Important Details to Include on a Resume
Recruiters spend an average of 5 to 7 seconds looking at a resume before deciding to read further or move on. If you don’t grab their attention immediately, it won’t matter how qualified you are for the job – you’ll never hear back.
Let’s look at 5 things to put on a resume that will help ensure it gets read.
1. Name and Contact Information
Potential employers aren’t going to go out of their way to figure out who you are and how to get hold of you. If your contact information isn’t easy to find or, worse, contains errors, your resume will go straight to the circular file.
On top of the standard information like address and phone number, make sure you include your LinkedIn profile, a personal website if it’s relevant, online portfolios, and anything else that’s relevant to the job. If you don’t have those set up, it’s a good idea to make professional bios on a few sites to use on your resume.
2. Work Experience
Your past work experience is one of the best things to put on a resume. Recruiters will be looking to see if you have relevant experience, how long you’ve stayed in previous jobs, and what you know about other companies that they might be able to leverage.
3. Educational Experience
Your education will be more important for some jobs than others, but you should always include the important details on your resume. Give brief details about any degrees, certificates, or professional designations you hold.
Personalize the education details for each job you apply for. Your resume should speak directly to the prerequisites necessary for the job.
4. Volunteer Work
If you do any kind of volunteer work, outline those details on your resume as well. Some volunteer positions could be directly related to the position you’re applying for, which enhances any work experience you’ve already had.
But even if the volunteer experience is unrelated, it shows that you care about people and causes beyond yourself. It can also help reinforce how reliable you will be.
5. Specialized Skills and Experience
This section should include any particular skills you have that are related to the job. It doesn’t have to be skills that need special certification or licenses but if you’ve got skills that will help you perform the job better, outline them on your resume.
Include Relevant Keywords in Every Section
A lot of employers use automated Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to scan resumes for keywords related to the job posting. This saves them time by screening out a lot of resumes before anyone has to look at them.
If your resume doesn’t pass the ATS scan, it’ll never land on anyone’s desk.
Use a tool like Wordclouds to analyze several job postings like the one you’re applying for. It will create a “word cloud” that shows the most common words in the text. Work those keywords into your resume wherever possible.
Make Certain You Choose the Right Things to Put on a Resume
Before you send your resume to a potential employer, read through it and think about how you would react if you were hiring someone. Would your resume grab your attention, or would you toss it aside and move on to the next one?
The detail included on a resume will help you get more offers, but you still need to make sure they’re written in a way that grabs the recruiter’s attention.
