The information you put in the Work Experience section of your resume is the most important out of the whole resume. It’s going to give the recruiter an idea of what kind of employee you are and whether or not you will fit into the company’s dynamic.
But most people end up making one of two mistakes.
- They treat it as just a dump of all their job duties and don’t take advantage of this valuable space. It becomes a giant list of everything they’ve done, and it becomes just a large block of text that’s hard to read, making it unappealing for the recruiter.
- They put too little information and not enough relevant information to the job opening. The recruiter is unable to find anything that makes them want to read more. And it gives them a sense that the candidate didn’t have very many responsibilities.
So what can you do to avoid these mistakes?
Only Include Experience Relevant to the Job Opening
When writing a resume, it might be overwhelming to try to summarize everything you did into just a few bullet points. But will it make you feel better if I told you that you SHOULDN’T try to summarize everything you did?
The recruiter does not want to know everything about your previous jobs. Recruiters are selfish. They only care about the things that are relevant to the job opening or to the company.
If the position is a sales related position, they will be looking to see if you have sales experience. So then it’s your job to only show them experience that’s related to sales and the skills that you may need to be a good salesperson.
Here’s a little quiz. Which of these three bullet points would the recruiter find most appealing for a sales related position?
- “Ensured that the store was clean and sanitized prior to each day’s operation”
- “Took inventory of the warehouse every month to maintain proper records.”
- “Exceed revenue goals by 50% each quarter through excellent customer service.”
Hopefully, you said C was the correct answer!
While the other two bullet points may also be very important duties at that job, only C was truly relevant to sales. Therefore, bullet point C should be the only one to stay on the resume. And then write as more sales-related bullet points to fill out that job’s experience.
Numbers are Good! Include Measureables When Possible
Whether you put too much information or too little information in your resume, it’s most likely all a bunch of words and hardly any numbers.
So when a recruiter sees numbers in the resume, their eyes will immediately be drawn to them!
But don’t just put random numbers in your resume! You’ll need to put numbers that show you off as an employee.
“Measureables” is a corporate buzzword that stands for anything that can be quantified. This could be represented by a quantity or a percentage, but it’s usually used in a way to tell the story of a certain project or task.
For example, a bullet point like “Received Excellent rating on 95% of surveys given to customers for Project XYZ” is a great customer service measurable to include on a resume.
Don’t Just Tell Us How You Passed Your Time at Your Job
This was truly a lightbulb moment for me when I first learned it!
When I was writing resumes early in my career, I was literally listing the job duties of my previous jobs. I would pick the most fancy or the most impressive duties, and it would look something like this:
“Led a team of 30+ employees working on various high-budget projects”
At first glance, this sounds like a pretty fancy position with some big responsibilities. But as a Project Manager, isn’t that what I’m supposed to do? Aren’t those the expected job duties?
Instead, what I should write is HOW WELL I did that job. And it can be as simple as adding a little more to the bullet point:
“Led a team of 30+ employees working on various high-budget projects, increasing efficiency and productivity by 25%”
By including HOW WELL I did the job, it gives the recruiter an idea of whether or not you will be a good fit for the position. If you had just left it at the original bullet point, it’s left up to interpretation whether you succeeded or not in leading those 30+ employees.
The resume is your chance to shine and brag about yourself, so don’t waste the opportunity to do so with vague bullet points.
