Resume Tips

Ideally, your resume is the LAST thing you share with someone before you get a job. 

The FIRST thing to do is reach out to your existing network and further round it out through informational interviews with new people. If you work with me, I’ll push you to do just that. Because if you do, you’ll not only be able to explore and understand new areas of work, but you’ll also make a whole host of new connections. At best, your ever-expanding network will lead to someone saying “I/someone I know has a role you’d be perfect for.” Then, your resume becomes a confirmation of your experience your contact is already aware of. It will be the last checkbox of a foregone conclusion. 

BUT we all know it doesn’t always work that way. You’ll likely have to cold apply too, or send your resume to a contact who then forwards it along to someone else. 

So, how DO you approach your resume in 2024? I thought I knew, but decided to brush up anyway. And I learned that resumes are now VERY different beasts than they were when I was 24. So, I’m passing on the high-level tips I’ve amassed here:

• One page is ideal, but not required: Be as concise as possible. One page is great for small and medium businesses and/or if you have less than 10 years of experience. If you have 10+ years of relevant experience and/or are applying to only large companies, then your resume can stretch to two pages. But in either case, only include what is relevant. LinkedIn is the place for your complete job history— so make sure to have an easy-to-find link to your LinkedIn on your resume. If you aren’t including every job you’ve ever had (don’t), title the employment section “RELEVANT EXPERIENCE”. If some of that experience is lots and lots of freelance/contract projects, consider grouping those under one role (i.e. “Producer, Independent 2015-current”).

• Past job titles are modifiable: There are so many jobs with numerous titles that are synonyms of each other and/or are badly defined (UX Writer vs Content Designer, anyone?). As long as you’re being honest, feel free to update past job titles to match the current standard, a fair representation of what your job is/was, or what the company that you’re applying to calls it.

• Formatting should be simple: Thanks to ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems) the days of table- or column-based layouts are over. Since a computer may be the one reading and parsing your resume, it needs to be one column and have very little formatting. Honestly, this is better for the 10-30 seconds a human is going to give your resume too.
  
  If you’re a designer, develop two versions: One “boring” Google doc and one InDesign version that’s more singular. If you ask my husband, a Partner at GHD Partners, a New York City graphic design studio, he says, “a resume needs to effectively and efficiently communicate experience and education, this can be very simple by focusing on good typography and a clear hierarchy of information. It can be as simple as a single typeface and single column of text.”

• Update your resume for every job you apply to: Yes, I mean it. No, you don’t have to totally rewrite it. The key here is to help the reader understand how you fit in the role by adding/including keywords from the job posting and removing clutter that isn’t saying anything relevant to the role.
  
  You may be thinking, “But, Sam, I apply for 50 jobs a day! I can’t update my resume every time!” Well…apply for fewer jobs. Yes, I mean it. Again. Rather than throwing your resume all over the internet into black holes of inboxes and ATSs, apply for only the cream of the crop. Take the time to research the company and if it’s a good fit for you, update your resume accordingly. Then see if you have any contacts at the company who can +1 your application internally. Focus on quality over quantity.

• Optimize, don’t “trick”: When you’re tackling your resume, you’re optimizing it for the particular role you’re applying for and balancing the layout/content to be both ATS and human-friendly. What you aren’t doing is trying to trick computers or humans. Don’t do “white wording” or keyword stuffing, don’t change past job titles to misrepresent your work, and don’t add skills or experience you don’t have. Be authentic yet strategic.

• Maybe include a summary and/or a skills list: I used to have a strict “no summary!” opinion because I found that most people didn’t say much in that section. But I have since changed my tune. A *short* summary (think 2-4 sentences) at the top of your resume allows someone to get a sense of you without reading through every job bullet point and allows you to include information you can’t include in other sections—such as an explanation for a job break or career pivot. Don’t use this space to explain what you want, use it to explain who you are. And don’t be too verbose—clear and succinct is perfect.
  
  Including a skills list on your resume is pretty dependent on the industry you’re applying for, and whether or not they are easily incorporated into your experience bullet points. If you’re seeing skills called out in the job postings that you’re interested in, then having a section for them in your resume makes sense. The same goes for additional sections like “Volunteer Experience”, “Personal Interests”, “Awards and Honors”, etc. – include these if the job postings indicate an interest in them. Skip them if they will just be filler.

• Review every bullet point: Each previous role you include in your Experience section is a chance to prove that you have experience doing what your next job will need…even if your current/previous job wasn’t the same as the future one. Keep in mind that some people looking at your resume likely have very little time and very little personal understanding of the role you’re applying for. Connect the dots for them! Be clear about the way your past work relates to this new work, highlight the ways you’ve been impactful in previous positions, and highlight why you’re worth an interview.
  
  Your Experience section should not be a series of job descriptions. Instead, it should be a set of ways you were awesome at those jobs. If the role you had previously had a very strange set of expectations, you can include that in your summary section. Other than that, your bullet points should all be relevant achievements showing the impact or result of what you did. Here are two ways to accomplish that goal: 

• Lead with the outcome – Rewrite every bullet point so a badass outcome is at the start: "[Awesome outcome happened] because I [what you did]"

• "So what?" – Be explicit in each bullet point about why the person reading your resume should care. Make sure every single bullet point answers the question "So what?" An example from a client resume: “Led messaging approach, script writing, and paid social copywriting for a YouTube campaign highlighting creators in fashion and home decor.” It's cool that you led the messaging approach and script writing but... so what? So the brand had a consistent voice which increased customer memorability. 

So, how will you craft your resume so it’s a job deal maker instead of a job deal breaker?