Your resume is the first and the most important step that you take to secure a job. It gives recruiters a chance to learn all about your skills and get a quick overview of what you bring to the table. This is why you should always go the extra mile to develop a resume that breaks the clutter and grabs the recruiters’ attention. Writing a resume for career growth and advancement needs a different approach and preparation when compared to writing a resume for a similar position as your incumbent one. Whether it is the same company as your current one or a new company altogether, the right resume can help you set yourself apart from other candidates. It should also highlight your abilities and display your potential to excel at the next level of your career. If you are looking to write a resume for a career advancement position, the following tips will surely help you develop the right document.

Do the Research and Mark Your Keywords

So you’ve decided it’s time for you to switch your current position and an advancement to the next role in your career is now due. But how do you know where the next role in your career lies? You have to do your research and ask yourself the following questions:

• Which position/company will you be most successful in?
• Which job descriptions relate the most to your experience and what do you want to pursue in your career?
• How relevant is your experience and your long-term career goals to the job requirements in your job search?

During your job search, you will come across the jobs that you like and the ones that pique your interest. It is important to identify the keywords that are used in the job description of the job posting that you like and try to include those keywords in your resume. These will help the resume tracking software identify your resume in a pool of potentially thousands of applicants.

Look At Resume Samples From Your Industry

Start by finding resumes that helped others land a job in positions that you’re planning to apply for. This will give you a fair idea of what resume styles work for recruiters. You can do this by finding career professionals and speaking to them about what works in the industry. You can also get them to review your resume and give you a fresh perspective on the job openings while telling you what works and what doesn’t in the industry. This activity will help you create a resume that is easily legible, compact, concise, and one that quantifies your achievements. These are all traits that recruitment software and recruiters look for in a resume.

Set up your document

Setting up your document in line with the best practices can be as important as the content that you put in the resume itself. Choosing the right font, ones as impactful as Arial or Times New Roman, with the right font size (typically 10 or 12 font size) is necessary to develop a resume that is easy to read and understand. The removal of extra blank space will help the reader focus on the content that matters and not be distracted by unnecessary white space on your resume.  You can do this by adding headings as additional sections such as ‘other skills’.

List Your Most Relevant Achievements

While you may claim to be an expert in your current and previous jobs, not having concrete evidence to back up your claims will make it just another fabrication. This is why listing your most relevant achievements in your resume is important. If you are confident that you are the right person for the job posting, instead of claiming to be the best candidate out there, you should actually show the recruiters why you are the ideal candidate. A good idea would be to use your resume to tell a story—one that highlights your quantifiable achievements that you gained during your career. An increased ROI with a percentage is a good example of your achievements quantified for recruiters to review.

Use active voice

An important question that recruiters ask when reviewing your resume is how? So you claim to be a professional who ‘helped organize’ or ‘participated’ in a particularly amazing event, but the question remains, how did you do it? If you use an active voice with verbs that show your readiness and ability to actively perform a task, recruiters will get the answer to their 'how' by reviewing your resume. Action words such as administer, direct, formulate, transform, exceed, promote, collaborate, and conduct are excellent examples of verbs that highlight a proactive approach.

Adding the right references

References are professionals who know you from your academic life or your professional life. These are people who can speak about your working style and can, in one way or another, vouch for your abilities and skills. Potential employers will need references to gather more information about you and build their confidence by gaining an outside perspective about you and your working style. Adding relevant references from professionals who will also be available to respond to a query from your prospective employer is very important. When it comes to resume writing, you should never leave anything to chance. The best way to make a crisp and impactful resume is to leave the task to a professional resume writing services. Are you looking for an affordable service that can improve your resume and make it compelling? Resu Consulting is your best choice for excellent online resume writing services. We'll collaborate with you throughout the process and develop an effective and unique resume that grabs the recruiters’ attention while setting you apart from your competition. We are an experienced executive resume writing service based in Manassas, VA, with experts who are adept at writing winning resumes that stand out with hiring managers. We also provide career coaching, cover letter writing services, resume template design, and more to our clients. Get in touch with us today to schedule your free consultation!