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The job outlook for 2019 is better than ever, with prospective employees clearly holding the advantage thanks to a record five decade low in unemployment, forcing employers to offer more to find and retain the best talent.
In this article, we are going to give you some tips aimed at making a resume that is fast to read, while loaded with powerful keywords that will give you an advantage.
The opportunities currently available in the job market are good news for jobseekers. It’s a perfect time to test the waters and rise in your given field. However, everyone else knows that, too. So don’t think you won’t have competition. You will. Other people are looking to take advantage of the situation and ascend in their career, too.
As always, you need to find a way to make you and your resume stand out. Here are a few tips, as well as, some power words you can use to help you grab the attention of hiring managers.
Here are five tips for creating a strong resume, one that uses powerful keywords to highlight your skills, strengths and accomplishments, as well as, using words that will get flagged by automated resume reading software, while delivering a resume that is designed for quick eye movement and scanning by hiring managers.
You’ve probably heard of the three most popular resume formats: Functional, reverse-chronological or a combination of the two. Will forget those, and definitely avoid centering your text.
However, because most resumes are read online – it’s more important to set up your resume in what’s called an E or F pattern, which helps hold a recruiter’s attention for longer periods. These patterns have been proven to match the most common eye scanning patterns when it comes to reading blocks of content. The “F” stands for fast, which allows quick scanning of content blocks.
In an F pattern, users first read in a horizontal movement across the upper part, then next, they scan a vertical line down the left side of the screen, then continue to scan the left side in a vertical movement.
Basically this means, that you have strong headings across the top, and your content falls below that aligned to the left. If you can make each following left-sided paragraph or bullet point shorter, it will scan that much faster to the eye.
Add a list of keywords and strengths at the very top. Your chief aim should be to use well thought out keywords, those that will stand out in order to highlight your strengths.
Use keywords such as: Achieved, capitalized, drove, enacted, established, exceeded, sharpened, shattered, sparked, spearheaded, steered, stimulated, supervised, surpassed.
Highlight recent successes and offer suggestions to show what you can bring to a company.
Here are some keywords to use: accelerated, accomplished, assembled, built, founded, created, constructed, delivered, developed, expanded, forged, increased, initiated, implemented, instituted, produced.
For technical positions, use keywords such as: Architected, automated, coded, deployed, detected, devised, diagnosed, formulated, installed, launched, networked, planned, programmed, rewrote, refined, upgraded.
If you’re a creative, use these keywords: Authored, brainstormed, conceptualized, designed, diagrammed, drafted, edited, modeled, published, strategized, storyboarded, visualized, wrote.
If you’re in sales, use: Captured, converted, earned, generated, maximized, negotiated, won.
If your accomplishments come by way of a team effort, and you definitely want to sound like a team player, use words such as: Collaborated, enlivened, instructed, presented, trained.
If you’re in management, use these keywords: Advised, augmented, centralized, championed, directed, empowered, fostered, integrated, leveraged, reconciled, reduced, replaced, resolved, orchestrated, optimized, renovated.
Don’t talk about salary requirements or every job or position you’ve ever had. Only mentions positions relevant to the job you are specifically seeking.
Of course, you should have one general-scope or generic resume prepared. But you should also tailor resumes to specific jobs you may be applying for, those that differ from one another, even in subtle ways. The more your resume can fit the specific job position, the better.
With these custom resumes, you’ll want to add keywords and buzzwords that are targeted to fit that particular job. In that way, you’ll get flagged by computer software that many companies use to pre-qualify or pre-scan resumes.
