15 Ways to Improve Your Resume

You’ve created a resume but maybe haven’t gotten the response rate you’d hoped for. If you’re subscribed to Huntr, you’ll have access to data to help you understand how to improve your job search. If you’re not getting interviews at all, it might be a sign that there’s a problem with your resume. According to Huntr data, job seekers get an interview response rate of 13%. So, if you apply to 24 jobs, you’ll likely hear back from about three of them for interviews. Most people getting an offer after applying to between 10-20 jobs. A resume written right will help you attract more interviews, so you can get an offer even faster.

15 Ways to Improve Your Resume

1. Tailor your resume with AI

You can improve your resume by tailoring it to the job you’re applying for. Keep in mind, tailoring your resume doesn’t mean trying to make yourself fit a position you’re not qualified for. So, if you work as an engineer and you’re applying for a product marketing role, you’re not trying to make yourself fit that role. Tailoring your resume means connecting your own work experiences to the job posting so you can highlight your similarities. You should only use a resume tailor for positions you’re qualified for to help give you a bit of a competitive edge as a candidate in the candidate pool. It’s more so about ensuring you add some of the relevant skills, experiences, and keywords that a specific company is looking for that you’ve done but didn’t highlight on your resume.

2. Use data for accomplishments

Data is one of the most valuable metrics you can add to your resume. You should add specific data points of accomplishments you’ve achieved in your role. While you’re working at a company, you should look at data reports and track your performance with real data. Take screenshots of accomplishments you’ve achieved. Use third-party tools to track your accomplishments. For example, you might write “Wrote high-intent blog posts which generated 10 million views via search, social media, and referral traffic sources.” The data point that’s impressive is the 10 million views because it’s data that relates to the type of impact you have. So, while you’re working you should track the impact of the work you do. Updating your LinkedIn as you gain more data or on an annual basis will allow you to have metrics to highlight when you’re looking for your next job.

3. Start with your biggest accomplishments

When it comes to your work history, you’ll typically list between 3-5 jobs. For each job, your first bullet point should be your biggest resume accomplishment so you can create a better resume than what you started. Your second best accomplishment should follow it. When people are scanning each section, you’ll want to highlight and start your key accomplishments first. You might even choose to bold or emphasize your metrics that make you stand out to help you persuade recruiters that you’re worth hiring. The top down approach makes it so that you stand out to hiring managers even if they only scan your resume for a few seconds.

4. Use action verbs

Action verbs help show that you take initiative while highlighting an action you took to achieve an accomplishment, which makes improving your resume much easier. Action verbs are commonly used in high-performing resumes allowing you to better stand out. Traditionally, people would list duties instead of accomplishments. However, those who use action verbs to highlight their achievements are more likely to be seen as an impactful employee. No one wants to know what work you can do, but what goals you can help a company achieve. When action verbs are the first word in a bullet point it makes the resume more readable as it's a more engaging way to talk about what you’ve done. Action verbs might include words like “Resolved, Wrote, Led, Managed, Oversaw, Presented, Improved, Developed.”

5. Have natural white space

If you want to improve your resume, ensure that you have a lot of white space. What this means is that you have one-inch margins all around. Oftentimes, in an effort to cram everything onto one page, some people will choose to have wall to wall text for their resume, which makes the resume overwhelming to look at and hard to scan. A recruiter might spend less time looking at the resume because it’s too much text on a page. You want to have headings and subtext for easy readability. Having some natural white space just makes the resume more pleasant to look at and read. Too much text on a page doesn’t do a better job of selling you. You’d be better off removing a job or section in an effort to fit everything onto a page rather than putting more information. Of course, you could also just have two pages.

6. Optimize for ATS

It’s actually really easy to optimize your resume for ATS. There’s more myths around how ATS works to make it sound like they’re hard to pass. But they really aren’t. Adding relevant keywords to your resume (and that are honest to your experience, of course) will help you pass ATS filters so you can better land in the hands of a hiring manager. Resume builders pass ATS filters as easily as any other resume. And yes, PDFs do pass ATS filters. You can improve your resume by optimizing for ATS in small ways like trying to tailor your resume to the job and doing some AI matching to include the relevant keywords to your resume throughout your experience and skills sections.

7. Include relevant skills

You can improve your resume by adding relevant skills to your resume. If you’ve developed certain skills at your job, you should consider including them on your resume. The keywords you add need to be relevant to the person who’s thinking about hiring you. When coming up with skills to list on your resume, think of things that are common for the job, including some tools you use, and some stretch skills that might help give you a competitive advantage. For example, a content marketer might include: content writing, SEO, editing, and social media for their job skills. For tools, they might include: Ahrefs, Surfer SEO, SEMRush, and Grammarly. For stretch skills, they might list data analysis, design, project management. These are skills that might help you get a competitive edge because they’re not directly related to content but can make your application more attractive to hiring managers.

8. Add professional links

If you want to improve your resume you can do so by making it more interactive. Adding professional links like your LinkedIn profile, a portfolio, a personal website, or a Github or Dribbble profile link or any other industry link. Having these links allows you to get a competitive edge by showcasing your work so you can land more opportunities. People often want to see the quality of your work before they make the decision to hire you. A portfolio lets people see what kind of stuff you’re able to produce, which can get a hiring manager excited about meeting you. If you’re an engineer, having a portfolio of websites you built, products you shipped, or features you worked on can give you a hand up compared to a candidate who doesn’t include these things.

9. Remove outdated or unimpressive work

Improving your resume isn’t always about adding things, sometimes it’s about taking things away. Removing old jobs you worked at can help you showcase only your most relevant and recent accomplishments. It also helps you prevent being discriminated against for ageism if you’re showing too much of your work history. You can also remove unimpressive work from your resume to improve your resume. For example, if you can’t force another big accomplishment out of a job, you might choose to remove something that is just filler instead of having a weak bullet point. It’s not about quantity, it's about quality. Eliminating weak selling points will make your resume appear stronger.

10. Remove bias details

There are some things that people are really proud of. For example, someone might be really proud of their political affiliation, religious beliefs, marital status, appearance, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or gender identity. However, all of these things could introduce bias. And you never know if the bias will be in your favor or to your disadvantage. You shouldn’t volunteer this kind of information on your resume or in an interview. For example, even if you’re applying for a company that mentions any of these things in their company values, you don’t want to pander and share your affiliations. The hiring process should be free of bias for everyone.

11. Use a professional resume template

A professionally-designed resume will help you best present yourself. Using a resume template is a good practice, because most people aren’t professional designers. Thus, making designing your own resume from scratch a bad idea. Using a standard resume template will help you look professional, will make the resume more readable, and be easy on the eyes for a hiring manager. Of course, if you’re a professional graphic designer, designing your own resume could be a great idea to showcase your skills. But if you’re not, just stick with a template. Huntr has various designer-grade resume templates for you to choose from.

12. Proofread your resume

Getting feedback on your resume can help you improve your resume. But not every person you turn to will know what advice to give. You can use a resume review tool to help give you suggestions on areas you can work on to make your resume better. Proofreading your resume can help you remove typos, grammatical errors, or plain sight issues that would cause a hiring manager to discard your resume instead of giving you an interview.

13. Use a professional email address

If you want to improve your resume, make sure that every aspect of your resume is professional and accurate. Double check to ensure your phone number is correct. Make sure your email address is just your name. Use Gmail or a common professional email address. Don’t put your current work email address or an email address that can highlight your age, such as yahoo, msn, or hotmail. Also, don't forget to create email signature to add a polished touch to your professional communication.

14. Include an impactful resume summary

Your resume summary should zero in on one or two of your biggest accomplishments to highlight your career. You should share details about the type of worker you are. Some people don’t like resume buzzwords like “Results-driven,” “Ambitious,” or “Hard-working” but if they accurately describe you, mentioning them in your resume summary makes sense. You need to captivate a hiring manager by sharing what your main value to them will be. What will you bring to the table if hired? Sharing this nugget of information will be what helps differentiate you from other candidates so you can be the selected hire.

15. Update it regularly

Improving your resume is made easy if you’re constantly working on it. Waiting for a moment where you need to create a resume only sets you back. Going forward, every time you start working at a new job track your accomplishments and update your resume as you achieve new and bigger things. Having a master or base resume with all of your accomplishments will be key for making it easy to tailor your resume to future jobs.

Conclusion

You can improve your resume in various ways. If you’re working on your resume right now, you can use a tool like Huntr to tailor your resume, improve your resume with a bit of help from AI, and use Huntr’s resume review tool. To start using Huntr’s resume builder, sign up for Huntr today.