronological order ), then put your education and other information at the bottom of your resume.

You don’t need to include the name of your high school or your GPA if it’s been a while since you graduated.

Here’s  when to take your GPA off your resume .

Make sure your resume matches the job posting.  The closer a match your resume is to the job qualifications, the better your chance of getting selected for an interview. Make a list of the qualifications the employer wants, and then be sure to include as many as possible in your resume. Review these tips for  matching your qualifications to a job description  for an easy way to make a match.

You can find the specific skills and attributes the employer is looking for in the job posting.

Match your resume to LinkedIn.  It’s a good idea to include the URL of your LinkedIn profile on your resume. It’s even better if you  personalize your LinkedIn URL so that it includes your name. Do take the time to make sure your resume matches your LinkedIn profile. Employers will check.

Getting hired is a numbers game.  Employers like to see quantifiable achievements on resumes. Include numbers wherever possible and use numbers, not words, when you’re listing them. For example, write “30%,” not “thirty percent.” Here’s  how to include numbers on your resume .

Add information.  If your resume is light on paid full-time work experience that qualifies you for the job, it’s fine to add internships, part-time jobs, and volunteer experience.

Keep it simple.  Boring works when it comes to most resumes. A simple format is easier for the ATS to screen and easier for recruiters to read. Save the fancy formatting for your portfolio if you’re in a design field. Review these  resume formatting guidelines  to get started.

Be concise.  Less is more when it comes to words on a resume. Use brief, action-oriented sentences that describe your role at each employer. Here’s a list of the top words to  include (and to leave off) your resume .

Get rid of old jobs.  You don’t need to include all your work experience on your resume. If you have a lengthy work history,  the last 10 — 15 years is plenty . You may be required to list them all on job applications, but your resume is a synopsis of your employment history, not your life story.

Get rid of non-essential information.  Your resume is professional, not personal. You should not include information about your personal life, family, hobbies, or anything else not related to work.

Check for typos.  Resume errors matter: don’t think a spelling or grammatical error won’t get picked up. Unfortunately, the mistake will jump right off the page and get noticed.  Grammarly is a terrific tool  for making sure that your resume and cover letters are perfect.

Give it a recognizable name.  Don’t call your resume “resume”—take a second or two  to personalize the file name  to FirstLastNameResume.doc—that way it’s clearly recognizable as your resume to recruiters and hiring managers.

Save it as a PDF.  If you save your resume as a PDF, you won’t have to worry about funky formatting or the recruiter seeing a garbled mess. Unless the employer requires a different format, send a PDF so readers can view your resume exactly as you want it to look. Here are 11 free tools you can use to convert your resume to a PDF file.

Jeanne Johnson 123 Airport Road Cleveland, OH 44106 123-456-7890 jeanne.johnson@email.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeannejohnson/

FLIGHT ATTENDANT

Creating positive customer travel experiences with diplomacy and tact

Service-oriented and cheerful professional with 7+ years’ experience delivering superb service to passengers on domestic and international flights. Key skills include:

• Customer Relations
• Excellent Communication Skills
• Fluent in English and Spanish.
• Team Building & Leadership
• Conflict Resolution & Problem-Solving
• FAA Compliance

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

FRIENDLY FLIGHTS, Cleveland, Ohio Flight Attendant (June 2017 – Present) Provide exemplary in-flight service to passengers from all walks of life. Greet and assist travelers; partner with cabin crew and pilots to optimize safety and well-being of everyone aboard. Key contributions:

• Consistently ensured uncompromised compliance with all FAA mandates.
• Earned multiple “Employee of the Month” awards in recognition of stellar customer service.

XYZ AIRLINES, Syracuse, New York Flight Attendant (August 2012 – May 2017) Held scope of responsibility for performing pre-flight safety checks, boarding and serving passengers, ensuring proper storage of baggage, and ensuring passenger compliance with all safety procedures. Key Contributions:

• Readily worked extra shifts to ensure adequate staffing levels.
• Earned highest rankings on customer satisfaction surveys.

EDUCATION & CREDENTIALS

XYZ AIRLINES, Syracuse, New York Flight Attendant Training, June-July 2012

ONANDAGA COMMUNITY COLLEGE, Syracuse, New York A.A.S., Hospitality Management (GPA: 3.8), June 2012

Certification FAA Certificate of Demonstrated Proficiency

CareerBuilder. " CareerBuilder's Annual Survey ." Accessed March 10, 2020.

SHRM. " Employee Referrals Remain Top Source for Hires ." Accessed March 10, 2020.

CareerOneStop. " Resume Format ." Accessed March 10, 2020.

CareerOneStop. " Skills and Abilities ." Accessed March 10, 2020.

How to Get Your Resume Noticed

Posted on 31 aug 2021.

It can be downright disheartening to never get a reply for the resume you’ve worked so hard to write, but such is the arduous process of job hunting nowadays, especially with the level of competition available. If you’re getting frustrated with all the rejections you’re receiving, take heart in knowing that there are steps you can take to improve your situation. Here are eight tried-and-true tips from Resumeble on how to get your resume noticed by potential employers.

1. Research yourself

Some of the steps toward how to get your resume noticed must happen before you even begin to write your resume. To start with, you need to look yourself up on the Internet. Today’s employers make it a point to “Google” potential employees, so you have to do the same. You never know what might pop up on the search engine that could risk your application.

Think of your online presence as your personal branding. If you’re not managing and optimizing it, you could be unwittingly ruining your chances of getting hired. So make sure you Google your name as it appears on your resume to see what others may find. If it’s within your control to edit or delete, such as a personal Facebook post or unbecoming photos on Instagram, take care of them. If it has been posted by others, contact the person responsible to have it taken down, or report it to be flagged.

2. Develop your personal brand

Aside from getting rid of online content that could jeopardize your application, you also have to take steps to build so-called “proofs of your hireable personality.” This is called personal branding—another important way for how to get your resume noticed. Managing an online reputation isn’t just for celebrities anymore, and the better you develop your personal brand, the better your chances of getting hired will be.

To boost your personal branding, you need to build credibility with content. Think before you post, and post with intention. If it’s not engaging, then it’s not worth posting. Choose posts related to your industry and profession that will pique the interest of recruiters and hiring managers to entice them to learn more about you.

3. Research the job and company

Take the time to learn as much as you can about the employer and the job position. What are the responsibilities and day-to-day tasks of the job? What are the company’s values? What are the opportunities for professional development? Aside from equipping you with the knowledge that could benefit you during the job interview, researching the job and the company lets you know if you would be a good fit for the company and if you can have a fruitful career there.

Check the employer’s website as well as social media pages. Depending on how informative these channels are, you can glean plenty of useful information from these sources. It can also help to read employee reviews to understand the company’s work culture, branding, and policies.

4. Link your LinkedIn profile

As the preferred platform of career professionals, LinkedIn has grown inextricably connected to the job world, that it is now considered a huge mistake for job hunters to not add a LinkedIn profile link to their resume. In fact, not being on LinkedIn altogether conveys to recruiters the idea that you are so outdated, you do not know how the world works today.

Aside from showing that you are abreast with the times, providing a link to your LinkedIn profile in your application provides potential employers with a way to “get to know” you beyond the resume. Aside from your personal info, expect them to go over your posts to see if your personality makes you a good fit for the company. Likewise, they will also look for problematic content to see if you're involved in any concerns that may put their branding at risk. With this in mind, it’s best to keep things professional and avoid sharing iffy posts that could endanger your application.

5. Customize for each job applied for

All too often, applicants only have one version of their resume that they submit to multiple job postings. If you’re guilty of this, unfortunately for you, the applicant tracking systems (ATS) that many companies use today to screen applicants is unforgiving of the generic resume approach.

The way ATS work is that they search resumes for specific keywords. If your resume doesn’t contain them, then it will never reach the eyes of a recruiter or hiring manager. Suffice to say, how to get a resume noticed is out of the question if your resume can’t even pass an ATS screen.

To beat ATS, you need to custom-fit your resume to the job you’re applying for. This means important terms like job titles, skills, certifications, location, education, and other specific requirements must be found in your resume.

6. Make sure your resume is pitch-perfect

Your resume is your professional representation, so even if it contains all the right keywords, it’s still not going to pass muster in the eyes of recruiters and hiring managers if it contains errors, inconsistencies inaccuracies, and fluff such as vague employment dates, typos, irrelevant work experience, wrong formatting (e.g., placing education at the beginning), and stating accomplishments without measurable evidence. For your sake, review your resume multiple times before sending it out.

If you want to know if your resume has what it takes to attract the right kind of attention, Resumeble offers a free, no-obligation evaluation of your resume so you can identify its weak and strong points.

7. Present your achievements in measurable terms

Studies reveal that it usually takes recruiters only six seconds to decide if your resume is worth keeping or not. As such, it is imperative that you are able to convey your achievements clearly, and this can only happen if you know how to quantify your resume. For example, instead of saying, “I performed market research for many organizations,” You should mention something to the effect of: “Carried out market research for Getty Oil, BP, and Shell over a three-year period, resulting in 10 to 20 percent accurate feasibility studies for each company.”

Employers love seeing actual numbers on resumes because it lets them “measure” your success at your previously held job positions. Make sure your resume doesn’t disappoint by providing quantifiable results for your achievements.

8. Keep your resume lean and mean

Resumes should be kept one to two pages long. With such limited space, you are only allowed to include the most relevant details of your career. When it comes to how a resume should look, most employers really don’t care about information outside of your skills, work history, and important accomplishments, so avoid making your resume overly lengthy with unnecessary particulars such as religion, ethnicity, date of birth, etc. Remember that every inch of your resume is valuable real estate, so make sure every piece of information adds to the potential value you bring to a company.

How to quantify resume – get help from Resumeble

Need help with writing your resume? Resumeble will work with you to develop an application that will pass ATS screens and excite recruiters and hiring managers to schedule an interview with you. Stop worrying about questions like “how a resume should look,” “how to quantify a resume,” how to get my resume noticed,” “how to start a resume,” and so on. Let us take care of the answers for you with our high-quality resume writing services. Contact us today to learn more!

• 7 seconds: this is how long your resume has either to impress or be ignored by the recruiter
• 300+: average number of applications one corporate job opening posted online receives
• 3%: number of sent resumes that result in interviews

Transform your career and beat the odds!

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How to write a resume that will get you noticed

By Mary Halton on July 13, 2020 in News + Updates

It’s believed that the average recruiter or hiring manager will look at your resume for only 6 seconds before making a decision.

While that’s a daunting statistic, there are plenty of things you can do to make those 6 seconds count, says career coach and former recruiter  Gail Tolstoi-Miller .

Here’s her advice:

Tailor your resume to each job you apply for

Submitting hundreds of resumes and waiting to see what sticks won’t work — applying for a job is about quality and not quantity, according to Tolstoi-Miller. “There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all resume,” she explains. “Do your research — look at the job description, go on LinkedIn and look up other people who have been in the job. The more targeted you are, the better off you are.”

And while you can’t change your employment experience — where you worked or what title you held — you can change which of your skills, responsibilities and achievements you choose to highlight.

There’s no right length for resumes

There is no hard and fast rule about length, but please exercise your judgement and restraint (remember that 6-second figure). Most resumes are 2 pages, but for a recent college graduate a single page is fine, and for someone with a 30-year career who’s had jobs at multiple organizations, 3 pages might be more appropriate.

Make its info as easy to absorb as possible

At the top, put a 3 – 4 sentence summary that outlines your work experience and what stage you’re at in your career. This should align with the description of the job you’re applying for.

Next, you want an attention-grabbing bulleted list of skills. While you’re always writing for a human audience, some parts of the recruitment process are automated. “Some recruiters will look at every single resume that goes through the system; other recruiters will just go by what the applicant tracking system will tell them,” says Tolstoi-Miller. “If the application is not ranked at a certain percentage, they’re going to not even give that person the time of day.”

For your human audience, write down all of your relevant skills — emphasis on  all . Tolstoi-Miller explains, “Sometimes I see candidates assume ‘Oh, they’re going to know I can do this’, but she could have very little experience with the job you’re applying for and may have no idea how it actually works. Never assume that they know.”

Then, for your automated audience, put in multiple keywords in your skill list to ensure tracking systems pick you up. To identify the keywords, think about how you’d search for this specific role in a database. For example, if you work in HR and use payroll software, list the exact kind that you’ve worked with. Also, consider including  phrases that appear in the job description as these might contain keywords that the recruiter will use.

If you’ve been laid off due to COVID-19 or done short-term contract gigs, it’s OK to note this in your resume

Recruiters are wary of so-called “job hoppers” — people who change jobs frequently, according to Tolstoi-Miller. However, this can be unavoidable in the current economy. Her advice: “To alleviate any kind of bias against job hopping, in your resume put in parentheses next to the job ‘company closed’ or ‘contract position’ or ‘downsizing due to COVID-19.’” Even if you worked at an organization or business that went through a public closing or bankruptcy, still do this. You can’t assume that the recruiter or hiring manager will know; like any other person, they have their own blind spots and anything you can do to alleviate those can help you.

Don’t overlook your accomplishments

Remember to list your awards and accomplishments on your resume. “A lot of candidates have a very difficult time speaking to their accomplishments,” says Tolstoi-Miller. “But there’s always something you have done that has helped the organization, and that’s why companies should hire you. If you’re an administrative assistant, for instance, your accomplishments might be efficiency or time management.” She adds, “There are so many other people with the same skills, so what sets you apart? What makes you great?”

Wait, you’re not done! Keep your LinkedIn profile current, too

As opposed to a resume, Tolstoi-Miller says, “The thing with LinkedIn is that you have to do a one-size-fits-all — that’s the challenge. So your profile should reflect the job you really, really want. It should also serve as an extension of your resume. You might show more of your personality or dive a little deeper into some other things that you didn’t have space for in your resume.”

A few housekeeping notes: Many employers will compare your resume to your LinkedIn profile, so the dates and details should match. You should also ensure you have a recent photo, as employers may be wary if you don’t.

Besides overhauling your LinkedIn profile, “you can find other ways to stand out,” says Tolstoi-Miller. Set up a personal website, where you might include a video featuring you. After reviewing thousands of job applications in her career, Tolstoi-Miller finds touches like that refreshing. Or, create a business card to give people when you meet them. These can show your personality and also make you memorable.

Which leads to a final point that Tolstoi-Miller wants to stress:

Networking helps

“Your resume means nothing if it won’t get in front of the right people,” she says. “Recruiters may call you if you have a great resume, but what is going to get you the job is taking it a step further — taking control, networking and reaching out to people that are in a position to hire.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mary Halton  is Assistant Ideas Editor at TED, and a science journalist based in the Pacific Northwest.

This post was originally published on  TED Ideas . It’s part of the “How to Be a Better Human” series, each of which contains a piece of helpful advice from someone in the TED community;  browse through  all the posts here.

How To Write a Resume That Gets Noticed (+ Examples)

• Written by Editorial Team
• Updated November 10, 2022

I’m sure you have heard the expression, “You can have it all.” Well, when it comes to getting your resume noticed and setting yourself apart from other candidates, I think that’s a myth. You can’t have it all—at least not in one document.

But there are plenty of ways you can make sure that the content of your resume is top-notch and will impress potential employers. In this article, you will learn different ways to ensure you have an eye-catching resume.

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How can I attract attention to my resume?

There are several ways to do this. One of the most effective is to highlight your skills and experience—this makes it easier for employers to see what they need in an applicant. You can also use action verbs (e.g., “led,” “managed,” etc.) to show that you have certain abilities or qualities.

A second way to attract attention is by highlighting your achievements and accomplishments. This can be done by listing specific examples of what you’ve done in the workplace, as well as any awards or recognitions received.

Here are other tips on how to do so:

• Focus on your career goals, not just your job responsibilities.
• Keep it to one page if possible; two pages is the maximum length you should consider using.
• Use a clear, easy-to-read font and formatting. Use bullet points to organize major points and keep the length of your resume under two pages.

As an Accounts Payable Administrator, for instance, your resume should be prepared in the following structure (which highlights your experiences and outlines your responsibilities):

Professional Experience

Dean Foods Company — Fort Worth, TX 11/10 to Present

Accounts Payable Operations Administrator

• Responsible for resolving AP banking reconciliation, positive pay, ACH Returns/Rejects
• Handle daily accounts payable activities for multiple subsidiaries within the company
• Serve as a liaison for Corporate Treasury and AP Operations while working closely with Cash Disbursements to assist with daily activities
• Create AP processing attachments such as Debit/Credit Memos and Stop Pay Voids
• Assist Internal/External Audit partners with requests for unclaimed property audits
• Assist with maintaining the Supplier Master database

How do you write a resume for an eye-catching summary?

The best way to write a resume summary is to keep it short and sweet . You don’t want the hiring manager reading just one sentence on your resume; you want them to be able to quickly glance at your summary and get a good idea of what your experience is like.

You want to highlight your most relevant experience, but you don’t want it to take up too much space on the page. You also want it to be interesting enough that the hiring manager will actually read through the rest of your resume!

The best way to do this is to focus on what you’ve done, rather than what you want to do. Hiring managers are looking for candidates who have experience doing specific tasks at a high level of quality. You don’t want to say that your goal is “to be an expert at data analysis,” because it doesn’t tell the hiring manager anything about your skillset or interests.

Instead, write about all the projects that you completed where you gained expertise in data analysis. For instance, if you worked at a consulting firm, you could write about how you analyzed customer data to help businesses increase their sales.

Or if you worked in retail or hospitality, focus on the ways that your store improved customer satisfaction after implementing new software. This is a great way to show off your skills, without sounding too generic.

To demonstrate how to do this, I’ll give you an example (in this format, you’ll see that the words and sentences are precisely defined, taking up little space, but highlighting the pertinent experiences):

Accounts Payable Associate

• Processed up to 5,000 invoices per month for large, multi-site organizations
• Assessed and closed A/P sub-ledger on a monthly basis
• Ensured all payable invoices were processed in an efficient manner to earn discounts and matched to the purchase orders submitted for authorization of purchase
• Processed check requests, expense reports, and special handling invoices
• Balanced audit reports ensure the accuracy of posting
• Reconciled bank balances; recorded general ledger entries
• Negotiated effectively with vendors to delay payments by up to 60+ days

How do you get your resume noticed and stand out from the competition?

Step one: write a great resume.

Your resume is the first impression you make on a potential employer. It’s your opportunity to tell them everything they need to know about you, without wasting their time or yours.

The most important thing is to make sure your resume is easy for the employer to read and understand. Make sure it’s not too long and that each section has a clear purpose.

Step Two: Get Your Resume Out There

The more resumes you send, the better your chances of finding a job. A good rule of thumb is to send out at least 10 copies of your resume for every position you apply for. If your resume doesn’t get any responses after sending out 20 copies, it may be time to reevaluate what kind of jobs you’re applying for and how well-qualified they are for someone in your field.

Step Three: Follow Up If you can’t afford to send out a lot of resumes

Make sure you follow up with each employer who received one. It’s best to do this in person if possible—just call and ask if they have any positions available that might be a good fit for you. If they do, make an appointment to interview them. If they don’t, ask if they have any suggestions for where you might look next. This will also give you a chance to find out what kind of person the employer wants in their organization—and whether there are any issues with your resume that might make them think twice about hiring you.

How do you sell yourself on a resume?

The key is to be strategic and intentional about what you include and how you present yourself. And the first step is to understand that your resume is not a list of all the things you’ve done, but rather a tool for telling a story about your career and highlighting the most relevant experience that speaks to the needs of your target employers.

One important thing to remember is that your resume should not be a complete list of everything you’ve ever done in your career. You need to pick and choose what to include, as well as how it’s presented. The other key is to focus on accomplishments rather than just responsibilities or duties.

In this case, the applicant went above and beyond the call of duty to highlight her accomplishments in order to get the attention of the hiring manager.

 Example:

Education and Proficiencies

Associate of Arts Degree Accounting: University of Phoenix College — Phoenix, AZ (2008). GPA (3.87) (Cum Laude)

Bachelor’s of Science Business Technical Management with a Major in Human Resources: DeVry University – Illinois (2010) Currently enrolled – 24 credit hours remaining GPA (4.0) (Cum Laude)

Computer Skills: Windows XP/Vista, Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Outlook, Shared Services, Prodagio, JDEdwards, AS400, Lotus Notes, Capture Perfect 3.0, Epicor Mainframe, and Microsoft Money

Special Skills: Analytical, time management, organizational, strong verbal and written communication skills, ability to work with minimal supervision, possess high attention to detail and accuracy, a strong team player

How can I make my resume irresistible?

The resume is often the first thing a potential employer will see, and that’s why you want to make sure it’s perfect. You need to take the time to customize it for each job application so it highlights your skills and experience that are relevant to the position. While you may think your resume is solid, there are many ways to make it even better. Use these tips and tricks to make your resume stand out from the crowd and get noticed by recruiters:

• Use a resume template. A lot of people think they have to design their own resume from scratch, but that’s not the case. You can find plenty of templates online that will make it easy for you to design an attractive and professional-looking resume without having to figure out the layout yourself.
• Use bullet points . You don’t need to use complete sentences in your resume; instead, you can use short bullet points to highlight your skills and experience. This makes it easier for recruiters to quickly scan through your resume and see what they want at a glance.
• Use a clean format . If you’re using bullet points, then your resume should be formatted as a list. This makes it easier for recruiters to scan through quickly and see what they want at a glance.

Everything in this sample is modified, even the bullet points. It also has a clean format and a template.

CUSTOMER SERVICE SPECIALIST-CONTINUUM – Charlotte, NC-January 2022 – Present

• Providing quality customer service for Verizon customers.
• Process plan changes and equipment purchases.
• Provides detailed information on billing inquiries.

IN-FORCE POLICY SPECIALIST– EQUITABLE – Charlotte, NC-September 2020 – June 2021

• Educated policyholders on COVID-19 provisions in billing.
• Scheduled payment arrangements.
• Processed eligibility documentation.

RELATIONSHIP CASE MANAGER – EQUITABLE January 2020 – August 2020

• Processed life insurance applications.
• Collected policyholder information from insurance agents.
• Handled verification of underwriting documentation.

ASSOCIATE- EQUITABLE January 2019 -December 2019

• Administrative support for Equitable Reg. 60 policy group during New York state compliance audit.
• Updated proposed life insurance policy disclosures with side-by-side comparisons of competitors’ coverage.
• Conducted correction reviews of outgoing Inforce policies.

PROJECT COORDINATOR- AMT DIRECT – Charlotte, NC- September 2018 – December 2018

• Developed successful strategies with the project manager to complete lease accounting and administrative software installations for commercial real estate clients on a 120-day timeline.
• Maintained project plans, schedules, and work hours using MS Project.
• Ensured adherence to project framework through daily and weekly status meetings.

Creating a resume is an important step in the job search process. It’s your first opportunity to communicate your value and skills to potential employers, and it’s one of the many tools we use to find candidates with the right experience for our client opportunities. A resume is an essential tool for job seekers to communicate their values, skills, and experiences. It should be customized to each industry and position you are applying for.

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More From Forbes

7 simple résumé tips to make sure you get noticed by recruiters.

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Your job search will go much smoother if your resume is designed to catch a recruiter's attention.

People are staying unemployed for longer periods of time as the pace of hiring has slowed down. The median duration of unemployment increased to 9.8 weeks in June from 8.9 weeks in May, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data .

Recruiters are sifting through hundreds of applications. So, it's crucial to make your résumé not only noticeable but memorable. Here’s a guide on how to get your résumé noticed in seven steps, from my perspective as a former recruiter.

1. Limit Your Résumé To One Page

Conciseness is where most résumés quickly fail. Recruiters typically spend 10 seconds or less glancing at each résumé. As a recruiter, I would send résumés over to senior recruiters or hiring managers and get a response back in just a few minutes. A one-page document forces you to focus on the most relevant and impactful information.

By eliminating unnecessary details, you highlight your core qualifications and achievements. This makes it easier for recruiters to quickly assess your fit for the role, and increase your chances of moving onto the next round.

2. Add Your LinkedIn Profile At The Top

Include a link to your LinkedIn profile at the top of your résumé to provide recruiters with a quick way to learn more about you. Make sure your LinkedIn profile is up to date, includes a professional headshot, and aligns with your resume. A strong LinkedIn presence serves as an extension of your résumé.

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Additional recommendations, skills, and experiences that didn’t make it onto the page can be highlighted in your LinkedIn profile. These additional elements also help you become more easily searched for by recruiters whose jobs you may not have applied for, or for companies who are doing confidential searches without a formal job posting.

3. Ditch The Professional Summary At The Top of Your Résumé

As a recruiter, I never read a professional summary that blew me away. Instead of a lengthy one, which can be redundant and often overlooked, start with your experience and work history. Follow this with your key skills and education in a concise, easy-to-read format. This approach allows recruiters to immediately see how your experience lines up with what they are looking for, and what you bring to the table without making them have to skim the page.

4. Focus On The Last 10 Years At Most

Job seekers with long career histories make the mistake of listing every job they’ve ever had. This approach will more likely harm than help your résumé’s appeal to the readers.

Recruiters are most interested in your recent work experience, typically the last 10 years. Highlighting your most recent and relevant roles helps keep your résumé focused and relevant. It also lessens the odds of you getting discriminated against for your age. There’s no job description that will ask for 20 years of experience, and it’s unlikely your experience more than 10 years ago will translate well because of how fast technology has moved since then.

It’s better to spend the bulk of your limited space to highlight your most recent experience. If you have significant achievements from earlier in your career, consider summarizing them in your LinkedIn instead, or shortening the descriptions of the jobs beyond the past 10 years into a short summary.

5. Quantify Your Achievements With Shorter Bullets

When describing your responsibilities and achievements, use bullet points to keep information digestible — not entire paragraphs that you might find in a legal document. It’s more critical now to quantify your achievements wherever possible, such as “Increased sales by 30%” or “Managed a team of 5.” This approach not only grabs attention but also provides concrete evidence of your impact and will distinguish you from other candidates. Keeping these bullet points to no more than two lines ensures clarity and readability.

6. Employ More Impactful Action Words

The words you choose can significantly affect how your résumé is perceived. Swap out common words like “use” for more impactful verbs such as “utilize,” “leverage,” “implement” or “deploy.” Instead of “make,” try words like “produce,” “generate” and “create.” Strong action verbs convey a sense of proactivity and effectiveness, making your accomplishments sound more dynamic and specific. They also reduce reader fatigue from seeing similar bullets from multiple résumés.

7. Have A Career Coach Or Recruiter Proofread Your Résumé

Lastly, have a career coach or recruiter review your résumé. They provide valuable, objective insights from an industry perspective, ensuring your résumé meets current standards, trends and expectations. They can also catch errors you might have missed, or offer suggestions on bullets that seem unclear or confusing to them.

A great way to test this is to ask them to read the résumé for a minute, and then take the résumé away from them and see what they remember from seeing it. Even better is to have a career coach or recruiter do a mock interview with you using the résumé to see where you might have gaps to fill.

By following these seven steps, you can uplevel your résumé so it not only stands out to recruiters but also effectively communicates your qualifications. Keeping an updated résumé helps shorten your job search time and reduces your risk of staying unemployed for longer than you can afford.

Even if you’re not currently on the job market, test your current résumé against these seven steps today to make sure you’re not scrambling when you eventually need it the most.

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How to Get Your Resume Noticed (And Out of the Trash Bin)

• Milo Sevelj
• October 12, 2022

You could spend hours or days working on your resume, but it only takes an HR manager or recruiter approximately 15 seconds to decide if you’re a candidate worth pursuing. It is undoubtedly disheartening, but it is an important reminder that you must be diligent in creating your resume to make it stand out. You must have all the critical components if you want to know how to get your resume noticed. 

How to Get Your Resume Noticed: 8 Strategies that Work!

The days of generic CVs are long gone. The stiff competition in the employment market demands that you step up your game with your resume with practical strategies. You won’t need a secret formula or tool to get hired. 

These simple strategies, when done correctly, should help your quest to land that dream job. 

1. Match Keywords from the Job Posting

Organizations and hiring managers are turning to automated tools to simplify and speed up the screening process of applicants. Some job positions receive hundreds to thousands of applications, which can take time to review manually. Automation tools make it easier for organizations to screen applicants so they can focus on the most relevant candidates for the job.

You can increase your chances of moving on to the next screening phase by matching keywords in your resume with the job description. This strategy will alert the automation tools of a match, which helps you to outsmart the AI and pass the initial screening process.

2. Highlight Relevant Work Experience

Too often, applicants are excited to show off their skills and past work experience that they would give equal space in the resume for all their past jobs. However, this mistake could be why your resume does not get the attention it deserves.

The hiring manager needs to know if you have the skills and experience to match the position they require. Spare them the hassle of detailing all your work experience and focus on the most relevant experience that will make them consider you for the job . 

For example, suppose you are applying for an editorial position, and you’ve worked as an assistant editor. In that case, your resume should only mention that job or any other relevant past work experience. There is no need to mention that you worked as a store attendant. 

3. Show Them Results

Let the numbers do the talking. Metrics that show your ability to deliver results in your past work experience can prove valuable in getting hiring managers to notice your resume. Hiring managers want to focus on applicants who can promise that they can do the job and be able to prove that they’ve done it. 

For example, your resume should mention how you managed the sales team and increased revenue by 20%. Or, you can demonstrate how you helped your previous employer achieve their OKRs with your help. 

4. Less is More

Keep your resume clear and concise. Less here does not refer to the amount of text you add to your resume but rather to focus on the relevant information. You don’t need two pages for your resume. 

Avoid the fluff and get straight to the point. Make sure to add a header, summary or objectives, and body to your resume. You must focus on quality over quantity. 

5. Don’t Forget the Summary or Objective

Recruiters read hundreds, if not thousands, of application letters and resumes daily. They don’t have time to read through every word of your resume. Hence, you can do the hiring manager a favor. Adding a summary or objective at the top of your resume provides the hiring managers some insight into your resume (before they read the entire document). 

The summary and objective should be concise and provide highlights of your resume (such as your skills, experience, and education – if relevant). The objective statement should also detail your career goal. It is a great way to pique the hiring manager’s curiosity and help them consider if you’re a good candidate. 

6. Optimize Your Cover Letter

Some hiring managers believe that cover letters are no longer necessary. However, cover letters that are well-written and personalized to the job posting can help your resume get noticed – or even get you hired.

Use the cover letter as an opportunity to expound on the relevant skills listed on your resume, especially if you believe it will give you a competitive edge over other candidates. Avoid the unnecessary ramblings about your personal and work life. This information is not only irrelevant to your job application but can even turn hiring managers off . 

7. Tailor it to the Industry

Personalized resumes give you an advantage over other candidates because they show your in-depth knowledge of the industry and your attention to detail. Your resume should mention the specific position or role you’re applying for rather than being generic. It is crucial for hiring managers to understand if you have adequate knowledge of the industry and if your skills are relevant for the position. 

With that said, you should omit any skills or work experience irrelevant to the job description (unless the skills and experiences are complementary to the desired position). 

8. Proofread, Proofread! 

Proofreading your resume isn’t a game-changing tip, but it can considerably impact your application status. It is essential to pay due diligence and proofread your resume to ensure it is easy to read and free from grammatical errors. Even a misspelled word can leave a wrong impression on the recruitment manager. It reflects not only your aptitude, but also your lack of attention to detail.

It is recommended that you review your resume a few times before you submit it. If you’re unsure, you can ask a family member or a friend to look over it and see if they can identify errors you might’ve missed. 

The Bottom Line

Embarking on a job search is a scary process. If you’re struggling to land that interview, don’t get discouraged. Use this as an opportunity to get back on the drawing board and incorporate these strategies to build a resume that will get you noticed. 

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Beat the Robots: How to Get Your Resume Past the System and Into Human Hands

Does job searching sometimes feel like you’re flinging resumes and cover letters into a black hole? You may be wondering if your applications are being read at all.

Perhaps you’ve heard that computerized resume scanners reject applications before they even make it into human hands. And yes—at many companies that receive a high volume of applications, that’s true.

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The internet has completely transformed the job searching landscape. Long gone are the days when you’d “pound the pavement” or “go in and ask to speak to a manager” for all but the smallest local businesses. Instead, you apply online—which is a double-edged sword for everyone involved. Because you don’t have to physically fill out and deliver an application or send out resumes and cover letters via snail mail anymore, you can apply to a lot more jobs. But so can everybody . This means that an open position can easily get far more applications than companies have the resources to read.

Just ask Muse Career Coach Yolanda M. Owens, Founder of CareerSensei Consulting , who has more than 20 years of recruiting experience in a range of industries, including healthcare, tech, and financial services. When she was a corporate recruiter, she would post a job opening and get back, she says, “over 300 applications for an entry-level position within a week.” She was generally recruiting for between 15 and 20 roles at a time, meaning that she might have 6,000 applicants to track at once!

So hiring managers and recruiters like Owens frequently use an applicant tracking system (ATS)—software that helps them organize job applications and ensure none fall through the cracks. If you’ve applied to a job any time since 2008, your application has probably passed through an ATS. Over 98% of Fortune 500 companies use an ATS of some kind, according to research conducted by Jobscan. Any time you apply for a job through an online form or portal, your application is almost certainly going into an ATS.

But an ATS does more than just track applications—it can also act as a filter, parsing every resume submitted and forwarding only the most relevant, qualified job seekers to a hiring manager or recruiter. That’s the resume-scanning technology you’ve probably heard about.

Luckily, getting past the ATS is a lot easier than you might think. Follow these dos and don’ts to create an ATS-friendly resume that’ll sail right through—and impress the hiring manager, too.

1. Do Apply Only to Roles You’re Qualified For

ATSs get a bad rap as the “robots” standing between you and your new job, and when you hear that Owens read only 25% of the applications she received for most postings, it might reinforce that impression.

But the reason she looked at such a small percentage of applications? Most candidates were not qualified for the job she was filling. And some were completely irrelevant. “If I’m looking at an entry-level [accounting] position and seeing someone who is a dentist or a VP,” Owens says, it’s totally fair for the ATS to discard those.

So first and foremost, make sure you’re truly qualified for the roles you’re applying to. This doesn’t mean you have to hit every single job qualification or apply to a job only if you have the traditional background for it. Owens says she was always “trying to cast a wide net and not exclude too many factors to pass up a candidate who might not be traditional”— career changers looking for an entry point into a new field, for example, or folks who had impressive transferable skills. But if you don’t have the core skills needed to perform a job, you’re better off not wasting your time or a recruiter’s.

2. Don’t Apply to Tons of Jobs at the Same Company

An applicant tracking system also allows recruiters to see all the roles you’ve applied to at their company. Owens often noticed the same person applying to every single opening the company or one of its departments had. When you do this, a recruiter can’t tell what you’re actually interested in or if you’re self-aware about your abilities.

If a company has two very similar roles open, absolutely apply to both. Or if you have a wide range of skills and interests and would be equally happy in two very different roles, then you can apply to both, though you should definitely tailor or target each resume you submit to the specific job.

But you generally shouldn’t be applying to both an entry-level position and a director-level position, or a sales position and a video-editing position. And you definitely shouldn’t be applying to every opening a company has. That just shows you haven’t taken the time to consider what the right role for you is—and a recruiter isn’t likely to take the time to do it for you.

3. Do Include the Right Keywords

At its core, what any applicant tracking system is programmed to do when it “reads” a resume is the same as what a person would do: It’s scanning for key pieces of information to find out whether or not you’re a match for a job opening. “ATS algorithms aren’t that different from the human algorithms, we’re all kind of skimming for the same things,” says Jon Shields, Marketing Manager at Jobscan. So when it comes to writing a resume that can make it past an ATS, you want to make sure that key information is there and that it’s easy to find.

One of the ways the ATS narrows an applicant pool is by searching for specific keywords. It’s like a Google search on a much smaller scale.

The recruiter or hiring manager can decide which keywords to search for—usually whatever skills, qualifications, experience, or qualities are most important for performing the job. For entry-level roles, that might mean certain majors, whereas for a tech position, it might be certain coding languages.

So if you want to make it past the ATS, you’ll need to include those important keywords on your resume. Hint: Look for the hard skills that come up more than once in a posting and are mentioned near the top of the requirements and job duties. Hard skills include types of software, methodologies, spoken languages, and other abilities that are easier to quantify. (The most important keyword could even be the job title itself!)

Depending on your industry, certain degrees and certifications might also be important keywords. Particularly in fields like nursing and teaching where state licenses are necessary, employers are going to want to know at a glance that you’re legally allowed to do the job you’re applying for.

If you’re having trouble identifying the important keywords in a job description as you craft an ATS-friendly resume, there are tools online (like Jobscan , Resume Worded’s Targeted Resume or SkillSyncer ) that can help you.

Note: In some cases, an ATS scanning for keywords will only recognize and count exact matches. So if you have the correct experience, but you wrote it using language that’s different than what the system is looking for, you might not come up as one of the most qualified applicants. For example, if you write that you’re an “LSW” but the ATS is checking for “Licensed Social Worker,” it might drop your resume. (To be safe, write out the full name, then put the abbreviation in parentheses.) Or if you wrote that you’re “an Excel expert,” but the ATS is searching for someone who has “experience with spreadsheets,” your resume might never get to the hiring manager. When in doubt, match your phrasing to what’s in the job description, as that’s likely to be what the ATS is looking for.

4. Do Put Your Keywords in Context

Applicant tracking systems can recognize that a key skill or experience is present. But interpreting the strength and value of that experience is still for people to do. And humans want to see how you used your skills.

It’s obvious to a recruiter when you’ve just worked in a keyword because it was in the posting, without tying it to a specific personal achievement—and it doesn’t win you any points. “Instead of focusing on regurgitating a job description, focus on your accomplishments,” Owens says.

Plus, remember that you won’t be the only one adding those important keywords to your resume. “If [you’re] all using the same job descriptions and the same buzzwords, what’s going to make you stand out from the crowd?” Owens asks. Answer: your accomplishments, which are unique to you .

When describing your current and past positions, “ensure your bullet points are actually achievements, and use numbers and metrics to highlight them,” says Rohan Mahtani, Founder of Resume Worded . Instead of just telling recruiters and hiring managers that you have a skill, this will show them how you’ve used it and what the results were.

5. Don’t Try to Trick the ATS

ATSs have brought up a whole new host of problems with applicants “trying to cheat the system,” Owens says. You might have come across advice about how to tweak your resume to fool an applicant tracking system—by pasting keywords in white, pasting the entire job description in white, repeating the keywords as many times as possible, or adding a section labeled “keywords” where you stick various words from the job description.

Don’t do any of this!

Any tricks that have to do with pasting keywords in white will immediately be discovered because the ATS will display all text in the same color on the other end. So even if this gets your application flagged to a human recruiter, they’ll see that you added the full text of the job description or just wrote “sales sales sales sales” somewhere and move onto the next candidate as quickly as they can. Not only are you failing to prove you’re qualified for the job, but you’re also showing that you’ll cheat to get ahead!

If you were considering adding a “keyword” section, remember that it lacks any context. If you can’t also speak to your experience with the skill, it probably doesn’t belong on your resume, and if this is true of one of the main keywords, this isn’t the job for you. What you can do, however, is include a keyword-rich resume summary — not an objective statement —that concisely puts your skills in context at the top of your document.

You also want to be careful you’re not just stuffing your resume full of keywords. “You can use a keyword as much as you like so long as it’s used in [the] correct context that makes it relevant to the job description,” says Nick Francioso, an Army veteran who mentors other veterans during career transitions and the founder of resume optimization tool SkillSyncer . But if you just cram in random keywords all over the place, you might make it past a resume scanner only to irritate a recruiter or hiring manager with a resume full of nonsense.

6. Do Choose the Right File Type

In the great resume file-type debate, there are only two real contenders: docx vs .pdf . While PDFs are best at keeping your format intact overall, the .docx format is the most accurately parsed by ATSs. So if you want to get past the ATS, use a .docx file. But also follow directions (if the listing asks for a certain file type, give it to them!) and take the posting’s word for it (if a posting says a PDF is OK, then it’s OK).

And if you’re considering using an online resume builder, first check what file type it spits out—Mahtani cautions that some online resume builders will generate your resume as an image (.jpg or .png, for example).

Pro tip: If you don’t have Microsoft Word or another program that can convert your resume to .docx or .pdf, you can use Google Docs to create your resume , then download it in either format for free.

7. Do Make Your Resume Easy to Scan (by Robots and Humans)

In addition to making sure that your resume has the right content for an applicant tracking system, you also need to make sure the ATS can make sense of that information and deliver it to the person on the other end in a readable form.

Fortunately, ATS-friendly resume formatting is very similar to recruiter-friendly resume formatting. Like a human, the ATS will read from left to right and top to bottom, so keep that in mind as you format. For example, your name and contact information should all be at the top, and your work history should start with your most recent or current position. There should be “no surprises about where info is supposed to be,” Shields says.

Among the three common resume formats you can choose from— chronological , combination , and functional —ATSs are programmed to prefer the first two. Recruiters also prefer chronological and combination formats (starting to notice a theme?). “For me, it's more about storytelling to demonstrate a person's professional progression,” Owens says. That story is harder to see with a functional resume, which can confuse applicant tracking systems, too. Without a clear work history to draw from, the software doesn’t know how to sort different sections of text.

“Ultimately recruiters just want to find the info they’re looking for as quickly as possible,” Shields says. So making a resume ATS friendly will actually help your resume be more readable to recruiters as well.

8. Don’t Include Too Much Fancy Formatting

It may pain you to hear this, but you likely need to get rid of that expensive resume template or heavily designed custom resume. “If you speak to experienced hiring managers [and] recruiters, they’ll tell you that creative [or] fancy resumes are not only harder for [an] ATS to read, but also harder for them to read!” says Mahtani.

In order to scan your resume for relevant keywords most ATSs will convert the document to a text-only file. So at best, any fancy formatting will be lost. At worst, the ATS won’t be able to pull out the important information and so a person may never lay eyes on your nice designs—or read about the experience and skills that actually qualify you for the job.

When designing a resume to go through an ATS, avoid:

• Images: In the U.S., your resume should never include your photo.
• Graphics, graphs, or other visuals
• Columns: Since ATSs are programmed to read left to right, some will read columns straight across rather than reading column one top to bottom and then starting column two at the top.
• Headers and footers: Information in the header and footer sometimes gets dropped by the ATS completely. Make sure all text is within the document body.
• Uncommon section headings: Stick to conventional labels like “Education,” “Work Experience,” and “Technical Skills,” so the ATS knows how to sort your information. This is not the place to get creative with something like “Where I’ve Made an Impact.”
• Hyperlinks on important words: Some systems will display only the URL and drop the words you linked from, so don’t link from anything important (like your job title or an accomplishment). Instead, paste in the URL itself or link out from a word like “website” or “portfolio.”
• Less common fonts: Stick to a universal font like Arial, Helvetica, Times New Roman, Garamond, Georgia, or Cambria. Avoid fonts you need to download, which the ATS may have trouble parsing.

Here are some elements you can use without tripping up an ATS:

• Underline: But stick to using underlines in headings and for URLs, Shields says. In general, people have been trained to see any underline within sentences as links.
• Colors: Just know that the ATS will return all text in the same color, so make sure your color choices aren’t vital to understanding the text of your resume.
• Bullets: Bullets are an important component of any resume, but stick to the standard circle- or square-shaped ones. Anything else could get messy.

Still not convinced that you should ditch your fancy resume? To show how formatting can trip up an ATS, we created a resume with many of the “forbidden” design elements—including columns, separate text boxes for the job seeker’s name and contact information, a table, icons, and text in the header—and used it to apply to a job at The Muse. The resume contains all the keywords found in the job posting , and since Victoria Harris is a fictional person, she hits every single requirement, making her an ideal candidate for the job.

Here’s what the resume looks like after it’s been run through an ATS:

You’ll immediately notice that the columns have been smashed together. Victoria’s current position is still first, which is good, but what comes next is an indecipherable jumble: “Education Sales Cloud Apollo.io.” Then, the ATS has combined the start date of her current job with her graduation date and interpreted that she’s been in her current position for just one month instead of over a year.

When you finally get to her bullet points, they’ve also been destroyed. Her fourth bullet, for example, now ends with: “Salesforce Analytics Cloud and Salesforce Sales Cloud Salesforce Salesforce.” Victoria wasn’t keyword stuffing, but it sure looks like she was.

Yes, this feels like a lot. But the main thing to take away when it comes to creating an ATS-friendly resume is that “it will help even if you’re not going through an ATS,” Shields says. At the end of the day, what an ATS is looking for in a resume is not that different from what a person is scanning for—so if you make a resume that beats the ATS, chances are it’ll impress a whole lot of humans, too.