January is often a time of reflection — when we assess what’s working and what needs tweaking. Often the focus is on physical and mental wellness, but the start of the new year is also an opportune time evaluate our professional status. Step 1: Dust off your resume and determine if it’s time for a refresh.
Stop Procrastinating
We all have good intentions, but it’s easy to push resume maintenance to the backburner. Instead of viewing it strictly as a tool for job application, consider your resume a living document that you update regularly. It’s important to highlight new skills, experience, and recent accomplishments to help stand out among other candidates. Consider if you earned any certificates or degrees, held a new role, expanded your responsibilities, or even have new career goals since you last updated your resume. If the answer is yes to any of those, it’s time to get to work.
Update to a Modern Look
While the words on your resume are important, so too is the design. It needs to be organized and easy to read, while giving a modern, in-the-know vibe. Use a professional sans-serif font, such as Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, Cambria, or Georgia. Pay attention to details like consistent spacing, margins, and font size. Rather than overload the document with less impressive entries, embrace some white space. A clean-looking resume will not only be appreciated by the hiring manager, but also will allow for more comprehensive scanning by AI tools utilized by most human resources departments.
Customize It
Having an updated resume will make applying to jobs less labor intensive. As you find positions you’re interested in, simply tailor your resume by using keywords from the job description to highlight your qualifications. A customized resume will show that you’ve carefully read the job posting and can help you stand out among the applicant pool.
Check It Twice
Remember, your resume is a reflection of you. It provides potential employers a snapshot of who you are as a professional and what you can bring to their organization. Typos, inconsistencies, and confusing formats will send a negative message about your attention to detail and could lead the reviewer to question your qualification. Be sure to carefully proofread for grammar, spelling, and word choice — and then proofread again — before submitting it.
It's always a good time to review and refresh your resume. Ideally you will take the time to update advanced positions, earned certificates, and new skills as they occur. But if you’re behind on adding those items, be sure to set aside some time to do so. Having a current resume that you can access at any time not only relieves stress but also puts you in position to take advantage of unexpected opportunities.
ON TOPIC
Job boards are wonderful resources for job seekers. You can quickly find positions in your area of interest, geographic location, and appropriate level of experience. What’s more, you can upload your resume and cover letter right there. Who doesn’t like a one-stop shop? There’s one drawback, though. Job boards typically use artificial intelligence (AI), specifically applicant tracking systems (ATS), to screen and sort resumes. That means you must ensure you’re making it easy for ATS to understand what’s on your resume. Here are a few tips to get past the AI gatekeepers.
Keep it simple. Your resume is a professional document. Stick to one column, and avoid splashy designs, bright colors, and graphics. Use standard formatting tools, including bold, underline, italics, and bullets to call out important entries. Remember, ATS typically scans from left to right. If key words and skills are listed in a second, right-hand column, there’s a good chance they won’t be visible to ATS, putting you at risk of being passed over.
Choose an ATS-friendly font. If you want your resume to get through ATS screening, the system must be able to read it. Pick an easy-to-read font, such as Times New Roman, Helvetica, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, or Garamond. But don’t stop there — keep the font size at a healthy 12 point, even if going smaller helps you fit more content. Use a consistent font size no more than double your smallest font for all section headers.
Speak their language. ATS ranks resumes based on skills and experience. Avoid industry jargon and acronyms as they will not be understood by the tracking systems. Instead, use keywords found in the job description. ATS is trained to pick out the keywords, and the more it detects, the higher your resume will be ranked and pushed to the hiring manager.
Get the file details right. Once you finalize your resume, there’s one more step that may seem obvious, but still leaves an impression — saving the file. Avoid naming the file something generic like JJones-Resume-January-2025.pdf or Jones-Resume-3.pdf. Choose instead to include the position in the file name. Jen-Jones-Software-Developer-CompanyX.pdf. Hiring managers will notice the attention to detail and recognize that you’re serious about their opening.
