If you are one of the many people engaged in a job search now because of the impact of the pandemic, you are undoubtedly looking at revamping your resume. There are certain elements of a resume that are essential and should always be included — focusing on accomplishments and providing evidence in the form of facts and figures; using short, compelling phrases with strong action verbs; having it well organized with a clean, professional look; checking for misspellings and grammatical errors.
But as technology progresses and the business climate changes, there are some other modifications you need to look at with your resume.
Here are four resume updates you should make now
1. Targeting hiring managers and ATS
Many companies are now using applicant tracking systems, and they are being bombarded with resumes. For this reason, some HR experts advise focusing on networking and referrals. This may give you a better chance of putting your resume in front of a hiring manager.
So, you need to make sure he or she can easily read and understand it. Some things that may help are the use of color, shading and boldface. To better show quantitative information, you can also use charts or graphs, and text boxes for other information you want to highlight.
But at some point, you may encounter an ATS, so you need to format your resume accordingly.
2. Make it readable on mobile devices
These days, a hiring manager is just as likely to read your resume on a mobile device as any other interface. So, you need to format your resume to fit mobile technology also. That means ensuring you have enough white space and using a size and type of font that fits as well, such as Calibri.
3. Don’t use big blocks of print
This is basic advice, but still important to remember. Hiring managers are not going to take the time to slog through large, dense blocks of print. Be brief. Make sure you have enough white space, with headings. Focus on using short phrases with strong action words. Check for words you don’t need and cut them out.
4. Show your emotional intelligence.
Emotional intelligence encompasses the soft skills, abilities like problem-solving, communication skills, leadership, and working in a team. These types of skills are gaining more attention from companies as people become more specialized and technology more advanced. On your resume, you want to show how you used these skills to achieve your goals.
Looking for a new job?
At Opti Staffing, we work to learn the stories of all of our job candidates, building relationships with them based on honesty and respect, so that we can match them with jobs that fit their skills and experience. Contact Opti today to see how we can help you in your job search.
