4 Characteristics of Resumes that Get Noticed

NAPW, the National Association of Professional Women, allows it's members to post articles on our blog, however the views of these articles are not necessarily those of NAPW.

Whether you are brand new to the job force or looking for a change of pace in your career, your resume is the first step in landing your dream job. It is not easy to make a resume stand out among the other professional women and men that come apply. You must go the extra mile in that important document to show a potential manager that you have what it takes to get the job done most efficiently. We've got four characteristics of stellar resumes that are almost sure to make professional women stand out from the rest.

Put Important Information First
Your resume will be scanned in a matter of seconds, so you don't have much space to grab the attention of a prospective employer. Professional women should incorporate a career summary at the top of the resume that provides a snapshot of skills and experience. This small section can be customized to the specific job you are applying for, with the most relevant training and experience listed first. Keep the summary concise by using the active voice and action words that show you are ready to get the job done for anyone reading your resume.

Learn Your SEO
Because many resumes are sent electronically today, you want yours to come up as high on an employer's tracking system. This means using keywords that give your placement a boost in ranking. Professional women don't have to be SEO experts to use this technique well. Simply incorporate the keywords from the employer's job posting to your resume and you will appear near the top of the relevant candidate list.

Keep it Positive
Any professional women's issues from your work experience should be listed as a positive on your resume. This means a lack of experience should be explained as a "willingness to learn", and uncompleted education can be shown as "in process" rather than "incomplete". You may not think a simple word change will make that much difference in the overall scheme of things, but positive language can certainly shift an employer's first impression of you from an inexperienced novice to a go-getter who is ready for anything.

Add a Photo
It used to be that you could simply make your resume stand out by using a different font or slightly different shade of paper. Today, professional women must get a lot more creative to make the appearance of a resume get noticed above the rest. Some applicants are now adding a picture to the resume to give your application a face as well as a name. The addition of the picture may also give your resume the visual differentiation you are looking for to make your document stick out in an employer's mind.

Stand out resumes make all the difference in the professional women who get called in for interviews - and those who don't. Some employers are weeding through hundreds of applications, and they are hunting for those documents that catch their attention and linger in their memory. Make your resume get noticed above all the rest with these simple tips.

The above views are not necessarily those of NAPW, the National Association of Professional Women. NAPW publishes these posts for information purposes only.