HTSS News

Insights and advice about jobs and hiring in the Lehigh Valley.

Is Your Resume Format Outdated? Bring it Up to Speed With These Tips

You’ve had a resume since the very beginning of your career, but just because it’s helped you score interviews in the past, doesn’t mean it’s perfect as-is. If you’ve been off the job market for awhile, your resume definitely needs a makeover before sending it to potential employers. This document will make or break your chance of getting a job, so you need to invest the time to perfect it.

As with many things in life, resume trends come and go, so if you don’t keep up, you’ll appear out of touch with the professional realm. Make these five essential updates to your resume to position yourself as a savvy candidate any company would be lucky to have.

Tailor the Content

Submitting a generic resume won’t get you very far in 2016. In fact, a 2015 Jobvite survey revealed that 61 percent of employers expect to receive a customized resume from candidates. Modify your resume to fit each individual position you’re applying for to increase your chances of getting noticed. This includes incorporating specific keywords you find in the job description, expanding on experience essential to the job and removing completely irrelevant details.

Remove Tired Catch Phrases

The use of trendy buzzwords can help your resume get noticed, but these keywords and phrases tend to have a short lifespan. For example, using the terms “guru,” “motivated” and “responsible” was once a widely excepted practice, but will now cause your resume to look dated. Substitute them for action words that highlight your specific fit for the job.

Replace Your Objective with a Summary

Hiring managers are focused on choosing the best person for the job, not on your career trajectory. Concentrate on what you have to offer the company by replacing the objective with a summary covering your skills, experience and accomplishments — effectively selling you as the best person for the job.

Amend Your Layout

The most important information should always be at the top of your resume — and in some cases that isn’t your current or most recent job. If you’re trying to change careers, reconfigure your content to highlight skills and experience that closely align with the position. Also, if the last time you updated your resume was just after college, it’s time to bump your work history section above your education segment, as your professional experience typically takes precedence.

Showcase Your Work

Hiring decisions are a huge gamble for employers, so the more you can show off your skills, the better. If you have one, include a link to your online portfolio, so the hiring manager can better gauge your capabilities. A total of 21 percent of employers polled in the Jobvite named this as something they really want from candidates.

Feeling nervous about taking the next step in your career?

Contact HTSS,Inc. Our skilled recruiters will help you find rewarding opportunities with the Lehigh Valley’s top employers and prepare you for interviews to maximize your chances of getting the new job you deserve.

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CEO Letter

As a staffing and recruitment professional for over  30 years, I have seen many changes in the industry. Over that time, I’ve witnessed a transformation in the way organizations view staffing services. Today, we see more and more companies using staffing services as a strategic tool, rather than just for temporary fill-ins.

At HTSS, Inc., our focus is on helping companies create proactive workforce plans. Our goal is to help our clients use staffing strategically to increase capacity, overcome hiring freezes, access specialized talent, better manage increased workloads, and enhance overall productivity.

For our candidates, we help to uncover truly rewarding job opportunities—jobs that are a match to each candidate’s skills, and jobs that offer key experience and growth potential.

We look forward to strengthening our relationships with our current clients and candidates, as well as forming new and exciting partnerships in the future.

Sincerely,

Pat Howells
President
HTSS, Inc.