Resumes to Make the Cut in 2017

Rather than saying the popular quote, “new year, new me,” we should be saying, “new year, new resume.” It’s hiring season for companies all over and your old resume that you got off a Microsoft Word template just won’t cut it anymore.

One of the strongest techniques you can use to make your resume a winner is to make it visually appealing. Jessica Holbrook Hernandez even claims in her article ‘Top 5 Resume Trends in 2017’ that, “In fact, in 2017 — more than ever before — incorporating visual interpretation of data into your resume is paramount,” and suggests that if you don’t have ‘data’ to use that you can use visuals through, “a pie chart to show industry keywords, skills that you possess, areas of expertise, and more.”

You can even completely transform your resume into something aesthetically pleasing and create something like an infographic, like Hagan Blount shows in ‘4 Clever Ways to Use an Infographic Resume to Get Hired’ where some awesome ideas are given on how to grasp this concept.

Something to watch out for is that companies are using a system called ‘applicant tracking system’ to rank resumes based on keywords that are found on your resume. If you don’t rank within the top handful, your application won’t even get looked at by a real person. To make your resume ‘robot’ friendly, Scott Dockweiler has a helpful infographic to look at in ‘Meet the Robots Reading Your Resume’. The greatest takeaway is to use, not abuse, keywords that are specific to the job you’re applying for.

The Takeaway

The times of listing your skills and using a basic resume template are long gone. You have to get creative and go that extra mile with your resume to make a good impression. You have to get creative with the format of your resume all the way down to the specific words you use so that applicant tracking systems can sort yours above the rest.

How are you going to revamp your resume so that it makes the cut in 2017? Is your resume robot and job ready?

Going Live February 2017!