Hirova

How to make your resume stand out

A resume stands out when its first few lines tell a recruiter what you did, how big it was and why it fits this job. Specific lines you can prove do that better than design or bigger adjectives. Here are seven changes, one job rewritten before and after, and a check to run before you send it.

Updated

What gets read first

Recruiters often skim a resume before deciding to read it closely. The skim lands on the top third of page one: your name, your latest title and employer, and the first two or three bullets under it. When those lines are specific and match the job, the rest gets read. When they list duties anyone in the role would have, the resume looks like the others in the pile.

So most of making a resume stand out is editing a small part of it well. Work through the changes below in order.

Seven changes that make a resume stand out

  1. Put your strongest result first. Jobs go in date order. The bullets inside each job go in order of strength, so the one that best shows what you can do for the next employer comes first.
  2. Replace duties with what you did. “Responsible for scheduling” repeats the job description. “Scheduled deliveries for 14 drivers” is about you. Start each bullet with a verb that names your part; more in how to write resume bullet points.
  3. Say what changed. Before and after is the most convincing shape a bullet can take: a deadline that stopped being missed, a process people still use, a backlog that got shorter.
  4. Use numbers you can explain. Scale, frequency and time are numbers you already know: how many people, how often, how long. Leave out any percentage you can’t source in one sentence. Here is how to quantify without making up numbers.
  5. Match the posting where it’s true. If the ad says “client onboarding” and you did that work under another name, use their words, and move the bullets that answer its first requirements to the top of each job. The full method: how to tailor your resume to a job description.
  6. Make the summary specific, or cut it. Two lines that name your field, your level and one thing you’re known for earn their place. “Hard-working team player seeking new challenges” spends the lines read first on words every resume has.
  7. Make it easy to read. One column, standard headings (Experience, Education, Skills), dates in one format, and a text-based PDF. A recruiter shouldn’t have to hunt for anything.

One job, before and after

Luis Ortega, a fictional dispatcher at a regional food distributor, started with the three bullets most people write. Asked what each one meant, he answered in plain words. The rewrites use only what he said, and every number in them is one he gave.

Before

Responsible for scheduling deliveries.

Asked about it, they said

“I schedule deliveries for 14 drivers across three counties. When I started we missed about one delivery window a day. I moved route planning to the night before, and by spring we were missing maybe one a week.”

After

Cut missed delivery windows from about one a day to about one a week by moving route planning for 14 drivers to the night before.

Before

Handled customer complaints.

Asked about it, they said

“Grocery stores called me every morning when an order came up short. I set up a shared sheet with the warehouse so shortages got fixed before the trucks left, and the calls pretty much stopped.”

After

Set up a shared shortage sheet with the warehouse so short orders were fixed before trucks left, ending most of the morning calls from grocery stores.

Before

Trained new employees.

Asked about it, they said

“I trained the 3 dispatchers we hired last year and wrote the cheat sheet they still use.”

After

Trained the 3 dispatchers hired last year and wrote the quick-reference sheet they still use.

The layout and the facts stayed the same. The second version stands out because a reader can picture the work and could check it.

What doesn’t help

  • Skill bars and charts. A bar rating your Excel at four out of five gives a recruiter nothing to check. Charts, icons and text boxes can also come out scrambled when an application form reads your file.
  • Two-column layouts. Software may read straight across both columns and mix their lines together.
  • A photo. Most US employers don’t expect one, and some ask candidates to leave it off.
  • Buzzwords. “Results-driven,” “dynamic” and “synergy” are so common that readers skip them. A specific bullet shows the trait instead.
  • Bigger claims. “Led” when you supported, “transformed” when you improved, a percentage nobody measured. Each one is a question you’ll be asked in the interview.

A five-minute check before you send it

  1. Zoom out until the whole first page fits on screen and read only the top third. Would a stranger know what you do and what you’re good at?
  2. Read the posting’s first three requirements. Find the bullet that answers each one. Is it near the top of its job?
  3. Point at every number. Can you say where it came from?
  4. Read each bullet aloud. Cut any word you wouldn’t say to the interviewer.
  5. Open the PDF and try to select a line. If you can, the PDF has real text that software can pull out.

Where Hirova fits

The hard changes are the second, third and fourth: getting what you did, what changed and the real numbers out of your head. Hirova, an AI resume builder for iPhone, does that with a short interview. You answer by typing or dictating, it sets your answers as bullets, and every number shows the words it came from before it goes on the page.

  1. Import or start fresh. Bring in a PDF or a photo of your resume. Hirova reads it on your iPhone; the file is not uploaded.
  2. Answer a few questions. Three to five short questions about what you owned and what changed. Type or dictate, and skip any you like.
  3. See your words set as bullets. Hirova rewrites your answers as resume lines in a consistent voice.
  4. Check every fact. Each title, date and number shows the words it came from. Nothing reaches your draft until you confirm it.
  5. Export a PDF. A typeset, text-based PDF you can send from the share sheet.

Matching your resume to a posting is part of Hirova Pro: paste the job, answer questions about anything it asks for that your resume doesn’t show, and review each proposed change with its reason. Hirova Pro is $19.99 a month or $79.99 a year in the US. The App Store shows your local price before you buy.

Questions

What makes a resume stand out to recruiters?
Specific lines they can believe, near the top of the first page: what you did, how big it was and what changed, with the bullets that match the job first. Clean, one-column formatting helps them find those lines.
How can I make my resume stand out with no experience?
Describe school projects, volunteering, informal jobs and teams the way you would describe a job: what you did, for whom, how often and what came of it. See how to write a resume with no experience.
Should I use a creative template to make my resume stand out?
For most jobs, no. A one-column layout with standard headings is easier for people and software to read, and the content is what a recruiter remembers. Design-heavy resumes make more sense in design fields, next to a portfolio.
Can AI make my resume stand out?
AI can tighten your wording and keep the style consistent. It can’t know what you did, so the specifics that make a resume stand out have to come from you. Check every number and verb it writes; more in can AI write my resume?