Decoded: Resumes and Cover Letters Today

Compete and Win…but first pass the mysterious ATS filters

Your resume is your ticket to the interview. It is an important document, but just as a job description can never list everything you will ever be expected to do, your resume will never be a good substitution for meeting you. You need 1–2 pages (only 3 or more for the most experienced professionals, some specialized government work, those in academia, or those with complex speaking engagements, presentations, and other CV content). Include a good summary of your experiences and attributes (what you do and how you do it), your work history, education, community involvement, and technical proficiency/software skills. Not everyone has every section and unique circumstances require different approaches, headings, and formats. An option is hiring a professional to review your resume to ensure compatibility with modern-day applicant tracking systems and for formats that parse well into online applications. Work under the assumption that all recruiters and hiring managers have attention deficit challenges. That is not meant as a criticism, but they are looking at dozens or hundreds of resumes, and yours needs to stand out quickly. It is exceedingly difficult to be objective about your own resume. It is worth the investment to have a neutral perspective on what to include and exclude by someone who knows how to format a winning resume today.

Even if someone else is primarily writing your resume, review it carefully to make sure it is still a good representation of you. In an interview, be able to speak to your resume and always have it in front of you, whether in person or over the phone. While there are limitless best practices for resumes, here a few that we stress with our clients:

· There is no need to include your full address, particularly if you are making your online profile public and have uploaded your resume. City and State alone are best.

· Avoid text boxes, logos, headers, and footers, and tables for max compatibility.

· In the past 10–15 years, it became popular to list key skills at the top of the resume in bullets or tables; there is now a focus on storytelling and writing a compelling summary paragraph instead.

· Move other key skills and software programs or unique knowledge to a special section at the end, usually on page 2.

· There was an unwritten rule in the past that you could not have any white space on the resume, and if you spilled onto two pages, you had to fill the full page. It is now more important to not “orphan” text for the same job between two pages, but a 1 ½ page resume is no longer taboo.

· Use present tense for a job you currently have, past tense for older roles.

· Keep the resume clean and crisp, do not have bullets with sub-bullets or multiple indentions.

· Try to keep margins .8–1” all around and font size of 10.5 to 12 so that it’s readable on a screen but also prints nicely.

· Use a modern font like Lato, Calibri, Tahoma, Veranda, or Arial. Garamond can be hard to read; Times New Roman is a bit dated but still common.

· Minimize company-specific jargon and abbreviations, but ironically industry-specific acronyms and buzzwords are advisable. For military backgrounds, use business-oriented terms like team versus squadron and tools and equipment versus weapons.

· Keep the resume in a neutral person (do not use I or refer to yourself in the third person).

· If you have a college degree, don’t list your high school diploma or activities; if you’re over 30 without a college degree, don’t have an education section at all; if you have some college, that’s better than not listing any education.

· If you are over 30, do not list any college activities.

· If you are proficient with multiple software programs, it is great to list them, but it is not necessary to have a software section to list Microsoft Office Suite alone.

· Include language proficiency if you can read/write/speak more than English.

· List any special clearances or existing governmental suitability.

The cover letter is an excellent way to tell your story about what you have done in the past and how it translates into success in a new role within a company. A good resume should be flexible enough for multiple applications without much customization. A cover letter should be personalized for each company and position. At Deep End Talent Strategies, we can create a unique and compelling cover letter for you, which minimizes your effort towards this customization.

The cover letter should be succinct, usually not more than three short paragraphs, and it is okay to include three bullet points of accomplishments. Ensure that your cover letter does not have more than three “I’s.” This sends a subconscious message that you are not a team player, based on years of psychological research.

When applying online, it is usually required to upload the resume and optional to upload the cover letter. As mentioned previously, completing optional steps sets you apart from other candidates. If you are uploading the cover letter, do so as a .pdf file. Many online applications have a text field allowing you to copy and paste the cover letter text, which is preferred over attaching the cover letter. This saves the recruiter a step of having to open and download another attachment. Review your cover letter carefully for the current date and company name. When applying to multiple positions in a day, you increase the likelihood of an error like applying to General Motors with a cover letter that says, “It would be an honor to join the Geico team.”

If you are emailing your resume rather than submitting it online, use the cover letter as the body of your email and attach your resume (always as a .pdf file). Do not send a short note and attach the cover letter; you have just created more work for the recipient.

Want to know more of the tips to compete and win today? Get our entire Job Search Playbook online course for just $17.