If you are one of the many folks looking for a job right now, this post is for you.
No matter how long you've been at your current job, blowing the dust of your résumé can feel daunting. Not to mention the new technology innovations in recruiting that have happened since the last time you applied.
Did you know that these days, most job recruiters and hiring managers use Applicant Tracking Software applications to sort through résumés? If standing out from inside an automated software sounds like a completely different ball game than your traditional tricks of the résumé building trade have prepared you for... that’s because it pretty much is!
From including keywords to focusing on brand-building to tailoring your résumé’s content to exactly the job you’re applying for, there’s a whole new playbook for getting your résumé to stand out from the crowd these days.
Not to mention, if you're reading this close to when we published, you're applying amidst the Great Reshuffle, which is driving a massive spike in job-switching intent and a corresponding wave of new applicants—and, of course, résumés—across industries.
Luckily, you’re not starting from square one. LinkedIn Learning is here to help. We teamed up with Rework Work CEO Stacey Gordon and Career Strategist Jenny Foss to create several courses packed with résumé building tips that will help you learn how to make your résumé sing, whether it’s printed on a desk or stowed away in an ATS.
We’ve pulled out a few highlights, but as with any skill, you’ll benefit most from experiencing the full courses.
Align Your Résumé with the Job Posting
From the business side, a lot of thought goes into producing a job posting that will attract people best suited for the job. By using the job posting as a roadmap for developing your résumé, you can match it to exactly what the recruiter is looking for.
Keywords
In order for their posting to rise to the top of online job listing pages, businesses often sprinkle relevant keywords throughout the job description. They want to find you: their ideal candidate.
This can come in handy for you as you try to make it past the first gatekeeper: the applicant tracking system (ATS). Jenny explains: “In basic terms, the ATS is software that companies and recruiting agencies use to store, sort, and ultimately select candidates for consideration. It's basically a giant searchable database that recruiters use to find the so-called best matched candidates for the role or roles that they're working on.” There are even more ATS-related tips shared by Jenny in her course, A Career Strategist's Guide to Getting a Job.
Review the job posting you’re applying to and pull out as many notable keywords and phrases as you can. Jenny makes it clear, “You absolutely must align your résumé to the job description. Look for keywords that are used frequently and prominently in the job description, and make sure to include these in your résumé.”
Tailored Content
Beyond using keywords, there are even more ways you can tailor the content of your résumé to make it stand out.
Stacey suggests scanning the job listing for skills that are listed alongside phrases such as “must be able to” and “minimum requirement.” Use these indicators to select the skills you’ll list at the top of your résumé in your skills summary.
This skills summary is important, because it puts your most relevant qualities right where they’ll be seen on a quick visual scan of your résumé. According to Stacey, reports show that recruiters spend an average of six seconds reviewing your résumé. She offers, “A future employer needs to see that your experience demonstrates an ability to do the job that you're applying to.”
Tailoring your résumé to directly reflect the type of person they are looking for is a great way to get on the short list of likely candidates.
Define Your Brand
As the previous section suggests, your résumé is where you offer potential employers what they want. Beyond demonstrating how your skills match the job listing, your résumé should also showcase what additional, relevant skills and experience you bring with you, above and beyond what the employer asks for.
Self-promote
A great place to showcase your uniqueness is in the objective section of your résumé. Jenny offers this tip about writing the objective: “Here's where you lay out who you are as a professional and what you specialize in, again, with your target job in mind. In other words, here's where you spell out your professional brand and you tell that reader, ‘hey, look, I'm exactly what you're looking for.’"
Think of the really good LinkedIn pages you’ve seen before: they probably all have both a one sentence “tagline” that spells out exactly who they are and an “about” section that summarizes what they bring to the table, right? Your résumé should have those, too, right at the very top where they’ll be the first thing the hiring manager sees.
Sure, your résumé could show that you have 10+ years of marketing experience, for example, but don’t you want the hiring manager to know that right off the bat? Don’t worry: they feel the same way. Imagine how much more impactful your résumé could be with “YOUR NAME: Digital Marketing Specialist with Over Ten Years of Experience” introducing everything to follow. That’s exactly the kind of headline that will get a recruiter to stop glossing over pages and start reading.
Research yourself
Stacey asks: “If a future employer were to type your name into an internet search engine, what would they find? If you don't know the answer to this question, you might want to pause right here and go find out.”
Your online presence will impact what potential employers think of you. That’s why it is important to define what your public brand is, and make sure your brand is consistent across all platforms. In her course Writing a résumé: How to showcase the skills an employer wants, Stacey offers additional tips on how to ensure your online presence presents the image you want employers to find.
Make Use of LinkedIn’s Tools
LinkedIn Premium offers subscribers a whole host of job searching, skill building, and networking tools. We’ll take a look at the ones that are most relevant to résumé writing, but be sure to check out LinkedIn Premium Quick Tips to see how powerful this service truly is.
Stacey suggests starting with touching up your LinkedIn profile. “What you should want your future employer to know is that you are an expert in your field, so use your online profile to showcase this by putting LinkedIn to work for you.” She continues, “Odds are if you were discovered online, it was probably through LinkedIn, so leave yourself open to accepting connection requests and InMail, put your phone number or email address in the body of your profile.“
The native Résumé Builder tool within LinkedIn offers valuable benefits, such as the ability to find top keywords when searching by job title. This allows you to add words and phrases to your profile that make you more discoverable to hiring agents!
The Résumé Builder will pull from your LinkedIn profile to create a professional and through résumé, which can then be tailored to specific job listings as needed.
A Little Effort for a Big Reward
Touching up your digital presence, drafting a data-savvy résumé, and using LinkedIn’s suite of résumé building tools will take you a long way toward landing your next big job.
Make sure to explore the courses suggested in this post, and take advantage of the skills offerings from LinkedIn Premium that will make you an outstanding candidate in this new and shifting work environment.
Topics: Job seeking tips
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