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Resume Writing for Success:
Scoring Your Next Job with These 9 Tips
Victoria A. Witkewitz
21 August 2025
Resumes are prime real estate. With a select amount of space and words to highlight your skills, qualifications, achievements, and talent, it's important to write your resume to create impact to showcase what you bring to a prospective employer. Let's review some key tips.
#1 DO YOUR RESEARCH
Take some time to review the job descriptions from multiple companies for the same role. Learn about qualifications including experience, certifications, licenses (if applicable), and educational requirements, as well as the daily responsibilities. Review resumes within your field as a starting point to assist you in crafting your resume to ensure you remain competitive with job seekers and adhere to best practices.
#2 Write your resume to read less like a job description
Employers don't want to read another job description. Employers are interested in why they should hire you. What skills and experience can you bring to solve complex problems, add value, and drive the vision of the organization forward? This is your opportunity to highlight the impact you had in your current or previous roles and why you made it a success versus the 700 other applicants that could fill the position. Let's take an example.
Which resume point creates more impact?
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Streamlined computer systems to increase efficiency
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Streamlined computer systems that led to a 20% increase in customer revenue while increasing lead generation by 15% in the first year
The first bullet is generic which may lead the hiring manager reading this resume to ask the question, how? How did you increase efficiency? The second bullet quantifies results and demonstrates the candidate's performance in their role.
#3 WRITE YOUR RESUME TO CREATE IMPACT
Think about what you currently do or did in your role that no other candidate could do. Perhaps you led a team through a difficult project, saved the company valuable time and resources, or secured a new, difficult client. Perhaps you streamlined a process by eliminating unnecessary steps or checkpoints to complete a task, or you led a company through a data migration project that required keen attention to detail. Use your experience to establish your credibility and strengths. Let's take another example.
Which resume point creates more impact?
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Proficient in Excel
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Proficient in creating pivot tables, VLookups, and formulas to create report and forecasting models that increased operation efficiency by 15%
The second bullet not only establishes the candidate's proficiency but illustrates how they have had a direct impact on operational efficiencies.
#4 USe Metrics/Quantitative Results
We live in a number-driven society. From the number of followers, to likes, sales figures, people like to see and evaluate numbers. This is particularly important in sales position roles. Even if you are not in a metric-driven role such as sales or accounting, you can still create metrics to establish your skillset.
Take a minute to analyze your role to categorize in terms of the following:
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Time
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Financial
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Productivity
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Customer retention, relations, and loyalty
Think about the time it took you to achieve a task or project. If you worked on a similar project, did the results outperform previous expectations? If so, by how much? Compare to previous quarters and years to establish a benchmark to achieve your goals. For example, an IT manager would want to know how much time is spent on technical support, training, system upgrading and maintenance, while a Human Resource associate would evaluate metrics such as the cost per hire, time to hire, absentee rate, turnover, and retention rates to determine the effectiveness of the company's recruiting efforts.
#5 Mirror the job description
When you are applying for a position, tailor your resume to mirror the job description in terms of experience, keywords, essential job requirements by illustrating specific examples within your resume. Plug and play keywords including relevant technical program experience as well as soft skills to account for Applicant Tracking Systems (see below). Download our free guide Resume & Cover Letting Writing: Showcasing Your Talent.
#6 COMPLY WITH APPLICANT TRACKING SYSTEMS
Avoid being rejected by Application Tracking Systems (ATS) by ensuring your resume meets the criteria of ATS. Employers use ATS to scan and identify specific keywords for positions they are hiring for which is why it is important to mirror the vital keywords in the job description in your resume. These systems may not be able to read or interpret the information presented which could potentially miss your resume from part of the data collection process.
Avoid the following:
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Fancy fonts. Use Sans Serif type fonts including Times New Roman, Arial, Georgia, Calibri, or Verdana
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Logos
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Photographs
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Graphs, tables and/or charts
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Bullets that are not square or circular
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Multiple columns
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Symbols
Spacing, Margins, and Naming Conventions:
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Aim for one inch margins on all sides to provide a clean and concise look; avoid overcrowding
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Align text to the left
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Ideal font size should be between 11 and 12 points for the resume body with 14-16 points for headings
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Do not use headers or footers
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Date formatting should be MM/YYYY or Month with the year such as July 2025. Do not use the year only or mixed formatting
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Save in a MS Word or Adobe PDF file
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Don't label your resume something generic like resume, include your name and if you have room the title of the job you are applying for
#7 BREVITY IS KEY
Many studies have been conducted over the years assessing the time hiring managers spend the time to review an applicant's resume which continues to shrink with time spent on strategy, meetings, answering emails, and decision-making. This is why it is crucial to write a resume that is:
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Impactful
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Highlights what made your position a success
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Concise
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Clean and professional
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Applicant Tracking System (ATS) friendly
Try the 5-step approach to resume writing. Learn more about it in our Resume & Cover Letter Writing Guide. Login or sign up to access our Author Tools portal of free resources to assist authors.
#8 THINK OF YOUR EXPERIENCE LIKE A HIGHLIGHT REEL
Think of your career like a highlight reel displaying all the wins in your role. Where did you go above and beyond in your role? Perhaps you assisted a coworker on a project you didn't have to, put in overtime, pursued additional training or certifications, achieved the customer service of the year award. Do not forget to include these brief wins and successes in your role and how you added value to the organization.
#9 Don't forget to proofread, edit, and aim for consistency
I've spent many years assisting job applicants with their resumes, and one of the most common issues I come across is errors. This not only includes simple typos, but grammatical errors, and consistency. For example, if you are going to use periods at the end of your bullets ensure all include a period. Many applicants miss an opportunity for these simplistic but costly errors. Pay attention to the details. Additionally, if you have completed a job ensure you place your job responsibilities in past-tense (worked, led, managed, etc).
Final punctuation
When you are writing your resume, the key is to aim for brevity and create impact by showcasing how you made a difference in your position that no other applicant could. Present a balance of actionable words and back them up by focusing on your proven results.
Download our free resume & Cover Letter Writing guide in our author tools portal:
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Essentials of resume writing
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Resume design including the five-step approach
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Over 200 power words to write your resume
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Resume types and templates with examples
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How to handle work gaps
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Writing a resume draft
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Editing and proofreading checklist
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Resume and job application tips & strategies
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Where to apply outside the typical job boards
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Writing a cover letter with examples
For additional information please click the links below. Questions? Contact Us.
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