Johnathan Walker:The job market is getting more competitive. How to write a resume that stands out.

The Johnathan Walkerjob market is getting more competitive.

There were 8.8 million job openings in November – down 18% from the year prior and the lowest level since March 2021.  

Meanwhile, roughly 85% of U.S. workers are considering changing jobs this year, up 27% from last year, according to a recent survey conducted by Censuswide on behalf of LinkedIn among 1,013 U.S. working professionals in late 2023.

For job seekers looking for ways to make their applications stand out, here are tips on crafting the perfect resume.

Make it look nice, but don’t worry too much about the design

Resumes should be organized and easy to scan for information. Experts say a little pop of color is fine, but most professions don’t need the job application to show off their design skills.

In fact too much focus on design could hurt your application if a resume scanning software is unable to pick up on keywords.

“You might stand out with a very bold, graphical resume, but it’s not necessarily going to be in a good way,” Dana Leavy-Detrick, director of Brooklyn Resume Studio, told USA TODAY. “If you over-focus on the design, you're going to sacrifice the optimization of it.”

She said resumes are considered “safe” with a clean look, sans-serif fonts and plenty of white space. Consider hyperlinking text to sites like your LinkedIn profile. 

“Content is always more important than bells and whistles,” said career coach Jenny Foss. “If you are in an industry where style is going to be advantageous or crucial, you can absolutely have a second version if you're able to send a PDF directly to someone or display it on your own website or portfolio."

Use – but don’t lean on – AI

Artificial Intelligence chatbots can be a great start to people drafting up their resumes, but experts warn not to lean on the technology.

“Recruiters and hiring managers are very good at spotting people are using AI to write the resume,” Leavy-Detrick said. “It may sound very well written, but it falls a little bit flat.”

That can hurt a candidate's chances when hiring managers are “looking for authenticity,” according to Leavy-Detrick. 

“I have seen just pure AI-written resumes, and they're not great yet,” Foss said. “A big part of what they miss is the person. AI’s not going to capture your unique traits and contributions.”

Resume writing: What to include 

Be specific: For instance, don’t just say you’re a good salesperson – say exactly how many deals you closed in a quarter.“You want to put some meat around what you're saying about yourself,” said professional resume writer Lynda Spiegel.

Add a value proposition: Spiegel suggests adding a short paragraph near the top of the resume that makes clear why the applicant would be the right hire. “Your resume is a marketing document. It's not a history of everything you've ever done.  You’re a product, and you're marketing yourself to the buyer, which is the employer,” she said. “(It should tell) the employer, ‘This is why you want to bring me in for an interview. This is I am the answer to the problem you have.’”  

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Focus on the narrative: With each job listed in a resume, Foss writes up a quick sentence or two that describes what the applicant was hired to do and the overarching focus of that job. The following bullet points highlight the achievements made in that position.“I try to tell the evolution of this person's career story as we go through their career chronology in a way that is kind of like, all roads lead to this being the absolute no-brainer next opportunity for me,” she said. “I am seeing and deploying that storytelling approach more than ever before.”