HR 101: How to revamp your resume amid the Great Resignation

Recruiters receive hundreds, if not thousands of resumes per year — which ones make it to the top of the pile? 

Amid the Great Resignation, the job market is in a frenzy — 44% of employees are actively searching for a new job, according to a survey from Willis Towers Watson. For recruiters, that means wading through stacks of highly qualified candidates, and that first impression is crucial. 

“A resume is really the company's first introduction to you as a candidate,” says Caitlyn Metteer, director of recruiting at recruiting software provider Lever. “While it’s just the first step in a lot of important interactions, you want to make a positive first impression.”  

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As a recruiter herself, Metteer spots common mistakes candidates make when highlighting their skills and work histories: things like being overly wordy, or focusing on daily tasks versus accomplishments and outcomes are common missteps that don’t give a recruiter a clear picture of the candidate. 

For example, common resume phrases like “communicating” and “managing teams” are not necessarily specific to a candidate’s unique skill set. Instead, Metteer recommends highlighting projects and other accomplishments that show they’ve gone above and beyond the daily expected tasks of a role. 

“For a lot of roles, there are very clear daily responsibilities that are going to be consistent from role to role, so using up that real estate on things that are a given can take away from what actually makes you stand out,” Metteer says. “What I like to see is candidates who are highlighting things that tell me that they are an outcome-oriented person and that they’re a strong performer, as opposed to telling me that they answered email as part of a job.” 

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Some candidates may feel daunted by the amount of experience they have, especially if they’ve held multiple jobs or have decades worth of work experience. But Metteer says a resume should tell a story and an applicant shouldn’t feel restricted by the standard one page format to get their entire work history down. Now that resumes are digital, it’s acceptable to exceed that length, she says. 

“One of the things recruiters look for on a resume is career progression and growth, so if showing those roles is illustrating that you have been successful at many companies, you've been promoted, or you’ve taken on additional responsibility, that can be really important to showcase,” she says. “In that situation, you probably don't need to have five or six bullets around what you were doing in a role 20 years ago. Include a quick one-liner about what the role was and move on.” 

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For employees just starting out, filling a resume with unrelated information and work experience is also unnecessary. Instead, Metteer recommends highlighting soft skills or including selective personal details and activities that show who you are as a person to fill in the gaps. 

Employers are not only looking for a list of skills that match the job requirements, but applicants who are eager to immerse themselves in the culture of an organization, Metteer says. If applicable, job seekers should highlight their participation in employee resource groups, or times when they’ve worked with other teams within their organization. 

“Recruiters get excited about hiring someone who is going to be a really active participant in the culture of the company and whose values align,” she says. “Think about what is going to be a good fit for you as a candidate and let your personality shine through.”