Go Beyond the Basics – 4 Ways to Make Every Resume Stand Out

How do you make your resume outstanding? First, I think a resume must have the basics to even qualify. Assuming you’ve done the basics already, then an outstanding resume is one that is TAILORED to the specific job you’re applying for. Yes, to stand out, you have to tailor your resume for every type of job you’re applying for and preferably every single position (if time permits).

Here are four additional ways to make your resume an outstanding one:

1. Add relevant keywords – Learn what the key buzzwords are associated with the job you’re applying for. Review the job posting and pick out keywords they used and then try to fit those words into your resume. Companies today often do a search on keywords for resumes before any humans look at it. An outstanding resume is one that is easy to read and describes your experience in words that fit the job description.
2. Reposition experiences – Don’t make the recruiter do the work of linking how your experiences make you a good candidate for the job. Do it for them in your resume. Look at the job you’re applying for and ask yourself what experiences are needed for that job. Then look at your resume and see what experience you have that fits. Be creative as long as you don’t lie. For example, a person with many years of consulting experience can still build a great resume for a product manager job. One of the skills a product manager needs is being able to own and drives the success of the product (i.e. budget responsibilities, setting strategic direction, marketing, etc…). A manager in a consulting firm has to run projects within budget, set strategic direction for clients, and possibly develop a practice for the consulting firm. All could be reworded in the Executive Summary and detailed to stand out in the resume. Once you get the interview, you can continue to tell the same story.
3. Leave out some – An outstanding resume does NOT need to include all your experiences. Be very light on the experiences or leave them out all together if they don’t help you build your case. I have six years of experience in Marketing and five years in system integration work. For a marketing position, I probably devote 80% of my resume to my six years of experience and the rest on how the other five years are somehow relevant to the specific marketing job. I’m not saying you can’t have any that are not relevant, but the majority should be somehow helping you build the case for why you’re an outstanding candidate for the job.
4. Warm lead – Doing the above will definitely increase your chance of standing out. Another excellent way outside of updating your resume is to have someone within the company submit it for you. Time and time again networking is key to finding a good job. A “warm” lead to a job is always going to receive more attention and will make your resume outstanding as a result.