Simple Resume Tricks

How To Land And Conquer An Interview

January 9, 2019 By Simple Resume Team

best resume and interview tips to land and conquer an interview in 2019

Employees from many years ago would have never imagined how competitive the workforce would grow to become. Now, skills simply aren’t enough to be considered as qualified for a position.

In a world where technological advancements are constant and change is rapid, there is an ongoing war for talent amongst top companies, and candidates are now expected to bring more well-roundedness to the forefront. Thus, candidates need to be prepared to submit the best resume possible.

To assist jobseekers in their search for new roles, here are our Simple Resume tips on how to land and conquer an interview in 2019.

Study The Job Description

The job description makes up the very first part of our simple basic resume tips. If you’re looking to land an interview for a specific role, you absolutely must take the time to study the job description.

Job descriptions contain invaluable information to the hiring process. They typically describe the functions of a job, daily responsibilities and expectations, specific qualifications and skills that a candidate must meet to be considered, and sometimes even a salary range. Usually developed from a thorough job analysis, job descriptions are also strategic in vetting potential candidates throughout the hiring process to ensure a good hire.

Before you begin anything, make sure that you first qualify for the position. If you qualify, take good note of specific keywords and key phrases that you see. Jot the ones down that you see most frequently and plan to include them in your writing.

Keep Your Simple Resume Simple

Companies have implemented applicant tracking systems into their hiring processes. These systems effectively screen candidates and throw out resumes that use an ineffective, basic resume template and contain formatting errors, incorrect grammar, etc.

Although some modern resume writing actions such as having a creative font, professional headshot, and colors may seem appealing to you, with these systems in place, these actions will surely send your work resume to the “do not hire” pool.

Keep your simple resume simple and focus more on your career accomplishments rather than creativity. This method will help you create the best resume to beat an applicant tracking system geared towards weeding out unqualified job resumes.

Research

Research is arguably the most important step of them all in your effort to conquer an interview. No employer will ever hire a candidate that doesn’t know a thing about the company. Research the company’s culture, mission, core values, and history. Take extremely detailed notes and work this information into your memory. Examine the company’s online presence to get a visual understanding of the company’s events, philanthropy, and presence. Hiring managers will only expect you to know the basics. Having this enhanced knowledge of the company will surely impress recruiters and hiring managers.

If you receive an offer for an interview, take it upon yourself to look the interviewer’s name up on LinkedIn or Google. Find out his/her background, tenure, interests, and volunteer experience. The importance of showing an employer that you have the ability to research is astronomical. Along with being one of the best resume skills, research skills show that you can provide in-depth information, find valuable references for your work to reference, target and identify problems, and collect informational resources to resolve problems. By having this knowledge of your interviewer, not only will impress him, you will also show that you have research skills and the ability to take initiative which is key in today’s work environment.

The Importance Of Keywords

December 14, 2018 By Simple Resume Team

Implementing keywords in your simple resume lands interviews for job candidates. In today’s world, simple resumes have to be strategically optimized in order to make it to hiring managers’ desks. This is due to the fact that applicant tracking system (ATS) technology is now being implemented at a substantially great amount of companies worldwide. In this article, the Simple Resume team will detail the importance of including keywords and key phrases in your simple resume to BOOST your chances of employment.

“The Keywords In A Job Description”

When you look at a job posting, take a very detailed look at the job description. Job descriptions contain the general tasks, requirements, and responsibilities of the role. They include keywords and key phrases such as “quick learner”, “strong attention to detail”, and “excellent verbal and written skills”. The description will almost always be filled with important keywords and phrases. It is your responsibility to take note of this during the drafting of your simple resume. Failing to include this information will greatly diminish your chances of landing a job interview.

“Pass An Applicant Tracking System”

Keywords are absolutely necessary to successfully pass an applicant tracking system. Though it is important to implement key terms throughout your resume, it is also equally important to be mindful of how many times you use the keywords. Including too many key terms is a tactic known as keyword stuffing. Hiring managers will surely catch on to this. Avoid over-saturating your simple resume as it will surely be noticed.

“Hard And Soft Skills Are Keywords”

Key terms are also important for the fact that they sometimes come in the form of hard and soft skills. Within the work environment, hard and soft skills have become extremely important. Employers are looking to hire candidates that possess both hard and soft skills, as they are critical in the short and long term of employment. Hard and soft skills present themselves as keywords that can successfully navigate and pass through an ATS screening.

The ultimate goal of simple resume writing is to strategically create a resume that will pass the applicant tracking system and appeal to hiring managers. Having keywords in your simple resume increases your job prospects exponentially. When crafting your simple resume, key terms can be the deciding factor between a call for an interview and a letter of declination.

Get a keyword optimized low cost resume guaranteed to BOOST chances of employment and pass an applicant tracking system today!

Top 10 Tips For Writing A Great Resume

December 12, 2018 By Simple Resume Team

It’s time to kick off the new year with some modern resume tips! With the digital age, the art of writing a simple resume has dramatically changed. There was a point in time where hiring managers would have to sit and sort through resumes to determine the best candidates for the role. This would work as an advantage for many job seekers as their writing was immediately in the hands of human eyes. Now, to cut time and effort, companies have implemented applicant tracking systems (ATS) to screen candidates quickly and efficiently. Many companies, including LinkedIn, have announced they will be implementing applicant tracking systems into their candidate sourcing efforts. Prepared by our Certified Professional Resume Writers, here is a list of our top ten modern resume tips for writing a great contemporary resume in 2019 to beat applicant tracking systems and BOOST your interview chances.

#1. Drop Your Resume To One Page

Hiring managers don’t want to read through an extensive, lengthy resume. A complex resume can come off to a hiring manager as unappealing, boring, and hard to read. When the first initial reaction for hiring managers is a negative one, chances are that the applicant will be eliminated as a potential hire. Take the time to write out all of your experience. Then, carefully narrow your information down to one page of quality, relevant information. This allows hiring managers to key in and focus on your keywords immediately upon obtaining your document.

#2. Stay Away From Templates

While the idea of a heavily stylized resume format is enticing, we know that these graphics-driven, cool resume formats and templates do not perform well in applicant tracking systems. These computer programs are designed to pull information on your background and career into specific fields in a specific order. Don’t risk losing out on a position because your work resume is not parsing properly into an ATS.

#3. Size 10-12 Font

It is a general rule to use a font size between 10-12 when writing a simple resume for two reasons. First, too small of a font can affect your resume’s readability, creating difficulty for hiring managers to look through your information. Secondly, too large of a font could be perceived as a lack of content and information to share with the employer.

Avoid using fonts such as Comic Sans, Lucida Console, Brush Script, and any font that looks too complex or widely spaced out on paper. Studies show that some of the best fonts to use when writing a simple resume are Book Antiqua, Calibri, and Garamond.

#4. Optimize Your Resume’s Header

Applicant tracking systems are computers that are designed to read documents in a specific order. It is critical to format your header in a clear manner so as not to confuse the ATS. This can result in your resume being filtered out immediately. Make sure your header lists your first and last name, followed by your address (city and state minimum), phone number, and professional email address.

We are often asked by clients whether or not to include entire addresses (street names, unit numbers, etc.). The answer is yes. ATS is designed to geo-filter resumes by location. Having a complete resume allows ATS to see where you are located, and whether the position is a fit for you or not. After all, there is very little point in interviewing for a position that is a 4-hour commute from your home, especially if you’re not looking to commute!

#5. Include A Professional Summary

One of the most successful resume tips to maximize performance against the ATS is the professional summary. Lead in the resume with two to three sentences describing yourself as a professional and include as many pertinent keywords from the job description as possible. This signals to the ATS that you possess all the skills necessary for the job.

#6. Accomplishments > Responsibilities

A mistake that we see often is the utilization of responsibilities to fill out the content of the resume. Hiring managers are more concerned with what you can help their organization achieve and are looking for people who can add a track record of success. It’s always best to use sentences that outline your achievements.

#7. Quantify Your Accomplishments

This is one of the best modern resume tips you can find. On a resume constructed of the written word, the inclusion of numbers immediately draws the attention of hiring managers, which is why it is a good idea to include them. Adding numbers to your resume has a dynamic effect on the overall structure and impact of your accomplishments. Quantifying statements will help employers visualize the overall impact you’ve had on the position.

It is common to find that not all positions involve hard metrics. However, it is still feasible to add numbers to any position listed on a resume. Compare “provided customer service to clients” to “engaged with 15-20 clients per day to find quick resolutions in order to effectively solve complex situations”. Same task, same number of clients, different structure. Keep in mind that an employer would be more inclined to interview the job seeker who was able to handle 15-20 clients a day than a candidate who’s missing quantifiable measurements on their resume.

#8. 400 Word Limit

Number 8 on our modern resume tips is the word limit. While it can seem like a good idea to fill a resume with as many words as possible, stick to a word limit of roughly 400 words per page. This has been found to be an ideal balance of keyword density and aesthetic appeal. It provides you with plenty of space to be detailed about your experience and accomplishments without blowing out the word count and presenting the hiring manager with a resume that is overly dense and unattractive.

#9. Use Bullet Points

When it comes to formatting your resume, a simple resume writing tip is to use bullet points instead of paragraphs to break up the text. Use bullet points to highlight one accomplishment at a time instead of explaining your career in paragraph form. This makes things easier to read to hiring managers.

Bullet points are essential to simplifying a resume. In retrospect, they have been proven to be successful in making your accomplishments stand out within seconds. Creating a bulleted list of your accomplishments helps to mitigate clutter within your simple resume. Bullet points allow the hiring manager to focus on areas of the resume that you want to draw attention to.

#10. Plug In Keywords

Last but not least, to round out our modern resume tips, plug in keywords. Within job postings, the position’s job description always will contain keywords and phrases that the hiring manager is looking for in a potential candidate. Therefore, to better your chances at landing an interview, study this information and write down the main keywords. Be sure to add keywords into your resume to pass ATS and catch the eyes of hiring managers.

Though it is important to use keywords throughout your resume, be careful to not over-saturate your resume with these keywords. Hiring managers will surely catch on to this. Implement your keywords where you see fit so your simple resume flows smoothly.

The best resume writing examples find unique ways to impress employers. Too often, a resume lacks substance and detail to make it stand out as a quality resume. Utilizing these modern resume tips will be surely get you an interview. Get all of your resume needs to successfully land a job interview at a low cost today!

Basic Job Resume Mistakes You Should Never Make

December 12, 2018 By Simple Resume Team

When it comes to constructing a simple, appealing, and effective resume, immense care should be taken during the writing process. Often too many times, job candidates create basic job resume mistakes that end up costing them a job interview. The greatness of a resume exists in its ability to successfully beat an applicant tracking system and intrigue a hiring manager. Here at Simple Resume, we will explain 5 basic job resume mistakes you should never make on a simple resume.

#1: Grammatical Errors

One of the most basic job resume mistakes and also the most common is making grammatical errors. This is by far the most obvious mistake you can make in writing a resume. The last thing you want is hiring managers thinking you are incompetent and unqualified for the role, and there’s no better way to do this than spelling things wrong on a resume. It also shows that you do not take the time to check your work, an area that is critical in most fields. Proofread your resume a countless number of times to make sure you never make this simple resume mistake.

#2: Duties > Accomplishments

A simple resume mistake that we see often is the utilization of responsibilities to fill out the content of the resume. Hiring managers are more concerned with what you can help their organization achieve and are looking for people who can add a track record of success. There is no need to include job responsibilities as they are easily searchable on Google. Never make this mistake on your simple resume.

#3: Too Much Information

In an effort to remain relevant and only include pertinent information, you must be strategic about yourself and your background. Capitalize on the aspects of your career history that bring value to the role and organization you are applying to.

#4: Improper Formatting

A common mistake made on resumes is improper formatting. Some of the common instances in improper resume formatting include failing to include bullet points, improper alignment of your resume text, using less than one-inch margins when it is not necessary, failing to bold your resume sections and job titles. Never make this mistake on your simple resume as it will guarantee a no-call for an interview.

#5: Using A Template

Not only does using a resume template show that you have a lack of professionalism and creativity; It also shows you didn’t take the time to make sure it was optimized. Software programs such as Microsoft Word have resume templates for consumers to use to tailor to their specific resume needs. This is detrimental to your resume and should be avoided at all costs. Your simple resume must successfully pass through an applicant tracking system before being seen by a human.

Basic Resume Examples | How to Quantify your Simple Resume in 2019

December 11, 2018 By jmjeditor

Since resumes were first introduced by Leonardo da Vinci in 1481-82, they have undergone a digital transformation. In a more competitive job market than ever, skills alone are not sufficient to gain employment with top companies. In the art of contemporary resume writing, it is now a numbers game. The most successful resumes that work in landing candidates jobs are quantified. Resumes have to be quantified in order to be considered qualifiable for many of today’s positions. In this article, the Simple Resume team will give you tips and basic resume examples demonstrating how to quantify your simple resume for your 2019 career goals.

Quantify Your Team

If you worked in a team environment, it can be extremely helpful to use numbers to detail how many people were on your team, how many people worked on specific projects, and how many people you led or managed.

Here’s a one of our basic resume examples on how to quantify a team-related accomplishment:

Before Quantifying: “Led team in the implementation of specific projects”
After Quantifying: “Directed a team of 15 employees in the implementation and completion of technical projects”

Utilize Frequency

If you handled specific tasks often, it is great to mention how frequently you were required to accomplish these specific tasks. Showing frequency of tasks or projects in your job resume helps employers get a better picture of your consistency, proficiency, and willingness to repeat necessary tasks. The following is one of our basic resume examples of how to quantify your frequency of performing specific tasks.

Before Quantifying: “Created articles for content”
After Quantifying: “Produced 5 creative 1,000-word content articles per week”

Implement Time Management

Time is everything. In the professional world, you must be able to do everything in a timely fashion. Save time, manage time, complete tasks, and meet deadlines are a few things that require good time management. Here’s one of our many simple resume examples of quantifying time management within your simplified resume.

Before Quantifying: “Implemented a time-saving sales process to cut time”
After Quantifying: “Introduced a time efficient sales process to management to cut average call time by 15 minutes”

Use A Range

Some job seekers may work in environments where there is really no room for accomplishments and it is really difficult to quantify their job responsibilities. In this instance, it may be challenging to come up with an exact numerical figure. To combat this, use a range in your quantification. Look at the following example for clarification on how to use range to help quantify your work resume.

Before Quantifying: “Answered phone calls to provide customer service on a day-to-day basis”
After Quantifying: “Assisted 25-30 customers per day by providing knowledge and expertise to effectively resolve complex and escalated situations”

Quantify On A Scale

In roles that involve money, it is important to provide a numerical scale of a company’s financial growth, allocated funds, and costs. The following is one of our simple resume examples on how to quantify your financial accomplishments on a scale.

Before Quantifying: “Increased company financial growth”
After Quantifying: “Implemented several strategic projects in an effort to increase company financial growth, which resulted in an increase of $300,000 from the previous fiscal year”

Quantifying your simple resume creates a resume built for optimal performance. Our certified Simple Resume writers are trained to quantify your accomplishments and can create an effective, brand new resume for a low cost.

Professional Resume Outline | To Include Or Not Include Education

December 10, 2018 By jmjeditor

When creating a professional resume outline, it is extremely important to have a section to include your education. At one point in time, many job seekers were able to get their foot in the door in companies and didn’t necessarily need a degree. In today’s competitive job market, it is nearly impossible to get an entry-level job without at least a bachelor’s degree. As time goes on, job seekers will be expected to have even higher levels of education to qualify for roles. In this article, we will detail why it is important to include a section for your education in your professional resume outline.

Meet Qualifications

Education typically serves as a minimum qualification on a simple resume. In most job descriptions, you will find the qualification “bachelor’s degree required”. Most of these same jobs at one point only required candidates to have a high school diploma to be considered for employment. There is a general consensus that people with degrees have developed more skills and are more mature than people with only high school diplomas. Therefore, it is a must to include your educational background within your simple resume layout to meet qualifications.

Education Shows Your Worth

Employers value an employee with a quality education simply for the fact that they can invest in them. People with degrees are seen as more stable and less likely to job hop. With an educated employee, they are also most likely to advance in their respective roles. Many companies do not allow employees without a degree to advance into higher-level management or executive roles.

Education Shows Desire

A degree shows that you are able to fully commit to focusing on a project until its completion. In the professional world today, many roles consist of several hands-on projects that can take months or years to complete. In order to complete a four-year undergraduate program or two-year graduate program, you must have the desire to succeed. To employers, this shows focus and the ability to commit.

Stand Out

Although the education section within your professional resume outline is kept brief, it is critically important to include it in order to stand out amongst other job candidates. In accordance with this, there is an extremely good chance that you will stick out the more advanced your degree is in comparison with other applicants. In terms of setting yourself apart from the competition, it will come most handy if your education and skills align with the field which you are pursuing.

Simple Resume Format | Using Bullet Points In Your Simple Resume

December 6, 2018 By Simple Resume Team

Why Bullet Points?

When writing a contemporary resume, your approach must be strategic to create a good simple resume format that will impress hiring managers. To climb your way up the organizational ladder, it is of critical importance to organize the content of your professional resume in the form of bullet points.

On average, recruiters only spend about 6 seconds looking at a job candidate’s resume. Bullet points can help maximize the impact of your simple resume by allowing hiring managers to immediately key in on your accomplishments.

Format, Format, Format

Bullet points are quintessential elements that are needed to simplify and shorten a resume. In retrospect, bullets have been proven to be successful in making a job candidate’s accomplishments stand out within those 4-6 seconds of the initial screening of your simple resume format.

Choosing to create a bulleted list of your accomplishments within your resume instead of writing in paragraph form helps create aesthetic appeal and break up your text. This can have a positive effect on the readability of your resume.

A simple resume format with bullet points will help award you with an interview. Bullet points have significant importance in the writing process. Your simplified resume should not reflect the attributes of an essay in any fashion. With bullet points, you have the opportunity to organize, highlight, and separate your skills, accomplishments, and job duties.

Start With Action Words

Each bullet point should start with an action word to set the tone for your listed accomplishment. Let’s use a management role for an example. When applying for a management role, be sure to include action verbs such as “managed”, “lead”, and “directed”. Be sure to research top action verbs for your field and include them in your simple work resume.

Don’t Use Too Many Bullet Points

Another thing to keep in mind when preparing a bulleted list of your accomplishments is the number of bullet points to include underneath each position. Including too many bullets can prove to be detrimental to the value of your simple resume. We recommend implementing no more than 3 to 4 bullets for each position listed on your work resume.

The key to constructing a great simple resume format is all about the formatting of your work history and accomplishments. Keep in mind that even after successfully passing through the initial screening of an applicant tracking system to land your work resume in the hands of a human being, your simple resume still needs to be attractive and readable! No one enjoys reading through huge blocks of text, so utilizing bullet points to summarize your job history and accomplishments will be appreciated by hiring managers.

Job Resume | What To Include And Not Include In Your Resume

November 20, 2018 By Simple Resume Team

Any entry-level job seeker entering the workforce or working professional looking to move forward in their career path will be required to write and submit a resume before they enter into the hiring process. Job resumes have drastically changed in recent years, leaving many working professionals with the inability to write an effective resume. Here is a list of items to include and items not to include in your simple resume.

What To Include In A Job Resume:

Professional Email Address:

For freshers, it is important to have the correct contact information in your resume. More importantly, it is of critical importance that you include a professional email address. Many times, a job candidate may include his/her personal email in their job resume which can be considered inappropriate for professional settings.

For example, let’s say there are two job candidates; John Adam and Jay Smith. John and Jay are both applying for a role as a Technical Analyst, they both currently hold similar positions, and they both hold equal value as potential job candidates. In Jay’s resume, he uses the email “shootthejay23@gmail.com”. John uses the email “johnadam1@gmail.com” in his resume. John will most likely end up getting the call for an interview. A hiring manager would be more inclined to contact a potential job candidate with a business professional email.

This is important to remember when strategizing to land an interview. Including a professional email address will promote you as someone who is professional and has built a strong business acumen.

Keywords

Keywords and key phrases are the key tricks to creating an optimized simple resume. Including keywords and key phrases into your resume from job descriptions will not only beat applicant tracking systems (ATS), but also put you ahead of the competition in the job market.

Many job descriptions of today contain specific keywords that are used to describe the role and the type of job candidate that would be a match. Be cognizant of these keywords and work to include them in your simple resume’s content.

A lack of important keywords within your job resume can be detrimental to your chances of landing an interview. Plan to tailor your simple resume writing to include keywords to better your chances.

Relevant Work Experience

Relevant work experience is classified as work experience that is relevant to your desired job title. For example, if you’re looking to land a position as a Sales Manager, it would be wise to include work experiences that included extensive sales and customer service in your pattern of resume writing. Certified Professional Resume Writers are pros in determining what is considered relevant to certain industries.

Include your most relevant work experience to the position you are applying for. Including irrelevant experiences takes up unnecessary space on your simple resume and will limit the amount of relevant information you can fit.

What Not To Include In A Job Resume:

Private Information

Private information such as your date of birth, gender, religion, marital status, social security number, driver’s license number, physical address (include your city and state), and height/weight should not be included in your work resume. Not only can some of this information prove to be worthless, but it can also leave you at risk of identity theft if put in the wrong hands.

Be cautious and aim to only include information that is relevant to identify you in job candidacy such as your name, number, location, and email address.

Self-Photograph

A self-portrait is not necessary for your candidate profile. Having a headshot on your job resume can in fact create unnecessary bias that can be avoided.

Unless you are looking to apply for an acting or modeling role, it is best that you do not include a self-portrait in your simple resume.

Irrelevant Work Experience

Having a section filled with irrelevant work experience in your simple job resume layout takes up a great deal of space within your simple resume. In its essence, a job resume containing irrelevant work experience can cause job candidates to lose valuable space that can be used to list relevant accomplishments, experiences, and projects.

Irrelevant work experience can ultimately cause your resume to seem unfocused and show hiring managers that you do not have the experience they are looking for in a candidate. Work to include only relevant information within your simple resume.

High School Information

If you hold a bachelor’s degree or higher, your professional resume layout should not have a section to dedicate to any information from your high school career. This information can prove to be useless as it has been some time since you have been enrolled in high school.

Recruiters and hiring managers only want to see recent, relevant experience. Leave out the high school information and include only your college education.