Top 50 Resume Dos and Donts of 2020 (Proven Tips)

Top 50 Resume Dos and Don’ts of 2020 (Proven Tips) Job seekers have been using resumes for many decades now â€" and yet it sometimes seems as though we’re no closer to identifying a magic resume formula than we were when they were first introduced. No wonder so many people struggle to create their own resumes! The internet hasn’t really helped matters either, as everyone seems to have his or her own opinions to offer about what constitutes the “perfect resume.” Well, we have what you need to help make sense of it all: our list of the top 50 resume dos and don’ts. Without further ado… Do Use the Right Resume Structure When you’re creating your resume, it’s important to remember to choose the right resume structure. Depending on your work history and skill set, you can choose a functional resume, chronological resume, or a hybrid that combines the best elements of both. Don’t Rely on Outdated Objective Statements This is a fairly new addition to the list of 50 resume dos and don’ts, but it’s an important one. Objective statements are old fashioned by today’s standards. As a result, you should skip them altogether. The fact is that objective statements tend to focus too much on your needs rather than the employers. Unfortunately, most companies are not going to hire you based on how they can benefit your career! Do Include a Summary Statement Instead of an objective statement, include a summary statement. This statement enables you to highlight your skills and experience in a way that demonstrates value to the employer. It puts the emphasis on how you can meet the employer’s needs rather than how they can meet yours. Do Consider the Applicant Tracking System Applicant tracking systems are a fact of life at many companies these days. These systems screen resumes to eliminate unworthy candidates. Unfortunately, they could eliminate yours if you fail to write your resume with the ATS in mind. Check out our post on how to format and test your resume for an ATS. Don’t Neglect Keywords To overcome the ATS process, you need to use the right keywords in your resume. Generally, you can find those keywords in the job posting. Choose relevant terms and phrases from that posting and place them strategically throughout your resume and cover letter. That way, the ATS will see them and you’ll have a better chance of having your resume seen by human eyes. Don’t Forget to Add Value to Your Descriptions When writing your resume descriptions, ask one question: “does this highlight the value I can provide a new employer?” If not, adjust those descriptions so that they showcase the benefits you can offer. Remember, your goal is to sell yourself as someone who can meet the company’s needs. Do Include Hard and Soft Skills When describing your skills, don’t forget to include those “soft skills” too. People-related skills, management capabilities, and similar non-specific skills matter. After all, employers don’t hire skill sets; they hire people. And that means they need to take a measure of your entire range of abilities. Do Leave Out those Common Skills That doesn’t mean that you should include everything you know, however. For example, you probably don’t need to mention that you know how to use the internet or Microsoft Word, social media, and similar skills. Some things are just assumed. Don’t Forget to Include Your Volunteer Work You might not think that your volunteer work matters, but you’d be wrong. This is especially true for job-seekers with limited experience, but it applies to everyone. If you have volunteer experience that has provided you with skills that you can apply to the job you’re seeking, include that experience. Do Use a Master Resume as a Foundation One of the top 50 resume dos and don’ts involves makinga master resume that includes all your skills and experiences. Use that as your basic template for any resume submission, and modify it for each new job search. Read our advice on creating your own flexible master resume. Do Tailor Each Resume to Fit the Job You will need to tailor your master resume whenever you’re applying for a job. Move sections around as needed, and work to showcase the skills needed for that position. Check out our great post on tailoring a resume to learn more about this process: How to Tailor Your Resume to Different Positions. Do Highlight Relevant Experience Part of tailoring your resume involves highlighting the most relevant experience and removing irrelevant material. Your goal should be to focus on skills and experiences that directly relate to the job at hand. That will help the hiring manager to see you as the ideal candidate for the job. Don’t Be Discouraged if You Have no Experience It’s easy to feel discouraged by alack of experience. Don’t panic, though. You can use a functional resume to highlight your skills and minimize the focus on your work experience. Experience matters, but it’s not always the only thing that matters! Do Focus on the Employer’s Needs Go through your resume with a fine-tooth comb and make sure that it’s not focused on your needs. Every detail should be used to show how you can meet the employer’s immediate and long-term needs. Don’t Forget to Differentiate Yourself List real accomplishments and showcase value to differentiate yourself from your rivals. It’s your job to give that hiring manager a reason to interview you rather than those other candidates. Do Use Real Numbers Use real numbers in your descriptions to emphasize real value. Don’t just write that you “helped increase sales.” Instead, quantify those results: “Developed new sales strategy that increase quarterly sales by 18%.” This is one of those top 50 resume dos and donts that can really make a difference in your presentation. Don’t Reveal Confidential Information Don’t laugh. Many of us have held jobs where we’re privy to proprietary information or other confidential details. Be careful to omit any such information from your resume. Don’t Mention Anything Controversial You may have interests or group affiliations that others might consider controversial. Don’t list those things on your resume. In fact, avoid anything that might be considered controversial. Do Add Achievements Have you accomplished certain things in your previous positions that would capture the attention of a hiring manager? Feel free to share those accomplishments in your resume. Don’t Add Hobbies or Interests that Are Unrelated to the Job We all have various hobbies and interests. Most employers don’t really care about your bowling league, or your Saturdays spent feeding pigeons in the park. Leave out those interests that have no relation to the job you’re seeking. Do Be Creative with Your Achievements When it comes to the top 50 resume dos and don’ts, this one is important: creativity. Don’t just list your accomplishments in a dry, uninspired recitation of facts. Instead, give them a little flare to keep the reader’s interest. Boring lists won’t get the job done. Don’t Highlight Irrelevant Information We get it: you’re proud of that summer lifeguard job in high school. You’re convinced that your paper route was the real key to developing good work habits. Here’s the thing, though: your employer doesn’t want to see that on your resume. Stick to the relevant information and avoid those types of details. Do Show Your Career Progress and Advancement Be sure to include any details that demonstrate your career advancement in your previous employment. Hiring managers will view that as an indication that those past employers valued your contributions. Don’t Lie About Employment Gaps Many of us end up with employment gaps from time to time. Don’t make things up just to hide those gaps. If you can minimize them by using only the employment years, then do that. If the gaps are still there, however, be prepared to explain them. Do Be Honest Don’t lie about accomplishments, employment history, or anything else. Hiring managers will check up on the key facts in your resume. If they find that you’re been dishonest, you can kiss any potential interview goodbye. Don’t Use Unfamiliar Terms Always avoid jargon and other potentially unfamiliar words and terms. There’s always a chance that hiring managers won’t be familiar with the words, and that could cause them to lose interest. Do Rely on Common, Everyday English and Grammar Remember to keep things simple. Use common, everyday language and write clear sentences that can be readily understood. As tempting as it might be to write with a flourish, don’t. Don’t Be Negative Avoid negativity. Don’t write negative things about previous employers, co-workers, or positions. Avoid words that have a negative connotation too. Keep your resume positive and upbeat. Do Add Power and Action Words Wherever possible, choose active verbs and power words for your resume. That helps to paint a more vibrant picture and will keep the reader’s interest focused on the narrative. Don’t Offer to Provide References Ever seen a resume that included the words “references available upon request” or something to that effect? Well, don’t use that line or anything like it. It adds nothing to the resume, and may be off-putting for many hiring managers. The fact is that they will ask for references if they need to see them. Do Make It Easy for Employers to Contact You Always include updated contact information at the top of your resume. No hiring manager should ever have to struggle to reach you for an interview. Don’t Add Details that Could Spark Bias or Discrimination Avoid information about your faith, age, race, or other personal details that could leave you open to bias. Hiring managers may not consciously discriminate, but most people have certain biases that may cause them to prejudge candidates based on those details. Do Limit Your Resume to One Page When you’re writing your resume, try to keep it to one page if possible â€" or two at the most. If you cannot condense the information to fit in that limited space, have someone help you. Don’t Overload the Resume with Details You might be tempted to include more details than necessary, especially if you’re trying to stay within that page limit. The finished product should be easy to read, with a normal amount of white space on the page. Do Consider Creative Resumes Depending on your industry and the job you’re seeking, a creative resume may help you stand out from your rivals. Check to see whether infographics or other creative additions might help to sell you as the best candidate for the job. Don’t Add Images or other Media Just to Be Trendy Creative resumes can be helpful, but only in limited instances. Don’t just add those images and media to create something trendy. In most cases, you will want to stick to the more traditional resume format. Don’t Obsess Over Design Elements What size font should you use? What about page margins? How many paragraphs should your resume contain? You can drive yourself crazy obsessing about those details. Just use a good resume template as your guide and focus on the details that matter. Do Use Appropriate Alignment Dates, locations, and similar details should be aligned to the right of the page. That creates a uniform, easy-to-read appearance for your resume. Do Limit Your Resume Text to 2 Fonts As a rule, you should only use one font in your resume. If you must use more, however, limit it to two. Do Use a Base Template There are plenty of basic resume templates available online. Find one and use it as a guide to help you with formatting, detail placement, and more. Why reinvent the wheel when you have so many good examples from which to choose? Don’t Go Wild with Text Effects Be sparse with your use of text effects like italicization, bolding, and capital letters. Overuse can make your resume difficult to read. Do Highlight Job Titles and Employers Job titles, employer names, and similar details should be highlighted in some way. You should bold or italicize them to make them stand out. Your readers will have an easier time identifying those key details when you set them apart in that way. Don’t Go Over Two Lines for Your Bullet Points It’s tempting to add a flurry of bullet points in your resume sections. When it comes to the top 50 resume dos and don’ts, however, that’s a definite “don’t.” Limit those bullet points to two. That will help readability and aid you in your effort to keep the resume limited to one page. Do Use Numbers, Not Text Which is easier to read: 128 or one-hundred and twenty-eight? Simplify your resume by using the actual numerical digits rather than their text counterparts. Do Send Word-Formatted Documents You should always send your resume as a Word Doc. An ATS can easily process a Word doc and they are also the preferred format for most hiring managers and recruiters. Do Spend Time Reviewing Colleague Resumes If you’re stuck with your resume, spend some time reading others’ resumes. Ask colleagues to let you read their resumes, and see how they present themselves to employers. That will give you a good indication of how you should be describing your achievements and role at the firm. Don’t Forget to Proofread If there’s one thing that bugs hiring managers more than any other, it’s a failure to proofread. This should probably be near the top of anyone’s list of the top 50 resume dos and don’ts! Always proofread your resume for content, grammar, spelling, and more. Don’t Overuse the Wrong Words Try using a word cloud generator to get a better idea of your language usage. That will help you to see your most frequently-used words. You can then decide whether those are the words you want employers to think about when they read your resume, and adjust as needed. Don’t Forget to Have Others Read Your Resume Your resume-writing job isn’t really done until you’ve tested it with friends, family, and associates. Let several other people read it, and ask for feedback. Is it presenting the right message? Are they left with more questions than answers? Use that feedback to make any additional improvements that might be necessary. Do Get Help from Professional Resume-Writers Our final do on our list of the top 50 resume dos and don’ts may be the most important of all. It’s simple, really: do be sure to get the help you need to craft the perfect resume. Summary Resume writing can be a major challenge, but these top 50 resume dos and don’ts can help provide the guidance you need. So, if you’re crafting your resume, be sure to follow these tips to help you avoid the most common pitfalls and problems. That should increase your odds of landing more interviews and winning that new job you’ve been dreaming about. Whether you’re struggling to create a resume, or just want yours reviewed by someone who understands the process, a professional resume writer can be a tremendous help.