How To Level Up Your Resume Game
Get this template and transform any resume to a worth reading one for ATS and hiring managers.
Why Doesn't Your Resume Go Further?
Could it be that your resume is lacking the key elements that make it stand out and catch the attention of hiring managers? If you want to level up your resume game and increase your chances of landing an interview, first let’s try to understand how the process goes.
Understanding the ATS
The digital age has transformed the job application process, introducing both opportunities and obstacles. Among these challenges, the first roadblock your resume must clear is pass the Applicant Tracking System (ATS).
At its core, an ATS is designed to scan resumes for keywords and phrases that match the job description. However, it's not just about stuffing your resume with keywords. The system also assesses how those keywords are integrated into your experience and skills, making relevance and context your closest allies.
An ATS can seem like an impenetrable fortress, guarding the gates to your dream job. But with the right strategy, you can craft a resume that not only breaches these digital defenses but also captivates the human eye on the other side.
Most Common Resume Mistakes
There are several common mistakes that job seekers often make when crafting their resumes. I’ve done some of these too 🙋🏻♀️, and let me tell you, this can make you lose great opportunities out there!
Pay attention to the negative impact that this may have:
Outdated resume objective can give a negative impression to recruiters
Exaggerating abilities can lead to loss of credibility and potential job opportunities
Including irrelevant experiences can make the resume seem unfocused
Lack of data support for claims can weaken the credibility of the resume
Typos and formatting errors can show a lack of attention to detail
Overusing keywords can make the resume seem insincere and unauthentic
Crafting Your Resume For Success
Adopting the Harvard Resume Style
The Harvard resume format has become popular because it is adaptable to many sectors, including business, technology, academia, and healthcare among others, not limiting its utility to specific job types or roles.
Apart from this, it emphasizes a clean, easily navigable format that showcases the candidate's achievements, skills, and experience effectively.
Other reasons to use the Harvard style:
It has a strong focus on the candidate's value proposition. This style encourages you to include your professional title, years of experience, key skills, areas of expertise, and professional goals within a summary. This can help recruiters quickly understand your value add.
It is tailored towards highlighting job-relevant skills and experiences, making it a great choice for employment-focused resumes.
It provides a structured approach to resume creation. Critical sections like contact information, summary statement, and educational/professional experiences are emphasized.
It promotes a concise yet informative presentation of abilities, education, and experience. This can help to hold the recruiter's attention and communicate key competencies effortlessly.
Common Sections in a Resume
A resume written in the Harvard format typically includes key sections that effectively showcase an individual's skills, experience, and qualifications in a structured and clear manner.
Contact Information: At the top of your resume, include your full name, address, phone number, and email address. Ensure that the email is professional.
Summary (This one is optional): A brief section that summarizes your qualifications. This is often replaced by a skills summary or left out entirely.
Education: List your most recent or relevant educational experiences first. Include the name of the institution, your degree, major/minor fields, and graduation year.
Experience: Include your work experience in reverse chronological order. For each position, list your title, the organization's name, dates of employment, and a few bullet points that describe your key contributions and achievements.
Skills: While it is recommended to include both hard and soft skills, for a Product Manager, I suggest you only include technical skills that you can't easily mention in the experience section.
Tools: If you are applying to a technical position this can make the difference and help you demonstrate the toolset you use.
Additional Sections: Depending on your background, you might include other sections such as Publications, Certifications, Professional Associations, Languages, or Extracurricular Activities.
Responsibilities vs. Accomplishments, Understanding the Difference
At first glance, responsibilities seem to be at the core of our professional experiences, describing the terrain we navigate daily. Yet, while they map out our roles, they often lack the sparkle of individual achievement. Responsibilities tell what was expected of us; accomplishments highlight how we've excelled within those expectations.
Imagine, for a moment, that your resume mentions some of the following statements:
“Managed a team of product developers."
“Owned the product backlog.”
“Crafted the user stories for the development team.”
Isn't that why the company hired you for? 🤔
While these statements outline a crucial duty, it doesn't showcase your unique contribution or the impact of your leadership. Actually, if we insert another name in place of yours and the statement still stands true, we're sitting in responsibility territory.
Instead, let's transform a responsibility into an accomplishment 👇
"Led a team of product developers to increase product delivery speed by 30%, enhancing customer satisfaction and reducing time to market."
Suddenly, it's evident that changing the name would lose the essence of the achievement because it's uniquely yours. This statement doesn't just say you managed; it shows how your management made a difference.
Show the Impact You’ve Brought to the Company
How have you turned obstacles into opportunities within your role? There’s 3 techniques I know that will help you tailor your resume and get better results: CAR, STAR, and XYZ.
Tailoring your resume with these methods not just showcases your achievements but weaves a narrative of resilience, adaptability, and leadership. Let’s see how!
Using the CAR Formula
Situation: Picture this—you’re steering the ship during a product launch, and suddenly, the market shifts unexpectedly.
Challenge: Noticed a 20% drop in user engagement due to outdated app features.
Action: Led a cross-functional team to ideate, design, and implement new app features based on user feedback and behavior analysis.
Result: Revamped app features increased user engagement by 35% within 6 months and received a 4.5-star customer rating.
On Your Resume 📄
Spearheaded a product pivot in response to swift market changes, resulting in a successful launch that exceeded revenue projections by 20% in Q1.
Using the STAR Method
Situation: Imagine your task is to improve an existing product that has been receiving mixed reviews.
Situation: The flagship product’s user satisfaction scores begin to wane.
Task: You're tasked with identifying the root causes of user dissatisfaction.
Action: Through user surveys and A/B testing, you implement crucial feature updates.
Result: The product’s net promoter score (NPS) improves by 40%, and renewal rates increase by 30%.
On Your Resume 📄
Improved flagship product’s NPS by 40% and increased renewal rates by 30% through targeted user feedback analysis and strategic feature enhancements.
Using the XYZ Technique
Situation: Suppose your company is under pressure because the core software product line is facing rising operating costs and stagnating profit margins.
X = Accomplished: Enhanced the profitability of a core software product line.
Y = As measured by: Achieved a 20% reduction in operational costs and a 15% increase in profit margins.
Z = By doing: Initiated a strategic partnership with a leading cloud services provider to reduce infrastructure expenses, while optimizing software pricing models based on consumer demand analytics.
On Your Resume 📄
Increased profitability of the leading software suite by 15% and reduced operating expenses by 20% through a key partnership with a cloud service provider and refined pricing strategies based on consumer demand analysis.
Wrapping Up
It can be tedious to update your resume, yet by following this advice constantly and having different versions of it as backups can make the whole process less hard.
Also, each technique shared in this post offers its own unique way to illustrate your accomplishments, underscoring the transformative impact you've had on your products and teams.
The CAR formula teaches us the value of context, showing how we navigate challenges and drive tangible outcomes.
The STAR method allows us to construct our experiences as engaging stories, emphasizing the progression from problem to solution and result. It is actually quite a useful framework for interviews!
The XYZ technique simplifies our achievements into concise, powerful statements of our contributions and their direct impact.
Remember, your resume is your story to tell—ensure it resonates with clarity, purpose, and your personal touch of innovation.
To help you with this task, here’s a resume template styled in the Harvard way.
Also, here's a list of strong verbs tailored for a Product Manager's resume. This list is organized by seniority level and responsibility, which I think makes it easier to identify the verbs you need!
Have you tried implementing these strategies in your own resume? Share your experiences so others can learn!