How to write a successful resume

Hiring managers spend an average of six seconds looking at each application they receive. If they notice even a tiny error or red flag during that time, they’ll likely put your application into the “no” pile.
How can you, as an applicant, make sure that your resume and other materials make it past the initial review?
In this section, you’ll learn strategies for creating a strong, engaging application, including:

How to build your resume to appeal to hiring managers, how to write cover letters that attract employers and demonstrate your value, and how to customize your resume and other application materials for different industries, job postings, and submission channels
You will practice selling yourself in an honest, engaging, and persuasive way that not only draws employers in, but also lands you that elusive interview. Let’s get started!

Resume versus Curriculum Vitae

Every potential employer is going to want to look at your resume or curriculum vitae (CV). But how do you determine which one to use? And what are the differences between them?

In some countries and industries, job listings typically request a resume; in others, a CV is the norm. For example, in the United States, most jobs require resumes, but academic or research-based positions require CVs. Sometimes both are required. To further complicate things, in some places, people use these terms interchangeably. A resume or a CV is the core of any application, so it’s essential to know what each is and what it does.

• Resume comes from the French word résumé, meaning “summary.” A resume is a high-level summary of a person’s professional experience, education, certifications, and skills. It serves as a snapshot of a person’s professional experience.
• CV comes from the Latin phrase curriculum vitae, meaning “course of life.” A CV is a detailed collection of all of a person’s professional and educational experiences, accomplishments, and awards. It serves as a brief personal and professional biography. In the U.S., CVs are the most common documents in academia.

Neither document is meant to be entirely comprehensive. There is no way to capture on paper the full range of a person’s experiences, capabilities, and qualifications. Instead, both are meant to spark larger conversations about those experiences and qualifications. Ultimately, the core differences between the two come down to length, detail, and customization. Where a resume would aim for brevity, stick to one page, and be highly customized for different circumstances, a CV would aim for detail, have no page restrictions, and largely stay the same regardless of circumstance.

This course focuses on resumes, but most of the best practices the course lays out are applicable to both documents. Follow the cultural norms for your area and the professional norms for your industry. If one document is the expectation in your area or industry but an employer requests the other, always develop the document that the employer requests. If there is ever a discrepancy between the best practices in this course and a regional norm or specific job description, go with the most localized option.

Resume Realities

The reality is that resumes are rarely read in full. Hiring managers spend an average of six seconds on each resume. They spend 80% of that time (only 4.8 seconds) on your name, current title and organization, previous title and organization, and your start and end dates for those positions. They spend the remaining 20% (1.2 seconds) scanning for keywords. 

The areas where most hiring managers’ eyes go on a resume follow a simple “F” pattern for left-to-right languages and a backwards “F” for right-to-left languages. Look at the following graphic to see how it works.

Understanding where hiring managers’ eyes go helps you put key information in highly visible areas.

See how hiring managers’ eyes scan down the left side of the page? “Front-loading” your headers and bullets by putting the most important information at the beginning will help you catch hiring managers’ eyes. Do you also notice how headers draw their attention? Engaging headers encourage hiring managers to spend more time looking at your resume.

Understanding how hiring managers read resumes will help you refine your resume to ensure that they see the most important information in the few moments they spend looking at your resume.