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Skeletons on Your Resume? These 4 Tips Can Help!

Your resume is the most influential resource in your job search. The content and quality will determine whether your resume gets filtered through online applicant tracking systems and if it stands out positively to hiring managers. This is why it is crucial to streamline your resume and only include the most essential information, and be intentional about removing anything outdated. Do you have skeletons on your resume? These four tips can help you clear clutter on your resume:

Define the Main Purpose 

Your resume should be tailored for each specific job for which you apply. As you revise your resume, define the purpose of it and the overall message you want to convey.  Consider the job title, industry, employer, desired qualifications, and other key soft skills or traits necessary to align with the company culture. Use that as a framework for deciding what content to remove or keep.

Focus on Timeliness

It is important to remember that a resume is not intended to be an archival of your entire employment history but rather a marketing document that showcases why you are qualified for a specific role. Focus on timeliness as you determine what information to remove from your resume. For employment history, anything older than ten years is often not seen as helpful to hiring managers and can be left out to save space.

Include Most Relevant Skills Only

Thoroughly review the job description for each job you’re applying for and narrow down which of your qualifications are most applicable for the hiring manager to know about. To ensure your resume is as concise and effective as possible, include the most relevant skills only and remove any other bullet points for ease of quick scanning.

Highlight Achievements Over Responsibilities

Your resume can quickly become cluttered if you write out the comprehensive list of duties for each job listed in the experience section. Clean it up by making it a point to highlight achievements over responsibilities. For example, “Improved profit margin by X% after implementing budget recommendations” rather than “Responsible for compiling monthly financial reports.” Not only does this help you use up less space, but it is also more appealing to hiring managers to see how you have performed rather than seeing your job description.

Explore the Possibilities

Are you ready to get started with seeing what opportunities are out there? Team up with IFG for your job search. As a premier accounting and finance employment agency, we aim to match job seekers like you with the opportunities that best fit your qualifications and professional goals. Contact us to learn more about how we can help with your job search.