Refresh Your Resume With These 4 Strategies

According to a 2017 survey from CareerBuilder, 39 percent of HR staffers take less than a minute to glance at a resume. A full 20 percent spend 30 seconds or less perusing each resume. Therefore, your resume must be in top form to capture attention. Here are four strategies you can use to refresh this vital document.

1. Make It Concise

Your resume does not have to be more than one page to make an impact. Keep it short by listing your most important skills, jobs and educational achievements that relate to the job at hand.

If you have more than a decade of work experience, you may only need to list positions you held for the past 10 to 15 years on your resume. Consider having two sections, one for relevant experience and one for recent experience, if the professional position requires an extensive background or a curriculum vitae. Also, always tailor your resume for each position. One particular job in your work history might be relevant to one position but not another.

2. Create an Easy-to-Read Format

You don't need fancy fonts, graphics or photos to make your resume visually appealing. Rather, utilize white spaces and text well to make certain sections stand out and easier for human eyes to read. Consider using resume tools to help you easily create and alter a resume. Resume-building tools let you see how different formats work and what happens when you alter the text. They also help you optimize the space on a page.

3. Highlight Your Skills

Make sure your skills align with what an employer wants. That means highlighting your skills by using the right keywords in your resume. Look at the job description and see what requirements the employer requires. Generally, the most important requirements are at the top of the description. Use those keywords when describing your skills.

For example, one job description may say "requires extensive knowledge of Microsoft Office." Another might read "needs tech skills in MS Office." Tailor one resume using the terms "extensive knowledge" and "Microsoft Office," and tailor the other with the terms "MS Office and "tech skills." This helps to align your skills with exactly what the employer wants and helps your document make it past automated applicant tracking systems.

4. Showcase Quantifiable Achievements

Hiring managers love to see quantifiable achievements from your previous jobs. These achievements demonstrate what you can bring to a position and how you can benefit the company. Use specific data, such as "increased the company's quarter-over-quarter sales by 10 percent for 14 straight quarters."

These four strategies can help you refresh your resume and make it more interesting to a potential boss. What do you include in your resume to ensure it makes an impact?

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