Eight Tips for Attention-Grabbing Resumes

What should you include in your application resume? What should you leave out? What sort of tone should your resume have? The following eight tips will help you create an impressive, persuasive resume:

1. Learn what your target program is looking for.

The best way to convince the admissions board to offer you a spot in the school’s next class is to understand what makes a strong applicant for their program. Before starting to work on your resume, learn as much as you can about what sorts of candidates your program seeks. Then, customize your resume to reflect the aspects of your background that are most relevant to the school you are applying to. 

2. Know yourself professionally – your skills and your accomplishments.

What are you particularly good at? What accomplishments are you proudest of? What have you achieved that gained you the most recognition? Interview yourself and inventory your previous jobs, the skills you acquired, and your “greatest hits” as a professional – the times when you contributed to your organization the most. Look through your formal performance reviews for glowing appraisals, and scan your work files for successes you might have forgotten about. Now is a great time to start keeping a personal career folder in which you track the new skills you learn and positive comments from your managers and happy customers.

3. Stand out personally.

Escape negative stereotypes about your profession by showing that you are exceptional. If you are an accountant, for example, admissions committees tend to assume you are risk averse, so you need to include material in your resume that shows some of the bigger risks you’ve taken (e.g., entrepreneurial efforts, motorcycle racing). If you’re a finance type, you might be perceived as conceited or aloof, so you should include evidence of your social skills and humility (e.g., community service efforts, mentoring). Similarly, if you are in a crowded applicant pool such as finance or consulting, don’t list every transaction or engagement you have served on; instead, detail those that you made unique contributions to. 

4. Be concrete, specific, and quantitative.

Unless you have a very unique job, the admissions committee understands what the general responsibilities of your role entail. Don’t waste space in your resume describing responsibilities; rather, share your impacts. 

Details and context are essential to qualify the magnitude of your impacts for the admissions readers. For example, don’t say, “Developed e-commerce plan that was selected for implementation”; instead, share details like “Designed $5M e-commerce strategy that increased revenues by 12% and attracted 6 new clients.” While we are on the subject of quantifying, our advice is to use numerals for numbers in resumes, both because they are more attention grabbing and because they require less space. 

When data must remain confidential, anonymize names, refer to percentage increases or improvements, or cite the improved industry ranking of the organization’s product or performance as a result of your contributions. Think of numbers and other hard details as essential proof that you are a superior performer.

5. Know how far back to go.

As a general rule, if you are applying to graduate school and have at least two years of work experience, your high school activities should NOT be included in your resume. However, there are exceptions to this rule. For example, if you won a prestigious national award in high school, you could consider including this important recognition.

6. Don’t lie.

Making up degrees, accomplishments, and other personal and professional facts is always a bad idea. Don’t do it – it’s unethical and self-destructive. After accepting an applicant, most programs will run a basic background check to confirm the dates and titles in their resume, and the adcoms won’t hesitate to show candidates the door if they learn that any element of the person’s resume is untrue. 

7. Know your negatives.

The vast majority of us have encountered detours once or twice in our careers. Maybe you’ve been downsized, locked in a dead-end job, or realized that your initial career choice or direction was not a good fit for you. You can’t lie about these professional plateaus in your resume, but you can present them in the best possible light. Think about what aspects of the role you explored and took risks in, and where you made an impact, and focus on communicating those points.  

8. Be strategically creative.

Bring to the preparation of your resume the same capacity for thinking outside the box that you bring to your career. For example, if the traditional chronological resume format will bury your best material near the bottom, consider using a “functional” resume format instead or even a hybrid of the chronological and the functional. Similarly, if you paid for your entire college education, add a line mentioning this in your resume’s Education section. Highlight any areas where you provided a unique contribution or gained a perspective that might be rare. For example, include the affinity and community organizations that you have volunteered with – leader of a campus LGBTQ+ group or Native American students group, for example – and how you have helped these communities through your role. 

The logic underlying all these points is that your resume is not just a list of your experiences; it is a strategically assembled document that highlights your uniqueness and makes a case for what a great fit you will be in your target program.

By Jennifer Bloom, admissions consultant at Accepted for 20 years and Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW). She is an expert at guiding you to produce application materials that truly differentiate you from the rest of the driven applicant pool. If you would like help with your application, Jennifer can suggest a number of options that work with any budget. Want Jennifer to help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch!

Related Resources:

• 38 Ways to Harness the Power of Numbers in Your Resume – a free checklist
• How Much Overlap Can There Be Between My Resume/CV and My SOP?
• The Quick Guide to Admissions Resumes – a free guide

The post Eight Tips for Attention-Grabbing Resumes appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.