In May, I presented – LIVE to about 750 people – for Jobscan’s No Fear Job Search webinar series. My topic was on How to Create a Resume That Stands Out During a Recession.
During that presentation, I received dozens of questions about various parts and pieces of the resume writing process, what should and shouldn’t be included in a resume, an how the heck to make it through online applications without getting your resume stuck in the job search black hole.
Well, I’ll let you in on a little secret:
There’s no 100% right way to write a resume
But there are concepts and best practices to help guide you in crafting a truly effective resume. And, I took the top 21 questions I received during that webinar and answered them to the best of my ability using those concepts and best practices.
I hope it helps!
Wanna make sure your resume is on point?
Download my 5-Step Action Plan to Write an Interview-Getting Resume.
Online ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems)
- What is an Applicant Tracking System (ATS)?
ATS are the ‘bots’ that filter through resumes when submitted via online application. They enable the electronic handling of recruitment and hiring needs.
What that means is, it’s a software that filters each and every resume that comes through.
There are about 200 different types/brands of ATS, so it’s not really possible to know exactly what each and every one of them will want, but there are best practices.
Here’s how it works: For every job, the employer can enter into the ATS the requirements that are being sought for that position.
Then, for every resume that comes in, the ATS compares that resume to the pre-set list of requirements, and if there’s a high enough percentage match between the resume and the requirements, then the resume gets passed through to an actual human being (or whatever if the next step in that company’s recruitment process).
If there’s not a high enough percentage match, then the resume gets discarded.
Quick note: ATS have gotten more advanced over the years, and most of them will now also discard a resume if the percentage match is too high. Meaning, if you’re thinking you’ll be sly be just copying/pasting the whole job description into your resume, the ATS will recognize this and discard your resume anyway.
Work smart, but don’t try to fool the system.
Are horizontal line separators and vertical pipes ATS-friendly?
Yes! I got so many questions during the webinar about whether or not horizontal line separators and vertical pipes were ATS friendly, and yes, they absolutely are.
Now, just the be clear, these elements may not visibly show up in the ATS, but that doesn’t matter in the least. The point of these elements is to be visually pleasing to human readers, while also not interfering with the ATS in trying to ‘read’ your resume. And that’s exactly what they do.
- Do keyword tenses have to match the keywords in the ATS?
Yes and no. There are some ATS now that can be set to recognize, for example, both ‘manage’ and ‘management’, while others still don’t have that capability.
Try not to get too caught up on this one. Just do your research, compile a list of the most common keywords/skills you see across a sampling of your target positions, and be diligent about using those words in your resume (in multiple forms, if you can – just for good measure).
Does your resume go through ATS, even if you send it via email?
ATS are used at different stages of the hiring process by different employers, just depending on how they choose to go about their candidate sourcing and hiring process.
Many companies use the ATS in the beginning of the process, to filter and collect resumes for potential interviews. That’s the most common use that the average professional knows about.
But ATS can also be used if the company is hiring through networking channels (person-to-person). In this case, the company would probably use the ATS somewhere in the middle phase of hiring, once they’ve narrowed it down to a smaller selection.
And still in other cases, a company may use an ATS on the back end, for compliance reasons. If they hire from within (or hire based on a strong recommendation/referral), it’s likely the resume may not have made an appearance at all throughout the course of the hiring decision-making.
However, companies are required to show proof (if necessary) that the person who holds any given job is actually qualified for said job, which is usually accomplished by having a resume on file for the person that demonstrates their matching qualifications. So that’s when they use the ATS – the run the resume through just to make sure it’s compliant – and if it’s not, they usually tell that person to go back and make adjustments until it does match.
(Complex, I know.)
Are creative / visual resumes okay for ATS?
Typically, no. For creative professionals, I recommend having a more traditional resume for online applications, and a more creative/visual one for 1-on-1 networking or bringing to the interview process.
Resume Font & Format
- Any recommended font or font sizes?
While font is important, it’s not as important as many people seem to think. Yes, you want to have a font that’s easy to read, both in size and structure, but there’s no 1 best font or anything like that.
The biggest thing to understand is the difference between Serif and Sans Serif fonts.
If you’re unfamiliar with the terms, serif fonts are those with semi-structural details or small decorative flourishes on the ends of some of the strokes that make up letters and symbols. Sans serif fonts do not have these details or flourishes.
Sans serif fonts have definitely taken the forefront, lately. Considered more modern, hip, and informal, they have become popular on websites and in marketing, advertising, sales, and any other public-facing platform – especially by companies who want to be perceived more modern, hip, and informal, themselves. You can recognize sans serif fonts not only by their lack of ornamentation (as mentioned above), but also but their typically wider and more rounded shape.
Serif fonts are known as being more formal and more traditional, which is why I prefer them for resumes and most any written documentation or communication in a professional setting. You can recognize them not only by their ornamentation, but also by their typically more narrow and square/boxy shape.
Both font styles are generally considered acceptable, but since each carries a different ‘image’, it may be smart to choose based on your industry or job type.
If you want to know more about resume fonts, here‘s a blog I wrote on the topic.
- Should your resume be chronological or Functional?
Reverse chronological resumes are the current preferred format.
Functional resumes were, for years, used to hide or cover up aspects of a candidate’s history that they viewed as undesirable, such as gaps in employment or job hopping.
Because of that, they’re often seen as ‘red flags’ by hiring decision-makers. They immediately start looking for what you’re trying to hide.
Instead, it’s best to use a reverse chronological format. If you have ‘issues’ in your history like the ones mentioned above, try to fill in the gaps with volunteering, internships, or anything else of value you were doing in that time.
If you don’t have anything that fits the bill, just write your resume as-is, and work harder on your networking. Opportunities that come through networking and having connections who can vouch for you in the hiring process will go a long way in helping you to overcome any negativity in your career history.
- I’d really like to know about the appropriate length of a resume – esp for people with 20+ years of varied experience — is 3 pages okay?
For most professionals, a 2-page resume is plenty.
A 3-page resume should be reserved, almost exclusively, for very high-level Executives and Board members with extensive and remarkable careers, and/or high-level educators, scientists, or doctors with lots of research/publications to include.
Students, new grads, and young professionals will typically only need a 1-page resume. This may also be true for career changes whose previous career is completely different from (and thus less relevant to) the new career focus.
When it comes to resume length, relevance should be the ultimate guideline. If you have relevant, compelling information that fills up 3 pages, then use 3 pages. But most professionals won’t have that.
General Resume Content
- Do you include your full address and/or LinkedIn Profile URL?
The trend for addresses these days is to use your city, state, and zip code. The idea being that nobody on the other end is going to be sending you mail based on the address listed on your resume, so it’s not important to include the full address.
The city, state, and zip are important just to give the employer an idea (if they care) about what are you live in. Sometimes employers make decisions based on this. Most of the time they don’t.
- Should We Use Our Address If We Want A Remote Position?
Yes, I would still include your city, state, and zip. You can also include a line that says “Targeting Remote Positions”
- Should you put your credentials after your name on the resume?
Yep.
- I’ve heard conflicting advice about having an Objective statement. Can you share why you think it’s not a good idea?
An objective statement tells what *you* want, while employers are much more interested in what you can do for *them*.
Instead, it’s more effective to start with a Profile/Summary section that gives the ‘big picture’ of your value and what you have to offer a potential employer.
- Should I update my resume for every job I apply to?
For most professionals, I recommend targeting a specific career area or job type, instead of one specific job. Then I’ve coined a rule I call the 20/20 rule to decide when it would be worth taking an extra 10-15 minutes to edit the resume to the description, and when it should be okay submitting as-is.
You can learn more about the 20/20 rule here.
Wanna make sure your resume is on point?
Download my 5-Step Action Plan to Write an Interview-Getting Resume.
Job History / Experience
- How far back should an experienced person go–10 years?
It’s different for everyone, and you want to remember that relevance is key.
Typically, I will work to include most (if not all) of a client’s career history. For those with longer careers, I will usually consolidate the older experience into an ‘Earlier Career’ section, which includes much less detail, and sometimes even obscures the dates (to avoid ageism).
- Should your resume only include experience that’s relevant to the job you’re applying to?
While relevance is key and you absolutely do want to include your most relevant information, that doesn’t mean you would completely omit something that may be less relevant.
For instance, if you have a job in your career history that doesn’t really relate to what you’re targeting next, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend omitting that job entirely. Instead, you can include it in a limited way, so that it still helps to comprise the ‘whole story’ of your career history, but it doesn’t distract from the more relevant information.
Please keep in mind that this, like any other piece of resume advice, should be considered on a case-by-case basis.
- How to Address a Gap in your Job History?
Again, this will be different for everyone, and sometimes it will take some creativity.
The most important thing you can do is to try to show that you got some sort of value and development out of that time. Did you do any volunteering, school involvement, internships, training, or anything else of value?
And remember, networking can be a great work-around when your career history has had a bump or two in the road.
Results & Achievements
- How do you show results if you don’t have hard numbers?
When your position/career area doesn’t lend itself to metrics-based accomplishments, you can focus on landing major clients, leading major projects, propelling successful turnarounds, or anything else that you’re proud of in your career.
You can use terms like substantial, long-term, mission-critical, industry-leading, etc to help convey the magnitude of the achievement.
- Should you put on a certification or degree that you are in the process of completing? Or should you wait till it’s completed?
I typically recommend including something like that in the resume, with a date that shows ‘Expected Completion’ or something similar. This can be a great way to get important keywords and qualifications into the resume.
Other
- What single change can you recommend for a career change please?
Understand your intended audience and target them effectively with highly-relevant keywords and other language that is relevant to that new career area, instead of the career area you’re transitioning away from.
- I graduated college over 20 years ago, so I was told to leave out graduating year?
Typically, I remove the graduation year for anything over 5-or-so years back. Definitely anything over 10 years back. Age discrimination (along with other forms of discrimination) is, unfortunately, alive and well.
- Should my resume be in Word or PDF?
I recommend having both versions available.
In your job search, I suggest using the DOCX version to do any online applications, because some ATS still struggle with reading PDF documents.
The PDF version should be used for printing or sending directly to someone via email.
Want more career-related goodness?
- Get a powerful 5-Step Resume Action Plan that will help you transform your resume into an interview-getting machine.
- Download my 54 Super Impressive Resume Action Verbs list by joining the Career Courage Facebook group.
- Find more DIY career resources here.
- Apply now for a free strategy call if you’re thinking about 1:1 services with a career expert.
