How to Write a Resume That Shines

Okay, so you're writing a resume and you want it to be perfect. What does it look like? What does it sound like? I wanna look professional, but I wanna be myself, but do companies care about who I am? Do I have enough to fill a page? I don't have five years experience. This is an entry-level job. This looks so old-fashioned. Is this really still how you're supposed to do a resume these days? Do you know it takes hiring managers less than 10 seconds to decide whether your resume lands in the accept or the reject pile? There is a lot riding on this piece of paper, and it's important to know how to catch a recruiter's attention. It's also hard to do and very easy to obsess over. Are you doing too much? Are you doing too little? What if I don't have enough experience? Does this even look good? The rules around what makes a resume great are always changing. So, let's unpack how to stand out. In the modern world, how do you stand out on paper? [gentle music]

It's a shame that recruiters, at the moment, seem to have the attention span of a goldfish, but it's also a necessity because there are so many roles to fill and so many resumes to read, and only so much time.

That's Christie DePaul. She's a content creator who writes a lot about career navigation and personal branding. She helps people with resumes, productivity, job interviews, and lots of other stuff. So I heard that when a human looks at our resume, they're giving it, like, 10 seconds of consideration before it lands in the accept or reject pile. Can you tell us, like, what's happening in those 10 seconds, where their eyes go first? What kind of makes them say yes or no?

As someone is scanning your resume, of course, they're going to notice your name, it's at the very top. And then moving on down to your most recent experience, and then do they have the requisite skills and education?

Christie has a lot of advice for people around how to write resumes. Here's what she had to say. There used to be this trend where you'd write a little mission statement at the top of your resume, like, "I'm an experienced, thoughtful, ambitious person who's interested in this industry," et cetera, et cetera. But just ditch that. It's taking up real estate on your resume. Christie says you should just replace this with a simple headline that describes you and your specialty, like content creator, marketing specialist, and this can be really useful if you're trying to switch industries. You do wanna hype yourself up on your resume, but not too much where it seems cliche or insincere. Instead, use bullet points to list out your achievements, data, responsibilities, and specialties.

And if that is something that mirrors the, uh, job description, that's gonna be a box that is ticked.

One last bit of context to add, unless your company is very recognizable, include a little blurb about what they do.

I like to see when someone adds a single line beneath the organization name that says, you know-

Sure

... this is, this is the premier professional development association for engineers. You've just given me, you know, like, a cheat sheet to your resume.

If you're early in your career or fresh out of school, it can be really