- Let me guess,
you have a resume, but
it's not landing you
the job interviews you really want.
Maybe you've submitted your resume
to hundreds, or even dozens of positions.
In this video, I'm
sharing a proven strategy
that has helped my clients and students
achieve things like landing a job
making two times their current salary,
or landing a job instantly
after looking for work for over a year.
If you wanna see results like them,
then keep watching.
And, as a very special bonus,
I have a free resume template
that you can download now
and tailor for your next interview.
(gentle music)
If we've never met before,
I'm Heather Austin from
ProfessorAustin.com,
and The Career Club on Facebook.
And on this channel,
I teach working
professionals just like you
how to build your personal brand
so that you can land your dream job
and grow in a field you love.
So if you're new to my channel,
make sure you hit the
subscribe button down below,
and the bell notification (bell dings)
so you're notified when I post a new video
or go live every week.
Every year, I team up with
my really good friends
over at Red Rocket Resume,
a certified professional
resume writing company
to create a video that teaches you
how to write a stand-out resume.
So in this video, we're
sharing five simple steps
that you can use right now
to write a resume that
lands you more interviews
and better job offers.
So let's jump into it.
Step number one, create
a stand-out summary.
This section needs to
clearly identify who you are,
and what you have to offer
in terms of credentials,
experience, results,
and even personality.
It needs to communicate
some value proposition.
This is the problems you solve,
and the skills you bring to the table.
Think of your summary as a movie trailer,
you wanna give them a
teaser into who you are,
but don't give them the entire story.
The summary section is like a sneak peek,
it makes some promises,
but then the rest of the resume
is used as evidence to
support the promises
mentioned in the summary.
There are four main components
that make up a stand-out summary.
Let's take a closer look.
The first one is your title,
or what we call your identifier.
This can be the job title that you,
as the candidate, are seeking.
The second component is your
skills, or your tagline.
I like to recommend that you
use at least three skills here.
The third component to a stand-out summary
is a paragraph of information
that includes two to five sentences
that go into greater detail
about what it is that you do
and how you can help the company
solve their greatest problems.
So for example, you could
include an adjective
to start the sentences off.
You could then have a title,
now the title doesn't
exactly have to be the same
as the title that you listed above,
you can include industry content,
you could also include the result,
or what the benefits are
that you have to offer.
And then of course do a
recap of your key skills.
And then finally, the fourth component
to a stand out summary is the
core competencies section.
So the core competencies
section are keywords,
or keyword phrases,
that explain your
expertise more in detail.
Now here is a point
when it comes to listing
your core competencies,
make sure you're pulling
keywords and keyword phrases
from the job posting.
Now you can place the word
core competencies above this section,
doing that actually gives a helpful cue
for applicant tracking systems.
Then, run your core competencies together
with a vertical line
surrounded by two spaces.
This is the essential framework
to build a strong summary section,
and it address the needs of
both the human and ATS reader.
Master this framework,
and then adapt it to tailor
each resume for the job posting.
Tip number two to write a stand-out resume
is to add job description paragraphs.
One way to make your resume
stand out from all the others
is by adding one to two sentences
below the company name and job title
that explains your main responsibilities,
or your position at a glance.
Let's take a look at an example.
In this example, you can see
that it's a senior
project management role.
You can see that this candidate
mentions in two sentences
what their daily
responsibilities look like.
Now you'll also notice the
keywords and keyword phrases
that are used within this paragraph.
Now you can also use this
introductory paragraph
to mention the main objectives
of the company you work for.
Step number three is to include
accomplishment-driven bullet points.
Follow the paragraph
under each job posting
with accomplishment-driven bullet points.
These bullet points become
the backbone of your resume,
and they tell the hiring official
what your greatest accomplishments are.
Now I have a video that goes
into even greater detail
about how to write
accomplishment-driven bullet points.
I'll link that video below
so you can take a look at it
as soon as you're done with this one.
Let me quickly share with you
the three part formula
to write a strong
accomplishment-driven bullet point.
You'll wanna start with
some type of action verb
followed by the task that you performed,
and then followed by the result.
So here's an example:
"Increased base by 30%
during the year 2018
due to the delivery of quick service."
Here's another example:
"Created and maintained
office forms and procedures
to assist with administrative tasks."
So, in both of these examples,
we start with some sort of action verb,
followed by the task,
and then followed by
the result of that task.
Now, here is a tip when
it comes to writing
these accomplishment-driven bullet points,
you can always switch
the result and the task.
So you could start the bullet point
with a action verb,
followed by the result,
and then followed by the task.
Here's another tip when it comes to
writing your achievement statements,
hiring officials love
quantifiable results.
So, any time that you can
add some sort of number
to the bullet point is a bonus.
So we wanna look at data, measurements,
maybe there's a dollar
amount associated with it,
maybe there's a percentage,
maybe there is time associated with that,
so any time you can add an
achievement-driven bullet point
that is quantifiable.
Step number four to a stand-out resume
is to make it ATS optimized.
So, ATS stands for
Applicant Tracking System.
This is a system that companies use
to send your resume through
to see if you are a good
match for the position.
So to make sure your
resume is ATS optimized,
you need to, again, make sure
that you are using keywords
and keyword phrases from the job posting,
exactly from the job posting,
and placing them in your resume.
So you wanna make sure
that you're learning
the company lingo.
What types of words is the company using
in their job posting,
and then transfer those into your resume.
Here's an example,
one company might use
the word communication,
another company might use
the word communicator.
You might even see one company
using the word customer engagement,
and another company using
the word customer success.
Make sure that you follow the
company lingo in your resume
so that you can get past the
applicant tracking systems.
This shows the company
that you are literally
speaking their language.
The fifth step to create
a stand-out resume
is to format it for visibility.
So when it comes to the
visibility of your resume,
you want to make sure
that you're not using
tables, text boxes, columns,
or even graphics.
Now I know that these things
look great on a resume,
the only problem is that
they won't get your resume
past any applicant tracking systems.
So we wanna make sure that your resume
is clean and sophisticated.
So you wanna eliminate all the fluff
and just include the data and
the information that you need
to get your foot in the
door for the interview.
Hiring managers, recruiters,
and HR professionals
wanna be able to find the
information they're looking for
in the exact spot that
they expect it to be.
This makes their job easier,
so don't get too creative
in the formatting,
the design, and the layout.
These resume best practices
are sort of like shorthand,
and they let hiring officials know
where to find information quickly.
Now to help you with the
formatting of your resume,
make sure you take a look
at the video right here
where I teach you exactly
how to format your resume
for better readability
so that you can land more interviews
and better job offers.
Then, if you like this video,
be sure to hit the thumbs
up button down below.
Be sure to subscribe to this channel
for more videos like this,
and I will see you in the next video.
