Employers Have A Pool of Applicants to Choose From. Here’s How to Stand Out.
Employers are playing “Resume Tinder” and you’re trying to be chosen. Just like Tinder, you have to pass the eye test within a few seconds based on a quick glance at your resume. A quick overview of your resume tells the employer if they want to see you for an interview – kind of like deciding if someone wants to see you on a date. The bottom line is that both processes, Tinder and job candidate review, take a short amount of time to make a decision.
Think about it this way – if your resume can’t retain employers after the first six seconds, there’s no way that they’ll be able to pick out all of the amazing skills that you possess. The bottom line is that every part of a resume matters in order to attract an employer’s attention. Your resume should be built with the employer’s mindset and bias in mind. Fortunately, that can work in your favor. Here are 7 psychological resume tips and tricks to help you get employers to swipe right (;
Leave your address OUT of your header and substitute it with your LinkedIn
Understandably, this might be controversial to some, but the truth is that it’s not even usually required when some employers have you fill out a pre-resume form. Upon seeing an address, some old-school employers may realize just how far the commute might be for you. If an employer believes the commute might be an obstacle for the job – they may scrap your resume altogether.
Additionally, some employers stuck in the stone age might hold a preconceived bias about the location you are from. An example would be applicants from low-income areas which can lead to “location bias” While this should never be a deciding factor (unless the job needs you on-site frequently to be successful), your address may lead to a “not-so-desirable” outcome.
Place your most relevant information at the top
Just like Tinder, first impressions are important. You wouldn’t want your primary picture to be a cropped and blurry picture, would you? Similar to resumes your ‘Summary of Qualifications’ section serves as the first impression for employers. In this section, use 4-5 bullet points that utilize the most relevant and necessary tangible and intangible skills for the job.
For example: if the job is for a ‘Retail Sales Associate’, tangible skills would include things like experience or proficiency in a foreign language, POS (point of system), MS Excel, or cash handling.
Intangible skills include things like leadership, being customer-centric, interpersonal communication, or persuasiveness. The difference is that tangible skills are things that are technical. They are specific to the job and are necessary skills to do well in that job setting.
Intangible skills are things that can’t be quantified. They are things that represent your character and personality. However, both are important. Make sure to include a blend of both types of skills that reflect the job description.
Utilize bolds and italics for job titles
When scrolling down to read an article, things in bold, italics, or links to other pages usually stick out because they are different from the body text. According to a hiring manager at The Trade Desk, using italics to draw attention to specific skills can help them evaluate you quicker. For example, if you were applying to a marketing position, instead of writing:
“Utilized MailChimp A/B testing to increase email conversion rates by 47%”
Write:
“Utilized MailChimp AB testing to increase conversion by 47% for a 20,000 subscriber email list”
In this case, the attention is drawn to the most important part of the sentence: the fact that you brought results. MailChimp and A/B testing are not that important, especially when those are common industry terms. What you want to do is draw attention to what sets you apart.
Format your job title and company name correctly
This goes hand in hand with italics and bolds. If I were to tell you that I worked at Stanford, that name comes with recognition and brand name. If I told you afterward that I was a janitor at Stanford, there’s nothing wrong with that, but it wouldn’t be the first thing noticed.
The same concept applies when showcasing your work experience. If you were a store manager, that is an impressive title on a resume and you want that to be known. If you were a store manager at a location that was completely irrelevant to the job, you might not want to scream that from the mountaintop. Taking this into account, we want employers to be able to see important information first. So to help employers, we will bold the part that matters and italicizes the part that’s not as important. For example, format your job title and company name like this:
Impressive Job Title, Company
Impressive Company, Job title
In this case, your eyes immediately see the impressive title or company which can work in your favor. Here’s a real example with titles and company names:
Google, Intern
Sales Executive, Dwight’s Beet Farm
Shift Leader, My Personal Lemonade Stand
Now the eyes are drawn towards information that stands out.
Use their job description to model your resume
A lot of people have “types”. Brunette, blonde, tall, short, outgoing, quiet – and the list goes on. While I don’t believe in having “types” there are certain qualities that attract you to people without even getting to know them yet.
Your resume is your first impression and lets employers know if you’re their “type”. If an employer is hiring for an “outgoing and numerically minded engineer” and your resume shows that you’ve only worked in solitary jobs that don’t use math, chances are the employer won’t hire you. Why? Because you’re not the right fit/ type.
In fact, some companies use resume software to search for keywords in your resume. If your resume doesn’t have them, your resume is deemed a poor fit and thrown away.
Customizing your resume for your industry and the requirements of the position will send a signal to the [resume software] robots that you are a good fit, helping you pass this initial test and get your application one step closer to the hiring manager’s inbox.
– Charles Etorama, Top Resume
Employers usually post job descriptions with a summary of the ideal candidate. If your resume does not sound like their ideal candidate, you’re doing something wrong. Now, your resume should not be a mirror image, but as a whole, your resume should convey the message that the employer wants to hear. Pull keywords from their job description and layer them into your own resume. Do it subtly, and layer that information with tangible items that reinforce the skills you are mirroring.
Quantify what you can
Another tactic to make parts of your resume stand out is quantifying information. You could say things like “Coordinated a press release in an auditorium for the local news” OR you could say “Coordinated a press release in an auditorium of 500+ media outlets, reporters, and journalists”. Numbers jump out – use them to your advantage.
Numbers also provide a sense of factual evidence. Use this to combat vague sentences like “Strong email marketing experience with many platforms”. Instead, say “Grew e-mail marketing list by over 43% to 30,000 people using social media ads”. By using numbers, you can create a sense of tangibility and solid evidence.
Conclusion
Resume reviews have a lot in common. They’re fast-paced and use the eye test to determine who is worth meeting. This means that every little detail in your resume matters. From the order of your categories to the italics, bolds, and numerical qualities of the text, I sincerely hope that these tips help more employers swipe right on your resume – let me know if you have any other tips or tricks people should know about by leaving a comment or sharing this on social media!
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