- Basic formatting. Like one font style, no tables. Bold things, but that’s it.
- Keywords. Tons of them. If you’re a marketer, I need to see HUBSPOT, MARKETO, B2B/B2C. We’re literally Control+F all day for these things.
- Numbers. Show me measurable things, KPIs.
- What’s your biggest accomplishment? Go to a really good school? Show it to me up top.
When your resume ends up in an ATS, they often have tools literally with green/YES, yellow/SKIP, red/REJECT so screeners can zip thru 200 resumes before lunch. One of them that I used recently initially shows the TOP HALF of your resume and you have to scroll to see more of the doc. That means less eyeball time for your resume. As a candidate, you’re not going to like hearing any of that, but it’s reality.
I’m still a proponent of putting together a nice, smart resume that has all these things and still applying to jobs. YES – take some time to have a good resume and cater to each opportunity, but don’t spend too much time or stress about a “perfect” resume.
My loyal readers (#eyeroll) that have been paying attention to my posts will know that most of their time needs to be connecting and networking with the important people at these companies.