What do you do if you want to write a resume faster and more efficiently?

I'm dubious about whether this saves any time or hassle - if you are going to have a good quality CV with all the vital ingredients required to showcase your skills, experience, achievements and relevant keywords, you still have to come up with the content yourself and enter it into the app that you choose. Do yourself a favour, save some money and use MS Word or a similar program. A template will always look like a template, whereas your own design [from scratch] will be full of your own personality.

Yes, a resume template you can download for a small fee will for sure save time. However, let's be realistic here. They are pretty and often striking to the human eye but most will fail that critical ATS scanning before it gets to be read by a human. Look at the value of a resume. It can be the difference in you getting multiple interviews and zero interviews. What do you want? zero? I suspect not. Don't skimp time on a resume. That time investment will repay you fast. So, in my opinion, be creative step out of the template box and write a traditional performance-driven resume without the graphics, shading and other fancy things.

Utilize pre-designed resume templates to streamline the formatting process. there are lot of free ATS friendly website or ask Chatgpt with proper prompts. Choose a template that best fits your domain/industry and professional style to save time on layout and design.

I liked the Pages resume template. The colours, side-bar column, font choice and weights for my cv looked fab. I could export a smart-looking pdf to apply for roles, but when I had to convert it into a Word document for a recruiter, it was a disaster. The fonts weren't compatible, the layout got scrambled. The lesson: consider software/font/layout compatibility when you design your resume/cv.

To write a resume faster and more efficiently, start by gathering all relevant information, such as work experience, education, and skills. Utilize pre-made templates or online tools to structure your resume quickly. Focus on highlighting key achievements and qualifications relevant to the job you're applying for. Keep your language concise and impactful, avoiding unnecessary details. Use action verbs and quantifiable results to demonstrate your accomplishments. Finally, proofread your resume carefully to ensure it's error-free before submitting it to potential employers.

You cannot reflect all your skills, experience and potential in a resume for two reasons. 1-) The recruiter is not interested in your whole professional life but in how you fit his need. 2-) You have a few seconds and the first page to convince the recruiter that you are the best candidate. This means that you must tailor your resume to the requirement by highlighting your skills and achievements that the recruiter is looking for.

I cannot emphasize this enough: The resume is about the candidate not the employer. If you are going to write a different resume for each job you will go crazy. Write a good resume, one that accurately describes your career path and, most importantly since this is all employers care about, focuses on your accomplishments, in other words, the value that you have brought to past employers. Once you have done that, you are on your way.

We hear this an awful lot, which is good because the advice to tailor your CV to every role you apply for is probably just as important as any other piece of advice related to CV writing. "That's a lot of work" is the usual response to such advice and it can be quite disheartening to consider the prospect of such a lot of work with no actual guarantee of a good outcome. My response to this response is to make sure that when you write your CV, use a format [not a template] that is reasonably easy to tailor without having to rewrite large chunks of your document. Keep your CV concise, and straightforward, you will have less work for each application you make!

With my clients I advise to tailor their professional summary to the essential skills the employer is looking for and have a shared language. Being 'able to work in a team', 'collaborate', 'demonstrate teamwork', they are all basically the same thing but you need to light up your resume to demonstrate you're a candidate that matches their needs. Provided that your resume is updated, has your qualifications, then only a few tweaks are needed to line up your achievements with what the employer desires. Yes, it takes a bit more effort but remember that it reflects your enthusiasm for your future job role than risking a 'one size fits all' approach.

Tailoring your resume to the job description is always worthwhile, particularly as you progress in your career. Just think how many things you have achieved, and how many skills you have amassed, by the time you have 15 years professional experience. Getting all of those onto a resume would be impossible, so you have to be selective. When being selective, don't think "what am I most proud of", don't even think "what is the most impressive" or "what was the most challenging". The only thing to think about is "what is the most important to the person/company I am applying to". Not everything you have done is going to be relevant to every future role you apply to.

Action verbs unconsciously incites emotions from the reader. Words such as Saved, Increased, Directed, Oversaw, Administered, Collaborated, Streamlined, Modernized, and so many others. These words alone elevate your resume and showcase your ability to lead teams, projects, etc.

If you are wondering what 'action verbs' are, consider this. When determining the content for your CV, focus on what you actually delivered in terms of outcomes and results [and quantify them], this should steer your content more towards 'action verbs' and steer your content away from more passive terminology, such as 'responsible for' and close-cousins of such! When quantifying your achievements, it is virtually impossible to resort to the more passive words. If you are 'responsible for delivering £10K per month in sales revenue', you haven't actually said anything about delivering it, just that this was your objective. 'Delivered £11K sales revenue per month against a benchmark of £10K' sounds even better - less passive, more action!

Bullet points and action verbs deliver your achievements and personal impact succinctly. Action verbs steer away from repeating your current role's job description such as 'Responsible for sales'. Instead, action verbs frame what you achieved, 'Generated 30% increase in sales revenue within six months.' Other wonderful actions verbs can be: delivered, created, initiated, designed, produced, executed... This adds more authority over your accomplishments and shows a positive drive.

Provide quantifiable metrics or results to demonstrate the impact of your contributions. for eg: Use numbers, percentages, or other measurable outcomes to showcase your achievements and add credibility to your resume.

Keep a career journal that documents your achievements and quantitative measurements. Keep your performance reviews handy because you can most likely lift data from there that can be built into your resume.

Always while adding achievements remember to quantify. This will help potential employers to understand how your achievement helped your process and the organization.

I share a tip with all of my clients: After we have written their resumes, we go through each line item and identify if a metric can be added. If not, that's okay, but if it can, then let's add it and move it up the position of that bullet point to spotlight it. Not all metrics are going to be quantifiable, but showing impact (increased, boosted, elevated) is key.

Take the time to review and edit your resume for errors in grammar, spelling, and formatting mainly. Consider using AI-powered tools like OpenAI or AI Resume reviewer or asking a trusted friend or colleague to review your resume for feedback and suggestions for improvement.

A basic speling error quickly changes the perception of you from professional to incompetent. I bet half of you didn't get past the 3rd word in this comment without drawing a conclusion about the validity of my point.

The best thing to do after writing your CV is to step away for at least 10 minutes, return, then read it aloud. It is surprising what you may have missed as you have subconsciously thought it was correct. Then get a trusted source (friend, professional) to also proofread and offer their perspective. Grammatical errors are easily missed. An example I can share from a student I supported was that they were "confident in Maths and Psychics." Clearly they meant Physics but this was not flagged on the document. Thankfully they avoided potential embarrassment but demonstrated the value of another pair of eyes!

Regularly update your resume with new skills, experiences, and accomplishments. So by time you require its all ready. Set aside time periodically to review and refresh your resume to ensure it reflects your latest achievements and qualifications.

Leverage AI-driven resume optimization tools to improve your resume's effectiveness. Explore resources and online platforms that offer AI-driven resume analysis and optimization to enhance your resume's visibility and appeal to recruiters. Join LinkedIn groups or communities related to your industry for additional resume writing tips and insights. Engage with professionals in your field on LinkedIn to gather feedback and stay informed about current resume trends and best practices.

The most efficient way to streamline the resume writing process is using one of these two strategies below: 1. Update your resume 2-3 times annually. If you are steadfast in your commitment to update your resume, it will streamline the process when a job comes along that you want to apply to. 2. Keep a career journal that documents the notable achievements as they occur. If you have a written or electronic record of your milestones, it will make it that much quicker to get your resume together to apply to a job.