I'm a recent graduate who's been looking for jobs in the industrial engineering, process improvement, and business/operations analytics fields. After a few months of job searching, it seems like I've struck gold. Within the last 2 weeks, I've had 3 companies reach out to me saying they wanted to move forward with my application. I promise I'm not selling anything or promoting anything. I'm just so surprised at the sudden influx of responses, and the only thing I could pinpoint that would cause this is that I updated my resume before applying to this most recent group of jobs. I've been following this sub during my job search and want to share what changes I made that seem to have made a difference!
I know that some of these may be obvious or already established as good practice, but because I went so long without doing any of them, I'm assuming that there are other people out there who also have not been doing them.
Disclaimer: I am a recent college graduate, so I've only been through the job search process a few times. I don't know if these things are for sure what got me the interviews, so take everything I say with a grain of salt. Different things work better for different industries, so these tips may not be universal. Many of these may be specific to newer members of the workforce.
1. Put your skills at the top
I kept on thinking about the phrase "recruiters only spend an average of 6 seconds looking at each resume," and I decided that if a recruiter sees anything, they're going to see my name, degree, and my most relevant skills. I don't mean they're at the top like they're in some sidebar near the top. I mean, I have my name, an Education section, then a Skills section, each spanning the whole width of the page, so you don't have to scroll to see them.
I think this tip is probably more important for new grads or people trying to break into a field-- people who need to prove that they have experience with specific tools, applications, methods, etc,. That may not be a given when looking at past positions. Also, I think this is something more necessary in tech or tech-centric fields, where it's essential for a job that you know certain software or coding languages.
2. Organize your skills by category
For example, I changed my resume from
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- Skill 1, skill 2, that is related to skill 1
- Skill 3, Skill 4
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to
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Operations Analysis: Skill 1, Skill 2, Skill 3, Skill 4
Database Management: Skill 5, Skill 6, Skill 7, Skill 8, Skill 9
----------------
This made my skills section a lot easier to read through and find something specific that a recruiter may be looking for, AND it gave me space to add so many more things. I think being able to cram a bunch of skills in is so essential when your resume may go into some database where it could pop up if it contains certain keywords and filtered out if it doesn't. Plus, the names of the categories kind of act as a skill themselves, and it gives the opportunity to include them on a resume (and be a keyword) without it being a vague, stand-alone skill.
3. "Big" projects aren't always better
For a long time, I had the same projects on my resume for every job I applied to. They ended up on there, and I never second-guessed them because they were the most difficult, time-consuming, or impressive projects that I've ever completed. While these are projects that I'm proud of and want to share, I realized way too late that it was a better use of resume space to include projects that were more similar to the position. I feel like this is probably common knowledge for most people, but I think I hesitated because it felt silly to trade out my 9-month-long monster-of-a-project with something I worked on for 2 weeks.
Focus on including projects that you feel demonstrate a use of skills or methods mentioned in the job description. Even if they were small or not a project in the traditional sense, you can use the entry to customize your resume even more to the job. Don't be afraid to make it sound a little more put together or significant than it actually was.
4. Don't use more than one column
This is a small formatting detail, but it can really mess up the way your resume is parsed. If you really need to fit a bunch of individual items in a section, refer to point 2 or just throw some spaces in between the items.
5. Bold important stuff
This can be an overlooked tool for drawing attention to something very important or impressive. Personally, I started doing this when I was at a career fair and reviewing my resume asked if I had my GPA on there. I pointed it out, and he told me to put it in bold because it was good enough to make me stand out if a recruiter took note of it. This could be used for a high GPA, awards, certifications, important skills, and other things that you think a recruiter should take special attention to. Don't abuse this, though, or it loses its power.
Bonus tip: You can gain new skills whenever you want
This one is not related to your resume, but something that I've found to be very helpful when applying to jobs as a new grad or switching into a new field. If you find that a lot of the jobs you want require a skill that you don't currently have, learn it if you can. If it's a method of analysis, do research on it. Memorize the terms related to it. Develop scenarios or test cases to practice with. If it's software, see if there's a personal license. Watch YouTube videos. Find textbooks. Complete a project with it that you'd feel good showing off.
Multiple times in interviews, I've been asked if I have experience with a tool or method, and even when I've answered "Not professionally, but I've been working to develop my skills with it by {insert project description with references to specific terms or aspects of the skill}", it seems to be taken just as seriously as if I had worked with it in a job. Multiple of the skills I have on my resume are things I've learned on my own, and I think that's impressive within itself.
I add this to encourage you to pursue something that is calling you, but you may feel unqualified for. Don't feel like you're helpless in the direction of your career.
TLDR
I had a recent significant increase in the success of my job applications. My resumes performed the best when skills were categorized by type and placed above my job history and projects. I switched out many of the projects that I considered the most impressive or significant with ones that were more relevant to the position. Be weary when using multi-column formatting and you can bold a detail in your resume that you think is very important/impressive. Finally, don't be afraid to teach yourself a skill and say that you have experience with it.
I know the job market sucks right now, but keep your head up. Adapt to changes. Act with confidence. Stay persistent.