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Goodbye Objectives, Hello Purpose
Still dusting off that old resume every time you apply for a job? You know, the one with the rusty objective statement, about one hundred bullet points, and two paragraphs about your love for Victorian teacups?
Well, it's not doing you any favors. It’s time to reboot your resume.
As the market is flooded with a glut of job seekers, not only does your resume have to make it through the Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), which filter out “incompatible” applications before they even reach human eyes, but it also has to impress the increasingly picky employers on the other side.
To do this, you’ll need a new kind of resume.
Ground Rules
Above all, your new resume should adhere to one rule: everything must have a clear purpose that demonstrates your potential value. If you don’t know why something is on your resume, it shouldn't be there. If a piece of information doesn't sell your skills or show the employer why they should hire you, it shouldn't be there.
Updating your resume is a complex process, but this list of the five biggest mistakes of an old-fashioned resume will help you identify ways to turn your dated resume in the kind of dynamic document that employers love.
Objective Statement
Join me in bidding farewell to the objective statement. Once a staple of the professional resume, it's become a relic of the past and an immediate red flag for employers. Employers just aren't interested in your career objective, especially if that objective something like “securing employment that challenges me to develop professionally.”
The solution is simple: turn your objective statement into a professional summary. A professional summary is just a summary of your relevant skills and experience and the industry that you work in. Your professional summary gives you a chance to introduce yourself and—more importantly—show how your skills and experience can benefit the company.
Need help coming up with a professional summary? Use the elevator pitch generator on TheProfessional.me to generate a benefit-based statement that speaks volumes.
Specialties & Technical Skills
Remember those Applicant Tracking Systems? One of the ways they measure an application’s compatibility with a job posting is to compare the keywords in common between the job posting and your resume and cover letter.
A great way to take advantage of this process is to create new sections in your resume for your specialties and technical skills. Think of these sections as word banks that include keywords found throughout the job posting (as long as they’re actually applicable).
Job boards like LinkedIn, and Monster.com index your resume based on these keywords. So not only will employers understand at a glance whether you meet the requirements of the position, your resume will also rank higher in search results for these specific skills.
Formatting & Styles
Many applicants add all sorts of font weights and sizes, bullet points, horizontal rules and other formatting gimmicks to their resumes without a clear explanation of why they’re doing so. Unfortunately, excess formatting like this actually distracts the reader away from the content by forcing them to focus on the style.
The ideal resume has as little styling as possible. Text styling and page formatting should be used for one purpose only: to make the core message of your resume easier to understand. That means every stylistic choice should have a clear purpose and be consistent across all similar elements.
For example: it’s acceptable to make your “Experience” headline bold and all caps. This helps the reader identify the headline and differentiate it from the content direct above and below. Just remember, to keep this decision consistent across your entire resume. This means your “Specialties”, “Professional Summary”, and “Education” headlines all must be bold and in all caps.
Education
In the new, purpose-driven resume, you can’t afford to waste precious space on things your audience isn’t interested in. Case in point: education. Your employer is only interested in your high school education if it’s your highest level of education. If you graduated from a technical school or four-year university, go ahead and remove your high school from your education list.
Just be sure to include all post-secondary education (e.g. Undergraduate, Master's, and PhD programs).
Personal Information
Finally, while it’s great that you love golf—I mean really love golf—there’s absolutely no reason to include it in your resume. If you feel the need to talk about your hobbies or personal philosophy, you should do so in the job interview. Some employers view personal information like this as needless filler. Keep your resume professional and skip the Hobbies & Person Interests section.
Make it easy on yourself
This is a lot of information here to remember. And it’s is just the beginning. If you’re serious about crafting a winning resume, give the resume builder on the TheProfessional.me a try. This free tool takes all the guesswork out of creating the perfect resume.
When you’re finished be sure to show your resume to someone you trust. They’ll often spot any mistakes that escaped you during the writing process.
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