Full transcript
0:00As a recruiter and a career coach, I
0:02look at a lot of résumés and I do a lot
0:03of résumé reviews. And one thing is
0:06perfectly clear. Some of y'all need some
0:09help. And in this video, I'm going to
0:10share some rum writing tips that will
0:12help your resume not suck.
0:27Hey everybody, it's Brian from Life
0:28After Layoff and today I want to share
0:29with you some rumé writing tips so that
0:31you can put your best foot forward and
0:32hopefully start landing more job
0:34interviews. Now I want to preface this
0:35by stating that there's no singular
0:37right way to write a resume. There's
0:39lots of different approaches and a lot
0:40of them are very valid and the litmus
0:42test here is is your resume getting the
0:44results that you want? If it is then
0:46stick with what works best for you. My
0:48approach comes from a corporate
0:50recruiter's perspective, how I screen
0:52and look at résumés very quickly. We
0:53usually give you a five-second glance,
0:55but also how hiring managers have given
0:58me feedback on how they screen resumes
1:00themselves. And so the feedback and the
1:02tips that I teach are from that
1:04perspective. But I'm not saying that my
1:06way is the only way that you can
1:07approach it. However, I do want to give
1:09you some tips that can help you improve
1:11your presentation because ultimately you
1:13have a very short amount of time to
1:14capture the attention of the person who
1:16is screening the resume and making sure
1:18ours is the one that gets called for
1:20that first round interview. And I also
1:21want to point out that the tips that I'm
1:22sharing today come directly from my
1:24resume rocket course, which teaches you
1:26exactly how to write a resume from a
1:28recruiter's perspective. So, if you need
1:30a little bit more assistance in
1:31developing and crafting the right resume
1:33for you, you may want to consider that
1:35option. So, the first thing we want to
1:36do is stop using outdated templates
1:38designed by graphic designers. I see
1:40these templates very frequently on
1:42places like canva.com, but also a lot of
1:44these big industry réé hubs where you
1:47can go in, pay some money to download a
1:49resume that has a bunch of graphics,
1:51charts, a bunch of cute presentation.
1:54And those are generally a bad idea
1:55because they end up distracting from the
1:56initial purpose, which is for us to find
1:58what it is that we're looking for in a
2:00very quick and concise manner. So,
2:02honestly, I just recommend going on to
2:03Microsoft Word, downloading a very
2:05simple template, and working with that.
2:07If you want a battle tested recruiter
2:09approved RSé template, I also provide
2:11one with RSé rocket fuel, and I've also
2:13made it available as a standalone. So,
2:15you can find that on my website. When
2:16you're choosing a template, go with one
2:18that has one column. Avoid any of the
2:20bright and flashy colors and graphics.
2:22Make sure that the fonts are very clean
2:24and easy to read. I would stick the
2:26basic colors, maybe blue, blacks, dark
2:28green, etc. But I wouldn't go very
2:30flashy here. For most of us, a resume
2:32should be relatively boring in that
2:34regard. The only exception here is if
2:36you're a graphic designer or somebody in
2:38a creative field where you might want to
2:40opt for a more creative approach to your
2:42resume because that's probably expected
2:44in that role. But if you're a graphic
2:46designer, you probably don't want to be
2:48using a template designed by another
2:50graphic designer is probably not the
2:52best look for you. And the reason why
2:53templates designed by graphic designers
2:55often aren't very effective is because
2:57they're designed by people who don't
2:59know how applicant tracking systems work
3:01and how they parse résumés. To that end,
3:03here's another tip. Stop making your
3:05contact information horizontal. You want
3:07to make it vertical because the ATS
3:10systems typically do not read horizontal
3:12and parse it very well. You want to go
3:15vertical because it finds the
3:17information more cleanly and puts it
3:18into the right fields. And here's a
3:20little litmus test there. If you find
3:22when you're applying for jobs that the
3:24applicant tracking system is not parsing
3:26your name, your phone number, your
3:28address, things like that in a clean and
3:30concise way and you have to do a lot of
3:31manual data entry, you probably don't
3:33have an ATS compliant resume. Now, your
3:36contact information isn't the reason why
3:37you aren't going to get contacted in
3:39most cases, but it's just a little
3:42quality of life hack if you want to
3:43speed up your applications. The next
3:45thing I would implore you to do is to
3:47stop writing your resume as a summary of
3:50everything that you've ever accomplished
3:51in your career. Start thinking about
3:54profiling. And I know that we look at
3:55profiling with a negative context. But
3:57the idea of profiling here is that
3:59instead of summarizing and hoping that
4:01the employer sees something that they
4:03like that we're profiling for a specific
4:06role and we're delivering exactly what
4:08the employer is looking for. It's a much
4:11more effective approach to writing
4:12résumés. So stop focusing on all the
4:14stuff that you've accomplished in your
4:16career that probably isn't relevant to
4:18the hiring teams and start focusing on
4:20what it is that they actually care
4:22about. The next thing is is going to be
4:23something that's going to trigger some
4:24people, but it's to stop being so lazy
4:27about your customization. Customization
4:30of your resume is a very crucially
4:32important step, especially in today's
4:34job market and in particular those
4:36coveted remote roles because you may be
4:39looking for them, but so is everybody
4:41else. And the competition is fierce. So
4:44you have to do something to stand out.
4:46And customizing, while it might seem
4:48uncomfortable, is something that you
4:50will have to get in the habit of doing.
4:52You can't keep on approaching your job
4:53search like it's 2018. The market is
4:57completely different today. And listen,
4:58because everybody else is going to be
5:00lazy and not customize their resume,
5:02this is your opportunity to use that as
5:03a competitive advantage and get that
5:05edge to get the phone call while they're
5:08all waiting and wondering why they're
5:09getting rejected. And while you're at
5:10it, stop being so damn wordy with your
5:13resumes. Some of the résumés that I see
5:15are blocks of text that are so long that
5:18your eyes just start to glaze over as
5:20you're trying to scan through it. Think
5:21of when you go onto a forum or a
5:24Facebook post or something and people
5:26leave a huge block of text in a comment.
5:29How many of you actually get through it
5:31and read it? Whereas, when people format
5:33it and make it look nice and concise and
5:35short, it's much more easy to scan.
5:38Recruiters and hiring managers are
5:39probably going to skip over your resume
5:41if you hit them with a massive block of
5:43text. So, try to be more concise. Try to
5:46be very selective with the words that
5:47you choose and how it lays out on the
5:50page. And one way you can get rid of
5:51some of these extra words is to stop
5:54using proprietary language that the only
5:56people who know what it is are you and
5:59maybe your boss and your current
6:01co-workers. Often times we feel the need
6:04to put in all this proprietary
6:06information, titles, project names,
6:09division names, product types, etc. that
6:12are only unique and only known by the
6:14company that you work for. Everybody
6:16else in the open market has no clue what
6:18they are. And you're spending all this
6:20time trying to basically word salad your
6:23way into I don't know if it's to try to
6:25impress us or what it is, but you want
6:27to try to be concise here. So, I always
6:29recommend to try to boil down the
6:31concepts that you're trying to convey in
6:33as clear a language in as common a
6:36language as possible for the industry
6:38that you're applying to. Another thing
6:40that you can do to try to declutter your
6:41resume is to remove the generic fluffy
6:44terminology. This stuff makes just about
6:46every recruiter and hiring manager roll
6:48their eyes when you say things like,
6:50"I'm a team player," or, "I have great
6:53organizational skills." Because listen,
6:55if that's a really important competency
6:56to the hiring teams, we're going to
6:58assess that in an interview anyway. Your
6:59resume is probably not going to show it
7:01in a way that we would need to to assess
7:03your fit. Instead, I would focus on more
7:05actionable terms and concepts in your
7:07resume as they relate to the job that
7:09you're doing. Because again, the goal
7:10here is not to have the most words on
7:12your resume or try to impress people
7:14with an elaborate vocabulary. It's to
7:16convey a clear and concise fit for the
7:18job that you're applying to with again
7:20the end goal of trying to get your name
7:22called so that you can get into the
7:23interview process. And the final tip
7:25that I'd like to convey in this video is
7:27to stop being so stubborn. If your
7:29resume isn't working, redo it. But as
7:32the saying goes, doing the same thing
7:33over and over again and expecting a
7:35different result is the definition of
7:37insanity. But if you're getting
7:38frustrated in your job search and you're
7:40getting rejected repeatedly at the
7:42application level, something tells me
7:44that your resume is not working for you.
7:46And this is especially true if you're
7:48somebody that has a very clear fit for
7:50the job that you're applying to. And I
7:52would be remiss without saying that we
7:54probably need to be realistic here about
7:55our fit for the jobs that we're applying
7:57to. While we may feel we're a good fit,
7:59we have to take a very close look at the
8:01job posting and say, "Do I truly stack
8:03up?" Because when they have a thousand
8:05other candidates, they probably are. So,
8:07make sure that your resume is clearly
8:09conveying the fit so that you can give
8:11yourself the best chance of getting into
8:13that interview process. Anyway,
8:14hopefully you found these tips to be
8:15helpful the next time you're writing a
8:17resume. And remember, plan, do, check,
8:19and adjust. If your resume is not
8:21getting you the results that you want,
8:23make some changes, mix it up a little
8:25bit, try a different version. If you're
8:27still having some struggles, I highly
8:29encourage you to check out Ré Rocket
8:30Fuel. Anyway, happy job hunting.
8:32Appreciate you watching. We'll see you
8:33on the next one.