The top reason why people struggle in their job search is that their resume… sucks! Trade secret – MOST resumes suck.

This means that even if you are a good match for a job you’re going to be ghosted by the recruiter reviewing your application.

TRIGGER WARNING: almost anyone will offer you their opinion on your resume. But in most cases, the advice they give you will be TERRIBLE!

Trust us – we’ve seen a LOT. OF. VERY. BAD. RESUMES!

People often tell us that someone VERY CLEVER/IMPORTANT has told them their resume was excellent! But mysteriously they are still not getting interviews.

The advice was bad.

Their resumes are bad.

#CRINGE

GOOD NEWS

Your Resume does NOT need to be one of the bad ones!

So… how can you fix your Resume?

Simple:

1. Use the Career Badger Resume Template which has been specially designed for Gen Z professionals – like you!
2. Follow these guiding principles – see below.
3. Get your coach to review your efforts, spot any gaps and add a touch of finesse and glamor – because YOU are worth it!

Your Resume is an ADVERT

The main thing to remember is that your resume is a SALES DOCUMENT. It is an advertisement to SELL YOU! You are the brand you are selling in a job search, and a resume’s job is to help you get an interview with your target employer.

It is NOT your wikipedia page. Only content that helps to SELL YOU specifically for the job you are applying for should be on your resume.

ALWAYS. BE. SELLING.

Make it relevant 

It should be VERY clear from your resume and especially the first line of your summary section, why you are a good fit for the role.

DON’T.MAKE.ME.THINK.

You should have already decided your professional objective, i.e. the sort of role/employer/industry you want to work in.

It is okay to have more than one objective, but if so, make sure you use a different resume tailored for each objective.

IMPORTANT: (we might be repeating ourselves, but) Non-relevant content needs to go in the trash!

“Demonstrate your achievements… quantify the value you bring”

Get past the gatekeeper – the Recruiter

A good resume may not get you a job. But a bad one can certainly lose you a job.

The reason for this is that the first person to review your resume is likely to be a recruiter, either working internally for an employer, or for a staffing agency / recruitment consultancy.

Therefore your resume needs to be simple enough for a recruiter to understand. Remember the recruiter probably does NOT know much (or possibly anything) about your type of job.

You need to make it easy for them to put you in the “YES” pile…

The recruiter will likely be scanning for keywords, e.g. job title, skills, industries against a job specification given to them by a hiring manager – most likely hastily copied from another job listing.

They may also be using an ATS (Applicant Tracking System) or a job board’s matching software to prioritize which applicants to review first. Whilst this software type is (slowly) improving, you CAN improve your chances of being seen…

Ensure your resume includes:

• The job title you want to be considered for. Ideally starting your summary with this, e.g. “Senior Data Analyst…”
• The skills and/or industries you want to be discovered for in your summary AND also mentioned in context in your experience bullets, e.g. “financial services”, “data analysis”, “Python” etc

IMPORTANT: Application Tracking Systems do NOT work well with document formatting, so avoid adding tables, columns or anything except text and numbers in your resume document.

Quantify your achievements

You need to demonstrate your achievements in your previous roles – not just describe activity.

To do this, use numbers wherever possible to quantify the value you bring, ideally with monetary value, i.e. using $ signs, e.g.

“Drove $450K in new business sales via outbound prospecting.”

You can use numbers, percentages (%) and try combining to give context, e.g.

“Increased sign-up conversion rate by 20% worth $1.5M in revenue by improving user experience design.”

“Delivered $2M digital transformation project co-ordinating cross-functional teams across 5 countries”

Using simple language and big round numbers. Estimated numbers are fine so long as you can explain/justify them. Normally it is best to annualise your figures.

Recruiters may not be expert engineers, analysts, data scientists, but they CAN do arithmetic, e.g $100M is more than $10M, 50% is more than 25%…

Your achievements can show how you have:

• Grown or retained sales / revenue
• Saved company money, e.g. through efficiencies
• Been given responsibility for large budgets
• Improved or maintained high customer satisfaction (or reduced complaints/dissatisfaction)
• Anything impressive you can quantify with a number!

Ideally these should be your personal achievements, but if this is difficult to quantify, then referring to your team or the company’s growth and milestones is the next best thing.

Adding the detail of the timescale taken for achievement can add impact, e.g.

“Increased customer satisfaction 20% within 6 months by…”

IMPORTANT: at least one bullet point in each of your professional experience sections should be a quantifiable achievement or outcome with a number in it!

“Recruiters will scan your resume in a few seconds”

Make it easy to scan with simple formatting.

Job listings can easily receive 100s of applications. Recruiters will likely scan (not read) your resume in a few seconds. So you need to make it easy to scan. To this end…

3 Sections. No More. No Less. These 3 Sections in this order:

• Summary. 2-3 short sentences introducing you, followed by 2-3 top achievements
• Experience. RELEVANT/RECENT jobs you have done with clear job titles, employer names and descriptions, skills used and quantifiable achievements.
• Education & Certifications. Your education, training and qualifications you have had as an adult (post-high school), e.g. University Degree, College Courses, Certificates and Qualifications.

How to format text:

• 10-12 point typeface for standard text.
• Easy to read font, e.g. Arial, Times New Roman, Calibri.
• Do NOT mix up typefaces, fonts, formats etc
• Make your profile/website/portfolio links clickable URL.

Use simple, clear language:

• Avoid industry jargon and acronyms, e.g. avoid “GMV”, “DAU”, “EBITDA”, instead use terms, like “Sales,” “Daily Users,” “Profit.” 

Write in short sentences:

• Bullet points should be 1-2 lines and 10-20 words maximum.

Put quantifiable achievements at the start of sentences and in the top bullet point, e.g.

“Delivered digital transformation project co-ordinating cross-functional teams across 5 countries with $2M budget”

Imagine the recruiter is only reading the left hand side of the your document.

This can be improved by putting the $2M at the start of the sentence:

“Delivered $2M digital transformation project co-ordinating cross-functional teams across 5 countries”

IMPORTANT: Beware of the ATS –  USE. THE. TEMPLATE. 

Fancy formatted templates are all the rage right now. But this may mean your resume is NEVER viewed by a recruiter or hiring manager.

Why? Because of the dreaded ATS. ATS is an Applicant Tracking System, i.e. software used by employers and recruiters to manage their hiring process. Many of ATS will sort and filter applications based on relevant matching criteria. ATS can find document formatting difficult to read and analyse so your fancy columns may look good (do they really?), but if an ATS can’t understand them, then you have blown your chances, however good a fit you are for the role.

So remember – USE THE TEMPLATE. And…

• Do NOT add columns.
• Do NOT add sections.
• Do NOT increase the width of the margins.
• Do NOT add color, graphics, photos etc.
• Do NOT write more than 1 page (unless you have more than 5 years’ experience).
• Do NOT add Date of Birth, Exact Address, Graduation Dates or References.

THE. TEMPLATE. WORKS.

BELIEVE. IN. THE. TEMPLATE.

1. THE. TEMPLATE. WE. TRUST.

Use the template…

And MOST IMPORTANTLY – LESS is MORE! 

Have a bias to brevity and pithiness. Don’t be tempted to add more sections or cram more content into your resume document.

Chat with your coach today to help you refine your resume and add some style and impact. Like we said, YOU are worth it!

But, if you are in doubt if you need a piece of content – cut it out!