Do you need an attention grabbing resume that shows your real value and helps you nail that one important interview?

If so, keep reading, because today, you’ll learn 5 simple resume writing tips that will help you stand higher than your peers in the job market and get your foot in the door for an interview.

And, stick with me until the end to find out where you can get a free, proven resume template that you can download today and customize to apply for your next dream job.

If we’ve never met before, I’m Heather Austin from ProfessorAustin.com and The Career Club on Facebook and I share simple solutions to help you build a business or launch a career you love.

The 6-Second Resume

Your resume is one of the most important documents you’ll create in your lifetime. Download your free resume template to make yours stand out!

Writing a resume can be a big huge pain! Especially if you haven’t written one in a very long time or haven’t written one at all.

If you’re like most job seekers, you know how important a well-crafted resume is for your success. You know that a great resume will give you more confidence and leverage when you apply for your dream job.

I teamed up with my really good friends at Red Rocket Resume for our annual resume writing collaboration video, where we share our most highly effective, proven strategies for writing a world class resume.

Let’s dive right in!

Tip 1 – Update Your Contact Information

At the top of your resume, include a phone number that you can easily be reached at and preferably only one that you answer.

Next to that, place your city, state and zip. You don’t need to include your street address and in fact you could eliminate the mailing address altogether.

You do want to have a professional email address. Nothing like sallythecatlover@gmail.com or thehiphopking@hotmail.com.

If you don’t already have a professional sounding email address, preferably something with your first and last name, create one now and include it on your resume.

Then, include your custom LinkedIn URL.

And if you’re not sure how to get a custom your LinkedIn URL. I created a video just for you all about how to use LinkedIn for beginners. Take a watch right here!

Tip 2 – Include a Professional Summary

The most important part of your resume is the Summary section. This is a section that appears at the very top of your resume, right below your name and contact information.

This is an overview of your most important career accomplishments. Use two to four sentences that list your key skills, your key outcomes and demonstrate how your professional background and experience will help the company solve a particular problem.

For added impact, use an identifier that appears above the summary. This is a keyword phrase that identifies the position or industry you’re currently in or would like to obtain.

This acts as a headline for your resume and quickly grabs the attention of a hiring officialI. It lets them know what the overarching theme of your resume is.

Tip 3 – Add a Professional Highlights Section

This section is an extension of your professional summary. Include at least three or four solid bullet point items that go deeper into your specific career accomplishments.

Make sure the items you list directly relate to the position you’re applying for. For added emphasis, include a competency block.

This is a section dedicated to your professional core competencies. List your greatest skills, expertise and knowledge as they pertain to the position you are applying for.

Use short keywords or phrases listed in the job posting.

Tip 4 – Format Your Work Experience Strategically

List the company name first, followed by the dates you worked in that position. Then list the position title followed by the location.

To really grab the attention of a hiring official, divide each job description into a short paragraph outlining your main responsibilities. Follow this with four to six bullet points showcasing your key accomplishments.

Quantify your accomplishments as best you can using numbers, percentages and dollar amounts. Hiring officials love to see this!

You won’t have enough room to list everything, so only list the accomplishments that relate to the position you are applying for. Not every bullet point needs to be a quantifiable responsibility.

Tip 5 – Use Jobscan

Jobscan is a resource that will give you an instant analysis of how well your resume is tailored to a particular job. It will also give you insight into how you can better optimize your resume for applicant tracking systems (ATS).

You can get started right away by copying and pasting or uploading your resume to the platform and then pasting the job description of the position you’d like to apply for.

Jobscan will do it’s thing and tell you how well your resume matches the current position. It will also give specific tips on how you can improve your resume and your match rate to the specific position.

At the time of this post, Jobscan offers 5 free monthly scans.

The 6-Second Resume

Your resume is one of the most important documents you’ll create in your lifetime. Download your free resume template to make yours stand out!