GUEST BLOG: Paige Webster Teeple, Writer + Resume Consultant
Note from Erin: Paige is passionate about food tastings and recipe makings and I knew she would be fun to have on board to share her insights after 5 years of tech recruiting in California. (I’m still in Texas). I felt she could work with those in tech and have a better understanding of technical needs - either for career pivots or other opportunities as the job market ebbs and flows.
Here is a great article by Paige - have fun and think of your job experiences like the ingredients to a great recipe! You can set up a coaching call with her here: https://cafeconresume.com/resumehelp2
TITLE: YOUR RESUME as a RECIPE
Have you ever felt completely lost in writing your resume? Just like recipes, resumes have formulas for success. A resume needs five key ingredients to make it sing, and they may differ from what you'd think. If working in talent acquisition at a FAANG company for five years taught me anything, 90% of resumes leave something to be desired. Let's ensure you're in the 10% who get it right.
Most people know by now that they need to tailor their resume according to each unique job description. And most of us, hopefully, learn to proofread our resumes for spelling and grammar errors. But surprisingly, the following are five things that, as an experienced tech recruiter, I see left out of resumes consistently.
Metrics - metrics, or quantifiable achievements, are essential in a resume for several reasons. They demonstrate that rather than simply performing a task, you made a measurable impact on your organization's success. Metrics enhance your credibility and prove that bringing you on board adds value. It also grabs the reader's attention; research shows that subject lines that start with a number or statistic have higher open rates, so why wouldn't the same logic apply to your resume? Furthermore, metrics serve as conversation starters throughout the interview process. Spend some time thinking of anecdotes to accompany each metric using the STAR method, and you'll be ready to ace your next interview.
Top takeaway: your performance reviews are resume metrics gold mines. Remember to save your reviews from each job so that you'll always be able to refer back to them when it's time to refresh your resume.
2. Appropriate Length - I still see an alarming number of people with shockingly long resumes. Trust me, no one is reading every word on your three-page resume except for you. Make it easy to scan and digest. A recruiter spends an average of ten seconds reviewing a resume before deciding yes or no. Your resume should be one page at most unless you have multiple decades of work experience. And even then, you only need 2-3 bullet points (ideally, with metrics!) per role.
Top takeaway: read it aloud - if you're getting out of breath, it's too long and hard to digest.
3. Clean Formatting - there are so many great resources online to format your resume for free. Please use them. It's surprising how many I see where the formatting is a mess. It's not uploaded as a .pdf, or they didn't use bullet points ("work history in paragraph form" is a four-word horror story for recruiters). Overly stylized resumes with complex layouts, fonts, or graphics can confuse an ATS. Also, remember that many recruiters and hiring managers are reviewing resumes on their phones, so check that yours is mobile-friendly and easy to read on a small screen. If you include hyperlinks like Github, portfolio website, or LinkedIn, ensure the links are functional and neatly formatted.
Top takeaway: Content will always be king when it comes to resumes, but formatting is queen. Tailor your resume to the industry you're applying for, keep it crisp and clean, use bullet points, download it as a .pdf format, and double-check/format the hyperlinks.
4. Professional Summary or Objective Statement - again, keep it concise. The role of this section is to neatly summarize your resume, not to rattle off a laundry list of adjectives or provide a mini cover letter. An excellent formula for this section is: "[Insert one applicable adjective here] professional with X+ years of experience in X, Y, and Z. My superpowers are X, Y, and Z, and I am seeking a role that will allow me to work on my passions of A and B."
Top takeaway: the summary section should be two to three sentences and tell us how many years of experience you have, what industries/areas of specialization, the superpowers that make you unique, and what's important to you in your next role.
5. Know When to List Hard Skills vs. Soft Skills - this may be a hot take, but most recruiters and hiring managers do not want to see soft transferable skills like "cross-functional team leadership" and "interpersonal communication" listed under the core competencies/skills section of your resume. We want you to showcase your hard skills in that section, demonstrating teachable abilities that we can quantify and are necessary for effectively performing specific roles. Think coding languages, system administration, software, database querying languages, web development, carpentry skills, blueprint reading, SEO, social media marketing, CNC machining, supply chain management, languages, workshop design, panel moderation, offer negotiations, Google Analytics, etc.
Top takeaway: leave the soft traits for your interview and your professional summary section, and list only quantifiable things in the skills section of your resume. Show us, rather than tell us, that you're a great communicator with a growth mindset and a team player mentality.
You'll stand out as a valuable candidate with a keen eye for detail if you nail these five things when crafting your resume. Anything that you would add to this list? Any questions? Let us know in the comments!