23 Resume Tips compiled from Reddit (2023)

Are you preparing your resume? If yes, then you are at the right place to get guidance on building a killer resume.

We have gone through hundreds of Reddit threads to find out the right tips to help you prepare a stand-out resume.

Resume Content Tips

Remove all the hobbies/passion projects/personal likes: Try to wipe out all the  hobbies/passion projects/personal likes unless they are directly related to the job duties

Round the years: If you are applying for a position, 2.85 years and 3 years of experience are functionally the same, especially since the hiring process often takes several months. Just round off and list the year.

Keep your job descriptions simple and focused: Always try to keep your job descriptions simple and relevant. Using a simple and focused job description will help the recruiters to understand your profile

Highlight your achievements: Highlighting your achievements in the resume will help you to stand out from the crowd. If you won the employer of the year or did a project on any certain subject, add that in your resume. That tells us a lot about what kind of employee you were, and how well you fit the role

Adding portfolio links: Adding portfolio links in your resume is not a necessary thing, but it is good. Usually, recruiters will not look into the portfolio until they have decided the candidate meets the basic requirements. But the portfolio will help the recruiters to understand your skills.

Coverletter: The Coverletter isn’t necessary,  but can help if there’s something odd about your situation. if you are changing your job field to a different field, you should explain why you think that a certain job is a move for you.

Cut irrelevant jobs – Adding irrelevant jobs may make it harder for the recruiters to find your relevant info.  if you feel you need to explain a gap, just include the relevant info (title, dates, single bullet about relevant duty)

Resume Skills Tips

List skills in easy to read columns or bullet points: List skills in easy to read columns or bullet points and organize them by type (you don’t have to give them a header unless it fits your style, but having all the coding/writing/professional skills together makes it easier for HR to understand what they are reading)

Read the job description: If it requires 3 different coding languages and 7 years of experience with scrum, make sure you list that on your resume. Keep in mind, in modern HR, your resume is likely to be auto rejected before a human sees it, just based on keyword matching.

If you aren’t sure what skills to look for, check out the job listing. If HR wrote their listing and they don’t list specifics, check out similar companies’ listings.

General tips for creating a resume

Don’t name the file “Resume” or any variation of that: Keep in mind that don’t name the file “Resume” or any variation of that. Your resume file name should start with your actual name.

Don’t make scroll: Don’t make scroll to the third page to find your previous experience. If your hobbies, education and “strengths” are listed before your work experience, the recruiter will assume you don’t have any. That’s fine for entry-level jobs, but when the position requires 3 or more years of relevant experience, if the recruiter assumes that you don’t have that by the end of the first page of your resume, I’m closing the file and moving on.

Attach a resume for applying to a job posted on Linkedin: If you’re applying to a job posted on Linkedin, and you don’t have a resume file attached to your profile for the recruiter to download, you’re probably not getting considered for the job. If your  Linkedin profile is good or not, attach a resume when you apply for a job.

Keep it short: Resumes should be short as possible, but as long as you need to be to convey what’s important. One extra page for a cover letter is fine, but never give me a two-page cover letter.  For entry-level and junior positions, anything more than 2 just seems long-winded and makes the recruiter think you can’t prioritize, anything less than two pages just seems wrong for some reason. (Entry-level people who have little or no experience, make it exactly 1 page, and if you’re applying for a senior management position, make it as long as you need to.)

Different job sites attach the cover letter differently. For Workopolis, the cover letter is embedded in the email they send you to let you know a candidate has applied. So unless the person who is collecting the resumes manually copies the cover letter into a file, and then saves it along with your resume, the people reviewing your resume won’t see the cover letter. Cover letters are not essential for every job, but if you’re going to add one, include it in the same file as your resume.

Finally, the whole point here is that anything you can do to make the job of the hiring manager easier helps you. This isn’t about you, it’s about a hiring manager who has to root through hundreds of resumes sometimes. Keep that in mind when you write yours, and you’ll have a leg up.

Use a professional-looking Gmail, outlook, or personal domain email address.

Don’t put your full address. “City, State” is enough.

Try to read it in 10 seconds or less and see what you take away from it. That’s about the initial screen time before someone makes an initial up/down decision, so you’ll want to examine it from that perspective.

Use Bullet Points. No one wants to read huge blocks of text paragraphs on the resume. Break this up into manageable bites.

Remove Your Objective Summary. Usually, this doesn’t add anything to the resume, and a hiring manager usually skips it

Remove References. References should not be on the resume. They should be provided when asked.

FAQs

Wrapping Up

Hope you get an idea about building a stand-out resume. Kindly let us know if you have any queries.