How To Make Your Resume Stand Out (Actionable Tips)

Summary: This blog covers 20+ resume design tips to help you create a professional resume that get you hired.

Ways to Make Your Resume Stand Out With Great Content

1. Tailor your resume to the job

Design your resume based on the job you are seeking. Your resume content with some detailed information should tell the recruiters that you are the right fit for the position. So, before you design your resume, you should carefully read the position requirements and tailor your resume to the job. Then you can add your skills and experience according to the position. For example, if you want to find a job about marketing promotion, you can add your marketing experience, success cases, and your ideas, and then add some skills and keywords from the job advertisement.

2. Use headers

The most important thing about a resume design is that you should make sure the recruiters know who you are. Deluged with a large number of resumes, the recruiters merely glance at each resume before deciding whether to keep it. So, use a simple but concise statement at the top of your resume that can effectively define you. This header is like a short business blurb about you.

Click the image to use this resume template

3. Quantify your accomplishments

Quantifying your accomplishments in your resume is a critical way to improve your chances of getting an interview. It not only attracts attention from recruiters but also shows your biggest accomplishments in your career. Although most recruitment consultants have advocated highlighting accomplishment in your resume, most job hunters still ignore this. Detailed numbers about your accomplishment can leave an impression on recruiters. Even though you fail to use amounts for money, figures, or percentages to show your accomplishment, a creative and specific statement can also attract potential recruiters.

4. Highlight awards, skills, and matching experience

Awards in your resume can definitely score a few points in your favor. So, add your awards when you are making your resume, but make sure to avoid having unnecessary awards. Just show off the most important awards which are relevant to the job. In addition to awards, you also need to highlight your skills and matching experience. These can directly prove whether you are qualified for this job. Remember that more is not necessarily better. Just show one or two examples that matching with the job. Adjust your buzzwords to meet the requirements in the job ad.

Click the image to use this resume template

5. Show how you have been a strong leader and team player

Professional skills are mainly divided into two types, hard skills and soft skills. Most job hunters just show their hard skills, which can be quantifiable. They often ignore the soft skills which recruiters think most job hunters lack. Actually, both of them are important additions to your professional resume. Although these soft skills are subjective, you can show your soft skills through examples where you have been a strong leader or team player. With these cases, you can show your soft skills, like problem-solving, teamwork, communication, creative thinking, and more.

6. Keep things professional

Make sure your resume is professional. What does that mean? Keeping the content of your resume is suited for the job without any unnecessary information. So, don’t talk about your hobbies, personal qualities and other irrelevant information in your resume. You should pay more attention to skills and experiences. Do not include any negative information like complaints about your previous employment.

Click the image to use this resume template

7. Show evidence of your eagerness to continually improve your knowledge and skills

You must understand that all recruiters want to employ those that have the ability to keep learning. So, evidence of you continuing to improve your knowledge and skills should be in your resume. For example, when you write your work experience, you can add information about the knowledge and skills you have learned, or you can detail what you have learned concisely. You must make the recruiter feel that you are more than a potential worker.

8. Supplement your resume with a cover letter

Most job hunters think a cover letter is unnecessary for they think all the important information has been shown in their resumes. What’s more, they think a cover letter is not asked for in the job ads. Even if it is not required, it’s better for you to add a cover letter to make your resume stand out from all candidates. If you send your resume online, you can add a cover letter in your message body. A resume is more showing objective information, while a cover letter can show some subject information and your strong desire for the job. A short but concise cover letter can improve your chance to get an interview.

9. Clean up your social media

Clean up your social media and add them to your resume. Nowadays, many recruiters receive resumes online. They can know you better through social media. So if you have some useful social media that can promote yourself, put them in your resume. But you should keep in mind that there is no negative information on your social media.

10. Proofread before hitting send

You must carefully proofread your resume before you submit it. A resume with errors can show that you are a professional person and pay attention to the details. The content of your resume is easy to read can show your ability of expression.

In addition to the error of the words and grammar, you also need to check your format including fonts, alignment and space. When you meet a recruiter that pays attention to the details, your resume will be eliminated if you ignore these details.

So read your resume each time before you submit it.

How to make your resume stand out through powerful writing

There are 5 ideas to help you make your resume stand out through powerful writing, including keeping your resume concise, optimizing text, and more.

1. Keep your resume concise

Most recruiters want to read a concise resume without too much irrelevant information. And the important information is concise and to the point, so they just need to spend several seconds browsing all the keys in your resume. A simple and direct resume is always appreciated by recruiters.

So, the most important thing about your resume design is keeping focus, concise and direct. Some job hunters add all their experiences, awards and skills in their resume to enriching their resume. These kinds of resumes design seem to apply to all the jobs. Ok, maybe some of them really want to design a resume suitable for all jobs. This idea can lead to a bad effect for there is too much information irrelevant to the job. Keep your resume concise is a key principle of your resume design. Simplify your content, show important things and avoid use a complicated sentence to make sure all things concisely showed on one page.

Click the image to use this resume template

2. Resume contact info and profile

As we all know, the contact information and profile are necessary parts of your resume. But many job hunters just pay attention to the design of their work experiences and ignore the design of their contact information and profile. So in order to attract the attention of the recruiters’ attention longer, you should enhance visual effects for your contact information. It’s a good idea to use white space, social media icons and colors to make your contact information stand out.

Click the image to use this resume template

3. Optimize your text

You may want to ask why you need to optimize your resume. As you know, many recruiters screen candidates on social networking.

There is a famous principle called “YRIS”, which means “ Your resume is scanned, but not read.” Many times, the reason why you failed to receive a response is not that you are unqualified, but because you did not highlight the keywords. In such a competitive job market, companies can receive a large number of resumes every day. The recruiters have no time to check every resume, and most of them will use the ATS system for the preliminary screening. So, how are keywords used in your resume to decide whether you can receive an interview?

What words are keywords? Basically speaking, keywords refer to the key quality requirements for a job. So, job ads released by the companies are very important because they are a source of your keywords. Carefully read job requirements in job ads and then add the keywords into your resume, but you should keep in mind that adding adaptive keywords do not add too much.

4. Think beyond the job duties

Just making a job responsibility list actually has no meaning. It just shows what you did at your previous job. What it fails to capture are your performance and ability. When you write your work experience, you should focus on what you earned and what results you achieved beyond just your basic job responsibilities. The recruiters want to see a resume that shows you can do a job well and have the ability to achieve good results. So, try to quantify your job results to show your ability and passion for the job. What’s more, don’t forget to include professional skills that are both soft skills and hard skills in your working experiences.

5. Craft a career snapshot

Think about adding a summary at the top of your resume. It can be a career snapshot that immediately gives the recruiters a direct and quick impression of your capabilities and understanding of your working experience. The career snapshot is like a brand that shows your abilities and achievements. You can think of it as a short sentence that includes your entire professional experience. You should keep in mind that the entire working experience here refers to what is relevant to the job you are applying for. A career snapshot can also summarize your abilities and professional experience, so create a robust career snapshot to attract recruiters’ attention.

Click the image to use this resume template

Design tips to make your resume stand out

1. Make sure it’s easily skimmable

Now that recruiters have enough time to read your resume carefully, you should make sure your resume easily skimmable and the recruiters can get the important information in seconds.

So you’d better design a simple and concise format. You can use columns to organized different parts, use heading, subheading and points to well format your content and choose proper fonts that are easy to read.

Click the image to use this resume template

2. The color of a resume

A brilliant resume not only focuses on the format and content but also does not forget about color. Many job hunters like to use colors to beautify their resumes, but most of their resumes have a minimized effect because they are unaware of color assortment. Understanding some fundamentals of color theory can help you use color more effectively in your resume designs.

Color variety: It’s better to use no more than three colors. Too many colors will distract the recruiters, and they will be more concerned about the colors than you. What’s more, too many colors will make your resume look unprofessional, violating the principles of clean and clear.

Highlight keywords: Use colors to separate the primary from the secondary. Usually, we often take black as the default font color and then use another color in parting lines or titles. For the background, it’s better to use a light color to avoid taking away from your resume.

Avoid color clashes: make sure you have a unified color style. You can use warm tones or cool tones, but avoid using both tones in your resume design.

Click the image to use this resume template

3. Keep to one page

Recruiters read a large number of resumes every day, so do you think they have the time to read through your resume carefully, let alone your resume is more than one page? Most recruiters will not look at your second page. So, if you add some important information on the second page, it will be ignored. The best way is to use just one page in your resume. Simplify your content, show important information, and avoid using complicated sentences to make everything shows on one page.

Click the image to use this resume template

Sending tips to make your resume stand out

When you finish your resume design, do you think you are done and can send it to the company? Of course not! Sending is also a detail that needs to be talked about in the last step. The following tips can make your resume stand out.

1. Follow instructions

Before you send your resume, you should be clear about the instructions for sending your resume delivery. You need to know what kind of file they request. Do they want PDF or Word, what version of a .doc file? If there is no request, it’s better to save your resume as PDF or use pdf converter to change the file format as you like. What’s more, you also need to know their requirement for your file name, and whether it requires just your name or your name and applied position. All these requirements should be carefully checked in the job ads.

2. When to send

According to research, most HR will not check resume on Monday and Friday because they are busy with other tasks these two days. What’s more, delivering your resume on Saturday and Sunday is also an unwise choice for they are the recruiters’ days off, and your resume can be buried in the mail and easily be deleted. So, it’s better to deliver your resume on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. And the time between 9 am and 11 am is best.

3. How to send

You can deliver your resume yourself, but if you have someone else to send it for you, it will be amazing. They can be your friends, teachers, or someone in your university career center. Find and ask them to send the resume for you to improve opportunities.

4.Get the name of the recruiter

You’d better make efforts to get the name of the recruiter. When you send your resume to the recruiter, if you can use their correct name, you will definitely stand out.

Conclusion

Faced with large numbers of resumes, recruiters screening resumes not only according to your skills and experiences but also on the details. Maybe there are many resumes that have similar education and experiences to you, the details can decide which resumes can stand out and get the chance of interview. So design a brilliant resume to help you get your dream job. A sea of ready-to-use resume templates, fonts, stickers and other elements on Fotor.com combine with the above tips can help design an excellent resume.