2 Simple But Frequently Used Red Flags to Avoid on Your Resume

Finding a job in today’s economy seems like a chore that gets more difficult by the day. Companies are making cuts, there is not enough money circulating, and competition for tech roles is increasing.

When you’re in the job hunting phase, many people freshen up their resume with their most recent roles, change their old number to their current number, and call it a day. They will use this resume for any and every position they apply to — and this is the biggest mistake they are making.

As we know, many human resource (HR) representatives and recruiters receive thousands of applications daily, and many use AI tools to aid in their selection process. When recruiters or HR representatives skim through these applications, they look at them for a minimum of three seconds, and a maximum of thirty seconds.

In the first 5 seconds, recruiters often know if they want to take the applicant to the next level. The first 5 seconds of scoping your resume is the difference between you getting an initial call and it getting put to the side. Nobody wants to be the applicant that gets pushed to the side.

This is a transformative and sobering way of looking at the application process, and the role of your resume. In this article, we will go through 2 simple but effective tips on how you can optimise your resume.

Tip #1: Do Not Generalise

 
It can be challenging to fit everything you want to say in your resume. Therefore, the only way to get it all in is by generalising. The flip-side of this, however, is that you do not want to over-generalise.

Rather than stating what you do generally, speak about what you have done specifically. For example, there is more value in saying, “I managed the product team to its current state and brought four products to launch in a year and a half” than “I manage a product team of 10 people.”

This automatically demonstrates your people management skills to the recruiter, along with your ability to work effectively to bring an organisation’s product to the market, with specific information on the time frame. This gives recruiters a clear understanding of the type of employee you are and the strengths you can bring to their organisations.

Making general statements keeps you in the group of general applicants — you want to stand out!

Tip #2: State the Outcome

 
Let’s revisit the example above: “I managed the product team to its current state and launched four products in a year and a half.” How could we improve this so we can share with potential recruiters the impact our roles and responsibilities had on the organisation? You want to dive into the impact of what you did. Did the result improve the organisation?

With this in mind, we can improve the above example by saying: “I managed the product team to its current state and launched four products in a year and a half. This led to onboarding 500+ customers, \$1.2 million revenue, and the ability to scale the organisation through a new data centre in Europe.”

This shows the value you brought to the organisation. Your positive impact allowed the organisation to benefit financially and on a large scale. In this statement, you have provided the recruiter with tangible evidence of the positive impacts your skills and experience possess.

Wrapping Up

 
Open up your resume and take a look at each sentence and bullet point one it. Then ask yourself these two questions:

• Is this statement too general?
• Have I stated my impact?

Make sure the answer to question number one is “no,” and the answer to question number 2 is “yes.” If not, you might have some insight into why you aren’t getting that initial interview call.
 
 

Nisha Arya is a data scientist, freelance technical writer, and an editor and community manager for KDnuggets. She is particularly interested in providing data science career advice or tutorials and theory-based knowledge around data science. Nisha covers a wide range of topics and wishes to explore the different ways artificial intelligence can benefit the longevity of human life. A keen learner, Nisha seeks to broaden her tech knowledge and writing skills, while helping guide others.