Chris Villanueva 00:54
Now you’re going to hear about the resume design tip that really matters the most in my opinion. There’s so much advice out there for resume design, but I want to hone in and focus on one thing in particular that can make a huge difference in how your resume is being perceived. I want to talk about how to write a good summary. That is one of the trickiest parts of a resume is that summary at the top. I think a lot of people get confused and kind of freaked out on the summary. What do I even write? How do I write about myself in a way that is a little bit less formulaic? We’re also going to cover how to get past the applicant tracking systems and tweaks that you can make to really start to get your resume some more traction there when you apply online.

Chris Villanueva 01:38
If you want to land interviews faster and stand out even in a competitive market, this episode is for you and a quick plug for you to submit your resume to us at letseatgrandma.com we will look over your resume and give you a real human expert review to let you know where yours specifically can be improved.

Chris Villanueva 01:57
Alright, enough chitchat here. I want to talk about five ways to make your resume stand out. Five changes you can make today. The first one I’m going to cover is be specific about your impact. Think about your life. Just stop for one second. Think about what you as a human have done. Think about all of the people you’ve connected with. Think about all of the things that you’ve wanted to make a difference with and change and affect and transform. That is your story. There’s so much that goes into that and so much that you cannot even begin to put on a resume, but we as resume writers encourage you to try to get some of that story, some of that impact and results and get some of those things on paper.

Chris Villanueva 02:46
It’s a really tough thing to do and I know because we talk to a lot of people every day that are like, I don’t even know where to start. But I will tell you that one of the biggest mistakes that job seekers are making when it comes to their resume and LinkedIn profile is they’re just keeping their experience too vague. It’s like just listing the job. Responsibilities and descriptions are what I would say the majority of people are doing. Maybe you’ll sprinkle a little thing here or the here like throw in a number, but most resumes do not get as specific about impact as they could. So think about the attention grabbing things, think about your story, the things that you are proud of, the things that have made a difference at the past, organizations you’ve worked for. So instead of saying you’ve managed a sales team and improved processes, talk about how you led a team of 10 sales reps increasing revenue 35% in 12 months through improved sales strategies.

Chris Villanueva 03:44
A quick note about that one is you weren’t the one closing every single one of those deals. You weren’t the one making a call to increase revenue, 35% notice that you led the team of 10 sales reps. Again, that’s a number, and bringing in a team is one of the best things you can do if you feel lost on how to brag about yourself because it isn’t always about yourself. You’re going to work for a company one day and be a part of something greater. I say that like you’ve never worked for a company before, but you get the point. Hiring managers are looking for people who can work within a team and lead a team to better results. So don’t be afraid to include numbers and percentages that have been affected in changed by your department or even your company. If you can’t get as specific as your department there it is okay to take credit as long as you highlight something like that.

Chris Villanueva 04:40
In a bullet point, maybe instead of being responsible for customer service inquiries, you can talk about how you handled an average of 50 plus customer service inquiries daily, reducing resolution time by 40% through improved workflows. So that bullet point is great because it talks about the what as well as the why and the how. So improved workflows, 50 plus inquiries, daily reduced resolution time by 40% there. Notice again that there is a number there that isn’t just about an improvement. You can talk about the fact that 50 plus is impressive in itself. You don’t have to have just the accomplishment there or the impact. You can include what was done in a numbers context as well. So don’t be afraid to get some impact. Get some specifics in there. I’m telling you, your resume is probably not specific enough to make an impact. Take that up a notch.

Chris Villanueva 05:38
Things will go your way. Alright, the second tip here is use headers and design principles strategically. So I talked about the biggest design thing for you to focus on here. There’s so many different things. I can probably list 20 different things that people could fix on their design, but I’m going to focus in on one today and that is your use of headers. Now why are headers so important? It’s time. Time is the thing that recruiters do not have, hiring managers do not have. I know because I’ve spoken to them before and they are overwhelmed. Headers are the way for you to make it easier for somebody to process your document quickly.

Chris Villanueva 06:23
Here, your resumes are a visual document too and those impressions matter. Talking about some things that we can do to our headers, I recommend making sure your headers in your document are something that people can find within less than a second when they pop open your PDF or word doc here. So an example of a header if I’ve lost you so far. An example is professional experience or your education or summary or skills. Don’t just put random things that don’t make sense. Don’t put instead of professional experience, don’t put working stuff or don’t put for certifications, skills, certifications, comma and things I learned like keep it very simple for the applicant tracking system and I would stick to the conventions here. Professional experience I think sounds better than work experience, so I would put that education, just leave that and I think skills I think perfectly fine too. Again, don’t put random stuff.

Chris Villanueva 07:22
You want to make sure that the headers, the actual words make sense and you want to make sure that the design that follows that stands out. So I say choose professional fonts throughout your entire resume. I like to stick to things like times New Roman Ariel, don’t roll your eyes, Germond, calibre things that are easy to read and I recommend making sure that your headers stand out as a little bit above the rest.

Chris Villanueva 07:49
So if you have your font in 11 point font, maybe you want to make your headers 12, 13 or sometimes 14 point font a little bit bigger. Maybe you want to use all caps, bolding or alignment to align those headers to the very center as a way for you to make those headers stand out. But that is one of the best quick things that you can do to improve your document. Make that tweak today. Alright, the third change to make to your resume to stand out even in a competitive market is write a summary that actually excites people. Actually excite me with the first thing that I’m going to look at in your document. This is like your first impression and I will tell you, most people write a very generic summary. It’s not an elevator pitch. This is just a boring thing and just a box for people to check because they heard from me that you should have a summary.

Chris Villanueva 08:44
But go beyond just saying that you are a dedicated marketing professional with experienced digital campaigns. Talk about how you are a data-driven marketing strategist with a track record of increasing engagement by 200% through innovative digital campaigns. Instead of just saying you are an experienced software engineer with coding skills, looking to work for a growing company, say that you are a full stack developer specializing in Python or JavaScript known for building scalable applications through AI that improve user experience. Maybe you spearheaded a project that reduced load time by 60%. These are things that you can bring up as a highlight in your summary. Don’t be afraid to get specific again, relating to the first point I made in the beginning of this episode and talking about that, yes, a summary, it’s in the word summary is like, okay, yeah, it should be a little bit more generic than the actual professional experiences that in all the companies that you work for.

Chris Villanueva 09:45
But again, you could still do that by thinking broadly about the types of positions you are applying for and thinking about, okay, I don’t have to just pull from my most recent professional experience. I can pull stats and data from any professional experience and put that in my summary. So it is your best of the best and the summary is great because it doesn’t have to be your most recent professional experience. So actually excite people here. There’s so much that you have done as a professional that I know can excite a hiring manager. Okay, the fourth tip I’m going to give you on how to stand out in a competitive market is get oddly specific in matching the job posting. Get oddly specific. Alrifght, so one of the best ways to make your resume stand out is ironically, it’s a very boring way, but it’s probably the most effective one I will give you today.

Chris Villanueva 10:38
It’s customizing your resume as much as possible to the job posting before you roll your eyes or sigh because you don’t think you have any time. Consider that a hiring manager is probably looking through hundreds of different resumes. They’re really looking for relevance. They have to sift through every random resume that they get. People that they’re like, oh my gosh, why did this person apply? It looks like a mistake. So by this point they’re so used to seeing irrelevant content, so they have to really use the applicant tracking system to filter people out. So the best way that you could get an even better match on your resume is get oddly specific to matching the job posting. So the way that you do that of course is to look at the job posting very carefully before you send the resume to it. And I’m not saying to change your entire resume or to throw it through chat PT and say, match this.

Chris Villanueva 11:32
That’s not going to be as effective. I think as looking at a few key things and kind of looking at this as a hiring manager would and making some tweaks. So perhaps look at your header, your summary at the very top as well as your professional experience, probably your most recent professional experience to see what you can do to integrate the right keywords in the document. So get oddly specific. If you’re going to be applying for, as I said in the last example for a full stack developer position and Python and JavaScript is the main thing that they’re looking for, then put full stack developer specializing in Python or JavaScript within the first sentence of your summary. Heck, if you’re applying for the second job posting, it’s specializing in something else. Maybe it’s developing AI applications or maybe it’s more of a front end position, then swap out full stack for front end and include the words AI within the first few sentences.

Chris Villanueva 12:32
Again, think about the way a hiring manager is going to process this when they pop open the resume and you’ll also take care of the a TS stuff as well. Get oddly specific, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you start to get more traction when applying online. The fifth change to make to your resume to stand out even in a competitive market. Even in a competitive market because that is a mouthful now that I think about it, is don’t just tell show results. Hiring managers don’t just want to know what you did. They want to hear about your success. And I know this sounds similar to the very first point I made, but I’m going to add some nuance to this one. There are different ways that go beyond your resume in which you can show the amazing things that you’ve done as a professional that you are in marketing or coding or maybe you are an operations leader, but there are so many different ways using multimedia in which you can show that you have done the thing that they’re looking for.

Chris Villanueva 13:37
So you can do this in a cover letter, you can do this on your LinkedIn profile or even in the way that you carry yourself or introduce yourself in conversations as you meet people through networking. But this is one of the best things that you can do. Again, to cut through the noise and the sea of applications and resumes is really make this about your brand and extend beyond your resume here. Now I just want to give a good example here and a shout out to AJ who has been a podcast editor here for us at Let’s Eat, Grandma. The way that he showed me that he was going to be an amazing editor was in his resume and in his application he cross linked past examples of podcast episodes and videos, perhaps some thumbnails and things that he’s done to really affect change. And it wasn’t the resume that got me to hire him and here I am years later still working with him.

Chris Villanueva 14:30
It wasn’t just the resume, it was the link to his portfolio. So I saw that and I was like, wow, if he’s done the same sort of thing for this podcast and I think it looks great, then he can do absolutely the same thing for me, and he did. So I think that is a great example of not just telling but showing results. By the way, shout out to AJ if you are looking for a magnificent editor, AJ does have the availability to take on podcast or two. So reach out to us at [email protected] and let me know, hey, you want to talk to aj, quick plug. But what I will say is there are different ways that you can go and showcase what you’ve done here. So maybe you are within marketing or maybe you are within social media, multimedia, whatever it may be, and this makes more sense for you.

Chris Villanueva 15:20
But I’m telling you there are different ways that you can include a portfolio within your profile to show those results. In the past we talked about using the example of a suitability map in which you take the job posting on the left hand side of a document and on the right hand side. So it’s a two column document and on the right hand side of the document you share the results and the impact of what you’ve done and how that matches to the job posting. There are so many different ways that you can tell stories and include visuals and examples to stand out in your job search. Alright, so I know this can all seem overwhelming and it certainly is in many cases, but I’m here to tell you just pick one. Start with one of these changes that you can make in your resume today.

Chris Villanueva 16:08
Maybe it’s your summary or maybe you want to talk about an impact that you made at your recent organization a little bit better, but don’t go at this alone. Keep listening to this podcast. Reach out to us and send in your resume for review and know that all of this is going to be worth it at the end of the day. Once you get that new job, not saying it’s going to be easy, it might be a struggle, but it’s going to be worth it if you keep investing in yourself and you just keep trying. Tune into our podcast next week. We have a really solid guest by the name of Elizabeth Lado and Elizabeth is going to be talking about how to create opportunities for yourself. Yes, there are ways to get your dream job and ways to improve your life that go beyond just submitting your resume to applications out there.

Chris Villanueva 16:59
So you’re going to want to tune into that one. I’m excited for it. Otherwise, I can’t thank you enough for being a listener. Subscribe, leave a review, and I can’t wait to see you next time, career Warrior podcast. And before you go, remember if you’re not seeing the results you want in your job search, our highly trained team of professional resume writers here at, Let’s Eat, Grandma can help head on over to letseatgrandma.com/podcast/ to get a free resume critique and $70 off any one of our resume writing packages. We talk all the time on the show about the importance of being targeted in your job search and with our unique writing process and focus on individual attention, you’ll get a resume cover letter and LinkedIn profile that are highly customized and tailored to your goals to help you get hired faster. Again, head on over to letseatgrandma.com/podcast/ Thanks, and I’ll see you next time.