5 Tips to Make Your Resume Stand Out

It can be discouraging when you're on a job search web site and see that 95 people have already applied to a job you're interested in. And then you hear about the creative, and sometimes, wacky things people do to get their resume noticed, such as sending it in the shape and style of a pizza, or in the form of an elaborate and beautifully-designed infographic.

But the truth is you don't have to be a creative graphic designer or come up with some mind-blowing new resume style to grab attention. Sometimes, more careful attention to the basics can get the job done.

Here are 5 tips to get your resume back to the basics so it stands out.

1. Apply for a specific position. Be very clear about how your strengths and skills make you an ideal candidate for a specific position that you name in your cover letter (and perhaps in an objective, if you still use one). The company should be able to determine very quickly what job you are applying for to make a determination if you're a good fit.

2. Tailor your resume to that specific position. Do not submit a generic resume for every job you apply to. That is a sure way to end up in the circular file or the recycle bin. Your resume should be unique and distinct for each position you apply for.

3. Know the company. One way to make your resume distinct is to know the company you are applying to. Your resume should speak to the needs of the company, demonstrating an understanding of their strengths, weaknesses, challenges, and competitors. Highlight different aspects of your experience and skills as it relates to these company challenges.

4. Be specific about your accomplishments and relate them to the position. It's not enough to note that you managed a team of ten employees while applying for a supervisory role. Nearly everyone who applies for the job will have management experience. Detail how you excelled as a manager and what made you distinct. Perhaps your entire team exceeded their sales goals, or three employees you mentored moved on to become managers, too. Highlight your specific strengths and apply them to the specific position you're interested in.

5. Be positive. Demonstrate an enthusiastic and positive attitude about the job and the company in your cover letter and ensure that any language you use in your communication with the company, including on your resume, reflects accurately, clearly, and passionately about what you can bring to the job.

Apply these tips to your resume and you'll be on your way to standing out.  

Daily Leap Career Video of the Week: 9 Phrases on Your Résumé That Make Hiring Managers Cringe

Each week we present our Daily Leap Career Video of the Week. The video we share presents news or advice related to career and life development, searching for a job, the economy and employment, and other career-related topics.

The video below presents 9 phrases or words to avoid using on your resume, staring with "References Available Upon Request." See the full list below:

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: 4 Resume Tips for Career Changers

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

• 4 Resume Tips for Career Changers: "We call these 'transferable skills' – a term that refers to the skills you've obtained and used in your existing experience and which you would also be able to leverage in your new career."
• Reboot Your Heart and Mind: "The question of how to achieve continual improvement in one’s career and with one’s team should be front and center for every serious adult."
• 6 Inspiring Commencement Speeches: "What I wish for all of you—the bad as well as the good. Fall down. Make a mess. Break something occasionally. Know that your mistakes are your own unique way of getting to where you need to be."
• 50 Thoughts That Can Motivate You to Do Anything: "The next time you feel unmotivated, use any of these 50 positive thoughts to reenergize yourself. Really: They work!"
• These are the Best Places to Work for New Fathers: "Millennials have been more vocal in demanding to be part of their children’s first months, and the industry has responded with extended benefits in order to attract these hires."

3 Tips for Building Up Your Resume

There is a lot of competition out there for jobs and job seekers need to find ways to stand out from the crowded field.

One important way to stand out is with a compelling resume highlighting skills, abilities, and experience that might be unique to you and particularly suited to the positions you are applying for.

Here are 3 tips to developing that "stand out" resume:

1. Learn a language. Many companies today are looking for employees that speak additional languages as they compete in a global marketplace. Take a class at a local community college, find a tutor, or learn a language through your library. Many community libraries offer free language-learning resources.

2. Start a blog. If you don't already blog you might consider starting one. You can set up one easily and inexpensively with wordpress, blogger, or tumblr. Pick a subject of particular interest to you or blog about one of your hobbies. Employers are interested in hiring people with good communication skills and blogging is one way for you to demonstrate these skills.

3. Teach a class. Another way to demonstrate your communication and leadership skills is to teach a class. You do not need to be affiliated with a school or have a specific degree to teach a class or a seminar. You simply need to be knowledgeable about a subject of interest to others. Many libraries, city recreation departments, churches, and continuing education programs at community colleges welcome community members to propose and lead a class.

These are just three ways to build up your resume. What other ideas do you have?

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: Dust Off Your Resume This Spring

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

© Bellemedia | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

• Dust Off Your Resume This Spring: "Now that the season is changing, it's time to do an overhaul on this document."


• Employer Report Card: Candidates with Disabilities Identify Many Opportunities to Improve "GettingHired conducted a survey of job seekers with disabilities. The results reveal several areas where employers could improve."


• 6 Tips for Stopping the Excuses and Meeting Your Goals Instead: "People often fall back on excuses and give up on trying to reach their goals. Here are several tips for jumping off the excuses train and forging the path to your goals."


• 4 Strategies for Accompanying Spouses/Partners to Stay Relevant in Your Career Field: "Once you have made the decision to travel with your family, how do you stay up-to-date on career-related technology, best practices, and trends in your industry?"


• How Using Your Job Application to Tell a Story Can Get You Hired: "By adding context to your resume, you give hiring managers a frame for your experience and accomplishments so they can quickly digest your story."

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: Traits of a Great Job Seeker

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

© Bellemedia | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

• Traits of a Great Job Seeker: "Here are seven job seeker traits to consider as you embark upon your job search. These traits have worked for others; hopefully, they will work for you."


• How to Stalk Your Future Employer (Without Being Creepy): "It might surprise you to learn that, yes, sometimes digging too deep and oversharing what you’ve learned about a potential employer or hiring manager can actually hurt you during the interview process."


• 3 Tips to Succeed in the Economy of You: "No matter where you are with your side-gig--the key to gaining greater professional control and financial security in this modern-day economy--here are the top 3 things you should be doing to ensure success."


• How to Manage Your Personal Brand When You're in Transition: "When you're changing chapters professionally, what's the best way to manage your personal brand? Should you even think about personal branding? Where do you start? Here are some helpful tips."


• How to Create an Irresistible Resume: "The words you choose to communicate your experience make all the difference in whether your resume is considered average or fantastic."

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: Value of Workplace Laughter

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

© Bellemedia | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

• What You Should Be Doing Way More of at Work: "Laughter is one of productivity’s greatest allies and individuals and companies need to foster it."


• Lessons Learned from Launching My First Product: "In celebration of a successful product launch, entrepreneur Amanda Abella's offers lessons learned with those growing businesses."


• 10-Minute LinkedIn Makeover: "Here are 10 quick LinkedIn profile improvements that will require about a minute each to implement."


• Climb Out of the Resume Black Hole in 3 Steps: "This is the major complaint of job seekers today. They submit their resume and it seems to drop down a black hole. Avoid the black hole by following these three steps."


• 4 Words You’ll Want to Use More Often in Your Career: Blogger Karl Staib shares an admired co-tenant's success secrets in order to achieve success in your own career and life.

The Top 3 Categories You Must Include on Your Resume

Fall is the season for resume writer conferences. I attended one session and listened to a recap of another session with recruiters and hiring managers from Fortune 500 companies that are currently hiring globally. In these sessions, they shared with our group of career services experts these 3 key points they are looking for on your resume.

Your Value Proposition
An employer is searching for the best, most cost-effective candidate. When reading a resume they are looking for your core competencies, your strengths, your areas of expertise, and a clear statement of the benefits you can deliver their company. Think of yourself as a product, what would your brand statement be? What can you deliver that others can not? How do you differentiate yourself from your peers? The answer to these questions must be found in the resume and cover letter.

Your Chronological Work History
Most recruiters admit to skipping right over the summary (although they say you should still include this section) and going straight to work history first. They want to know what you did, where you did it, and how long you did it. Include details about each company such as number of employees, annual revenue, its core customer base and competitors, and whether it was a start-up or an established public company.

When discussing your experience, detail the big picture - not the minutiae of everyday details - of your position's functions and challenges. Use statistics that measure your value such as number of personnel supervised, dollar amount of budgets managed, and promotions through the company.

Education and Professional Development
Employers want to know that you are dedicated to keeping your knowledge current and your skills updated. Seek out opportunities to further advance your skills by attending free workshops, webinars, seminars, or courses in your area of specialty. In addition, affiliations with industry-relevant organizations is another way to demonstrate your focus on honing your craft.

The 5 Most Important Factors in Your Resume

There are really no rules when it comes to writing a resume. This fact can be both freeing and frustrating! Although there may be a lack of rules when it comes to writing a resume, there are some items that must be included. Here are the top 5 most important items, as defined by human resources professionals, that you need to include when writing a resume.

Relevant Skills

Whenever I speak with HR professionals, receiving a resume that is full of irrelevant skills and experience is  their top resume pet peeve. Don't force the HR department to sift through irrelevant information to get to the most important information. Chances are good that they will move on to the next, more relevant candidate if you include irrelevant information.

Functional Experience

Your resume should demonstrate that you have experience performing the functions of the job for which you are applying. If you are making a career transition, it is imperative that you do your research and define your transferable skills.

Employment History

Your resume must include your employment history, complete with dates of employment. A resume without dates waves a giant red flag for an employer. Automatically, employers begin to question why you chose to leave off the dates. Doubts creep in about how old your experience may be and they can't tell how many years of experience you bring to the table.

Measurable Accomplishments

It is much more effective to prove you possess a skill through a proven track record of accomplishments. Instead of making empty assertions about your abilities, demonstrate your ability to utilize those skills through previous accomplishments. Whenever possible, make those accomplishments measurable with dollars, percentages, hours, numbers of people supervised, and other figures that quantify what you are capable of handling.

Industry Experience

Whenever possible, hiring managers are looking for industry-specific experience. If you are making an industry and/or career change and you don't have industry experience, this presents a challenge. Be sure that you do your research on the industry, the job, and the company before sending your resume. Determine the keywords that are specific to the industry and be sure to work them into your resume through your transferable skills.

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share these every weekend so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

1. Back to Basics: The 15 Most Important Resume Tips for Young Professionals
"When you list bullet points under each job on your resume (and you should always list bullet points under each job), be sure to list the most important task, accomplishment or responsibility first."

2. Following Up After a Job Interview
" ... 22% of hiring managers dismiss candidates who don’t send a thank you note after the interview."

3. Find Your Superpower, Watch Your Career Take Flight
"Research suggests that leaders who identify their core strengths, and play to them, are more satisfied in their work and better paid."

4. What Every Job-Searching Veteran Needs to Know 
"A common problem for job-seeking veterans is helping civilian, non-military hiring managers understand their work history."

5. 5 Green Jobs that Will Increase in Demand
"As more companies strive to adhere to greener initiatives, you can guarantee that the need for individuals skilled in a variety of green technologies will grow significantly in the next couple of years."