The five overlooked essentials of all great resumes

The five overlooked essentials of all great resumes

Trying to write a resume can be panic-inducing for jobseekers. Depending on who you’re listening to, there is a fear that recruiters either aren’t reading them, or they’re spending such little time reading that they may as well not look at all. On top of this, everyone has their own theory on how to write a perfect resume. It all promotes a sense of confusion that leaves too many people writing their resumes in line with what they think companies want to see, not what they think is meaningful about themselves.  

As with so many things in job seeking, the perfect resume involves you tapping into what you believe is most meaningful about yourself. The following are five over-looked essentials to writing a resume that will give you the best shot of getting that dream job.   

Don’t try too hard to be quirky

At Credit Karma we look at every single resume. To me, that’s the cardinal rule of recruiting. It’s the recruiter’s job to evaluate each one. So as a jobseeker, you don’t have to turn to crazy tricks to get your resume read. Don’t drop it off in person. Don’t send it in with a gift. Don’t mail it in an envelope filled with confetti (an actual thing that has happened to me). It oversteps the boundary. On the resume itself, don’t get too quirky. Save the pictures for LinkedIn. You can’t try too hard, because it will detract from the information you’re trying to impart about yourself.  

Think about the parts of the resume that get looked at most

When I look at a resume, my eyes go first to an applicant’s most recent experience. I check what industry they’re working in, how long they’ve been there and whether it’s relevant experience, before I’ve even looked at their name. It doesn’t register with me how many jobs someone has had, or where they went to school. I then look at the name, to give the person an identity, before bouncing down to the bottom of the page, which is a great place for a jobseeker to put interesting facts about themself. Recruiters do look at your resume, but they’re not reading it for long. Every recruiter has a different formula, but you want to optimize the space on your resume so that the parts of it recruiters will look at straight away say as much about you as possible.    

Keep your resume one page long

Few (if any) circumstances justify a two-page resume. If you have decades of experience and you’re applying for a senior-level position, maybe you get to go into a second page. If you’re in doubt, keep it at one. I have over a decade of experience in talent operations but my resume is only one page. If you think that you should go into a second page because you’ve had so many positions in your career, you’re only going to come off looking like a job-hopper. You don’t have to include links to everything you’ve published in your life, provide a few key examples instead, or better yet, a link that will take someone to a library of your work. Utilize all of the space at your disposal, even if it means playing with margins and fonts. Delete needless repetition of skills. In other words, do everything you can to keep it one page.  Period.  

Think of your resume as a multimedia resource

Your resume should act as a resource center. Whatever exists online that you think exemplifies who you are as a professional, include it. If you’re active on GitHub, put a link to your profile. If you have a lot of recommendations and endorsements on LinkedIn, link to it. If you have any sort of professional portfolio, put it on there. It’s 2015, folks. Your resume may be one page, but it isn’t static. Recruiters are click-happy, so if you include a bunch of links they’re going to start looking, because they’d rather look than read. Your resume, if done well, can serve as a jumping off point to anywhere you want to direct a recruiter. Or think of it this way… you only have one page to tell the story of your life. Shouldn’t you use every tool at your disposal?

Cater your resume to each job you apply for

It’s good to have a resume on hand that you can send out immediately when needed. But if you’re applying for jobs that you’re particularly enthusiastic about, take some time to tailor your resume to the position. You don’t need 10 bullet points under your last position. Instead, look through the job description and highlight your experience that speaks directly to what a company is looking for. Don’t get hung up on the things in your resume that are really important to you, but won’t mean that much to an outsider. Bring attention to your most relevant skills for the job you’re applying for.  Remember, recruiters are rooting for you.  It means they fill requisitions and receive high-fives and praise from hiring managers. Help them to help you get in front of the right people so you can land that dream job.

Ragini Parmar is the VP of Talent Operations at Credit Karma, an online consumer finance platform with over 35 million members that offers truly free credit scores and reports alongside a suite of financial management tools. Since joining Credit Karma in January 2013, she’s overseen the company’s growth from a headcount of 40 employees, to 300. Stay up on Credit Karma job news at the company careers page or by following Ragini on Twitter at @ragini_parmar.

Jennifer Herbert

Head of Talent Acquisition at Protiviti

8y

Interesting, but would completely disagree with the 1 pager advise. Throughout our career we can amass some fantastic skills and a CV allows you to be able to showcase those skills. Equally, if I received a one pager, I would have a concern that the person cannot write well, or that all of their communication is in "bite size" chunks where the reader then has to guess the intention. Whilst we live in the digital age, it is still a requirement in most jobs that you need to be able to write well to communicate your message, and what better way to demonstrate this than your CV. I think it is more about the "way" you write your CV. Pull out the key attributes/competencies/skills and you can make that funky, short and sweet at the top of your CV. Be bold with the headlines, drop in a reference to when you have demonstrated this skill, then perhaps reference to your work experience. Be clever and match against the key requirements needed in the vacancy. I agree recruiters do spend the time looking at CV's and do have their own method of screening quickly, but by using this method you are helping the recruiter to get to the crook of your experience quickly. One pagers though would leave me feeling sceptical.

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Olivier Poilliot

SAP HXM/HR Freelance senior consultant, SuccessFactors Learning, PMGM, Recruiting expert, Solution Architect and PM

8y

Interesting points indeed in this article although I am also puzzled, similarly to Colin, about the 1 page only. Would be interested in knowing if this is a trend in recruiting. Pre-selecting the right profiles from 1 page CVs looks to me even more difficult than from 2 or more page ones......The CV as a multimedia source sounds great only if consulted as an electronic document.

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Colin Grethè

HR Consultant | Life-Career Coach | Mind, Body & Spirit Practitioner

8y

Interesting article with a few points to make me think again about what I have written on my CV. However, your idea of 1 page CV is not acceptable in some sectors - AT ALL! Why waste time leaving off information only for a recruitment agency to ring you and fill in the details you've not included. Worth reading tho, so thanks for posting.

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Aida BEQIRAJ

Conseillère financière/Conseillère en service bancaire/ Représentante des ventes financières

8y

Thanks to all of you! All the information given above and all your opinions are very useful for me. I agree with the best part of them.

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Ben Malik

Owner @ Auxilium HR Solutions Ltd | Your Strategic HR Business Partner

8y

There are some great ideas in this article and I agree with Jari, the idea of a CV as a 'multi-media hub' is fantastic. LinkedIn for example is a great platform for all the detail and most recruiters use this to source candidates. However, I do agree that a signposting CV will not suit every role or industry sector.

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