7 Ways to Revamp Your Resume Fast, with Ashley Faison
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If you need to update your resume quickly, you need to know which factors make the biggest impact. How much education should you list? And how many pages should it be? Find Your Dream Job guest Ashley Faison is here to answer all these questions and more. Ashley has a seven-step process for revamping your resume in a hurry, including why you should read your resume backward, which skills to highlight, and how much personal information to share. Ashley also explains why you need a customized resume for each job you’re applying to and how that gets you to the top of the pile.
About Our Guest:
Ashley Faison is a certified resume writer, a career coach, and the founder of Ashleyfaison.com.
Resources in This Episode:
To learn more about the professional development program Ashley is launching, visit her website at ashleyfaison.com.
From our Sponsor: Find Your Dream Job is brought to you by TopResume. TopResume has helped more than 400,000 professionals land more interviews and get hired faster. Get a free review of your resume today from one of TopResume’s expert writers.
Transcript
Find Your Dream Job, Episode 416:
7 Ways to Revamp Your Resume Fast, with Ashley Faison
Airdate: September 13, 2023
Mac Prichard:
This is Find Your Dream Job, the podcast that helps you get hired, have the career you want, and make a difference in life.
I’m your host, Mac Prichard. I’m also the founder of Mac’s List. It’s a job board in the Pacific Northwest that helps you find a fulfilling career.
Every Wednesday, I talk to a different expert about the tools you need to get the work you want.
Find Your Dream Job is brought to you by TopResume. TopResume has helped more than 400,000 professionals land more interviews and get hired faster.
Get a free review of your resume today.
Go to macslist.org/topresume.
It’s time to update your resume.
What can you do yourself in a short time to get the best results?
Ashley Faison is here to share seven ways to revamp your resume fast.
She’s a certified resume writer, a career coach, and the founder of ashleyfaison.com.
It’s a black-owned business that improves the economic status and quality of life of women through coaching and resume writing.
She joins us from Sacramento, California.
Well, let’s jump right into it, Ashley. We’re talking about how to do a fast revamp of your resume.
What are examples of situations when you need to do this? You’re a candidate, or perhaps you learned about a job. What are common situations?
Ashley Faison:
If you’ve been working on a job that’s not listed on your resume or if you haven’t revamped your resume in, I’d say, two to three years, I’d definitely either hire a professional resume writer or revamp your resume yourself, before you’re applying for a new job.
Mac Prichard:
So, your resume hasn’t been updated in a while. You’re getting ready to go out into the market again. What matters the most when you’re doing a revamp, particularly one quickly, Ashley?
Ashley Faison:
Being clear and concise and speaking to the position that you’re trying to apply for or trying to acquire. A lot of people will add information to their resume that’s not relevant to the position they’re applying for.
Mac Prichard:
What stops people you work with from doing quick revamps of their resumes, Ashley? I often meet job seekers who say, “Oh, I need to get my resume updated.” But it’s often difficult for them to get started.
What are some common barriers that you see people face when they’re trying to do a revamp of their resume?
Ashley Faison:
I think a lot of job seekers are not necessarily satisfied with the current position they’re in, but they’re comfortable and apprehensive of applying for a new job.
So, imposter syndrome will seep in and keep them from going on their laptop or computer and revamping their resumes themselves because they don’t know exactly what to say. They feel like they don’t have the right words and that maybe the skills and value that they bring will not be recognized by the hiring manager or recruiter.
Mac Prichard:
Are there common mistakes that you see people make when they are revamping their resume quickly?
Ashley Faison:
Yes, either it is too long. I’ve seen resumes three four pages, or they’re not customizing the resume to speak to the job that they are trying to acquire. It’s a broad, very generalist resume that describes all of the skills that they have acquired in their work history, and not the specific skills that are needed to be the best-qualified candidate for the position they’re applying for.
Mac Prichard:
You’ve helped people with a lot of resumes over the years, Ashley. Why is it important to customize your resume for a particular position? Why won’t a generic resume work for multiple jobs?
Ashley Faison:
I won’t say it won’t work. But I think recruiters and hiring managers in this day and age are really trying to go through resumes fast, and they want to see that you meet the qualifications in a quick scan of your resume. The average amount of time that’s spent on reviewing a resume is only about seven seconds.
So in seven seconds, if you have four pages that a hiring manager or recruiter needs to review, it just seems like too much information, and if you can’t be clear and concise in your resume for applying for the job, they’re gonna doubt your ability to perform the job, that you can, in writing, articulate yourself in a way that gets straight to the point.
Mac Prichard:
So keep it clear, keep it concise, pay attention to length. And what about that focus you mentioned a moment ago, creating a custom resume for each position? How will that help you stand out from your competitors?
Ashley Faison:
It helps you stand out because you will be seen as the perfect candidate to come in to interview for the position. You’ll shine through your resume because you’ll show attributes of the job that they are hiring for and skills that are needed to start on the job and just get yourself running on the first day. They’ll see that you won’t need a lot of training. Of course, some training is always needed. But you won’t need a lot of training because you have specific skills that are needed to start the job right away.
Mac Prichard:
We’re gonna go through your list of seven tips for revamping your fast in a moment. But you also mentioned at the start of our conversation, you might want to consider, if you’re a job applicant, working with a professional writer. When do you recommend people not do the resume themselves but instead work with a resume writer?
Ashley Faison:
If you have a really hard time writing or with writing comprehension and writing structure, I would suggest hiring a professional resume writer. Also, if you’re going for a transition, and your job, you’re transitioning from, for example, teaching, and you’re going to corporate.
You’re gonna be working a government job, and you’re not really savvy on what’s needed for that job position, I would suggest hiring a professional resume writer, just because someone who’s more knowledgeable with the industry will help you speak in language that is more familiar for that industry.
Mac Prichard:
What’s your best advice, Ashley, for finding a resume writer? How do you recommend people do that?
Ashley Faison:
I know a lot of people go on LinkedIn, and a lot of people are referred to me personally through word of mouth. So, I would suggest going onto LinkedIn searching for resume writers. But also reach out to your friends and family that are succeeding in their careers and ask them who they went through for resume writing services.
Mac Prichard:
Terrific. Well, let’s go through your list of seven tips that anyone can use to revamp their resume fast. Number one on your list is to make sure that the fonts you use on your resume are ATS friendly, and ATS, of course, stands for Applicant Tracking System. What fonts work best, Ashley, with an ATS?
Ashley Faison:
So the best fonts that I’ve seen are either Arial, Times New Roman, Calibri, Garamond, Georgia, or Helvetica, the basic fonts. So, if you’re using specialized fonts that are sometimes seen in applications such as Canva, those fonts cannot be read by the ATS.
Mac Prichard:
What happens to your resume if your font isn’t ATS-friendly?
Ashley Faison:
When your resume is going through the applicant tracking system, it’s trying to read your resume and pull the information from your resume into a system that the hiring manager or recruiter is using to screen, and if you’re using a font that’s not ATS-friendly, the font can be jumbled or misread and sometimes won’t even move over to the program that the hiring manager or recruiter is using to screen the applications.
So then, your application, if it can’t be screened, you’ll be screened out. They’re going to go for the applications or the resumes that they can easily read in their system.
Mac Prichard:
Terrific. We’re gonna take a break, Ashley. Stay with us. When we return, Ashley Faison will continue to share her seven tips for how to revamp your resume fast.
Here’s another way to revamp your resume.
Go to macslist.org/topresume.
An expert writer at TopResume will review your resume for free.
Go to macslist.org/topresume.
You’ll get tips you can use right away to make your resume better.
Or can hire TopResume to do it for you.
Go to macslist.org/topresume.
Now, let’s get back to the show.
We’re back in the Mac’s List studio. I’m talking with Ashley Faison.
She’s a certified resume writer, a coach, and the founder of ashleyfaison.com.
It’s a black-owned business that improves the economic status and quality of life of women through coaching and resume writing.
Ashley joins us from Sacramento, California.
Now, Ashley, before the break, we were talking about your seven tips for how to revamp your resume, and we also talked about some general issues to consider when doing this. You took us through tip number one. Let’s go through the remainder of your list, numbers two through seven.
And the second item on your list of seven ways to revamp your resume fast is to read your resume backwards to check for spelling and grammar. Why do you recommend this, Ashley? How does it help you as a candidate?
Ashley Faison:
When you’re applying for jobs, it’s easy to rush through the process and try to apply for as many jobs as possible. But I think stopping to look at your resume and read it backwards helps you catch mistakes that you wouldn’t catch reading it forward. Because instead of trying to read to understand, you’re trying to read to catch errors.
When you’re reading it forward – your resume – you get into the zone of just reading it and trying to make sure it makes sense. But when you’re reading it backwards, it’s not going to make sense. So, it’s easy to identify errors this way.
Mac Prichard:
What about the online tools? There’s so many of them. Two that come to mind, of course, are SpellCheck and Grammarly. Can you rely on these online tools to find spelling and grammar mistakes?
Ashley Faison:
You can, to an extent, so I would definitely suggest using them. I personally use Grammarly. But you don’t want to solely rely on these because they won’t catch everything.
Mac Prichard:
Number three on your list of seven ways to revamp your resume fast is to list the quantifiable skills of the job you’re applying for in your descriptions. Tell us more about this. What do you have in mind here?
Ashley Faison:
So, what I ask clients that I work with to do is to print out the job posting or the job description and the qualifications that are needed for the job.
Print it out; highlight on a piece of paper which qualifications you already have, which duties from the job description you’ve already done. So you want to make sure that all of those highlights, everything that you’ve highlighted from the job description, and that qualifications is on your resume somewhere.
Mac Prichard:
And how does that help you as a candidate when you do that?
Ashley Faison:
When you do this, you’re making sure that you’re hitting certain keywords and that you are putting yourself out there in a way that is, you’re promoting yourself. So, the resume is a promotion tool for the candidates and the hiring managers, and you’re promoting yourself in a way that speaks to the job that they’re trying to hire for.
Mac Prichard:
In your experience, Ashley, do most candidates do this? Do they take the time to review the job posting, highlight those keywords and skills, and then update their resume to address those points?
Ashley Faison:
No. So, when I suggest this tip, it’s always an aha moment for the clients that I work with because it completely makes sense, but for some reason, a lot of job applicants think that they need to go off of the top of their head and try to create a resume using no outside tools, using nothing, just using their own brain and expertise. And you can actually pull from the resources that the company and the job have provided you.
I would even suggest going onto the company’s website and seeing if there’s any vision, mission, values that you align with that you could integrate into your resume, as well.
Mac Prichard:
And in your experience, when hiring managers see a candidate who’s done this, who’s talking about the skills and experiences that are singled out in the job posting, or even reflecting back something about the company mission, what does a hiring manager think when they see a resume like that?
Ashley Faison:
This is very impressive. A lot of candidates won’t do this, and this is how job applicants shine through and show that they are the perfect fit for the position and the company that they’re applying for.
Mac Prichard:
Number four on your list of seven tips to revamp your resume fast is to add the software skills that you’ve used that are mentioned in a job posting. How does this help you as an applicant when you do this in your resume, Ashley?
Ashley Faison:
So, a lot of companies right now are moving to online and less paper. So, when you get into a job, the hiring manager that you’re working with or your supervisor wants to know that you can go into that position and hit the ground running.
Showing that you have experience using certain software that the company uses for the position that you’re applying for will show that you can do that, that you’re tech-savvy, and that you are ready for this position. There’s not going to be a huge learning curve and a lot of training that they’re going to have invest in when they hire you.
Mac Prichard:
What do you recommend doing if you’re an applicant and you don’t have the software skills that are mentioned in the posting, but perhaps you have similar experience? Or maybe even software that isn’t mentioned. Should you include those software experiences on your resume?
Ashley Faison:
Definitely, if you have similar software experience, I would add that. But more than that, I would suggest that you go online and look for training courses that specialize in the software that the company uses. They can be quick. They can be long. It just depends on the dedication and the investment of time that you want to pour into possibly obtaining this position.
How much does it mean to you? Are you willing to take the time to learn some of the software so that you can be prepared?
Mac Prichard:
Number five on your list of seven steps you can take to revamp your resume fast is to remove your full address from your resume. Why do you recommend doing this, Ashley?
Ashley Faison:
I recommend doing this, really, just to prevent identity theft and any fraud. There’s a lot of different scams that are acting as if they’re a company and trying to get people to apply so that they can use your information.
If you don’t have your full address on there, then it’s one bit of information that they can not use with whatever scam they’re using or planning and developing. So what I would suggest is to just put the city and state of wherever you’re residing at on your resume.
Mac Prichard:
You work with a lot of candidates because you’re a resume writer and a career coach. Are you finding that job scams are an increasing problem?
Ashley Faison:
Definitely, the more we are entering this digital era and relying on it more and more, the more scammers are moving from just working outside of the digital space to now very prevalent in the digital space.
Mac Prichard:
And do legitimate employers care about your full postal address? Does that matter to them at all?
Ashley Faison:
No, not at all. You won’t even need that until you have been offered the position and you’re completing your onboarding paperwork.
Mac Prichard:
The sixth item on your list of seven tips for revamping your resume fast is to add impact and achievement statements. Tell us what you have in mind here, Ashley.
Ashley Faison:
So when you are working at your current job, I’d like candidates to think of what achievements they’ve made. What have they been recognized for? What have their supervisors mentioned that they’re really, really good at?
And also analyze how many tasks do they process in a week or a month. How many customers do they reach in a week or, a month, or a year? How much cost savings have they made to the company? How much revenue have they produced in the last year or month?
And showing this really shows the impact and value that you’ll bring to another company. If a hiring manager or recruiter is looking at your resume and they see these impact and achievement statements, they’ll see, wow, if she did that, or he did that for their previous company, imagine what they can do for us, and this is the type of person we need. The type of person that can make this impact to our company.
Mac Prichard:
I could see the value of this approach. In your experience, Ashley, do most candidates get this? And do they talk about results in the resume? Or do they focus instead on responsibilities?
Ashley Faison:
They typically focus on responsibilities and duties, which really that will just put you in the pile of candidates that are pretty much all the same or normal, quote, unquote, and if you add the impact and achievements that you’ve made to your positions, it will help you stand out.
Mac Prichard:
Number seven on your list of seven ways to revamp your resume fast is to remove the years that you attended and graduated from college. How does this help you, Ashley?
Ashley Faison:
This is for my seasoned candidates who are really apprehensive of getting back into the workforce or promoting because of their age, and to prevent ageism or age discrimination, I would suggest not including your graduation date. Even if you’re from the younger generations and you’ve recently graduated. Just to prevent the age discrimination, whether you’re young or older, removing this graduation date will help prevent bias.
And, of course, at any age, you can graduate from college. But typically, a recruiter or hiring manager is immediately going to think, okay, maybe they’re younger if they graduated recently, or if you graduated in 1994, they’re gonna say, maybe they’re a little bit old for the demographic we want to hire here.
And, of course, that is illegal. So, to prevent that, I would suggest not including the graduation date.
Mac Prichard:
Well, it’s been a terrific conversation, Ashley. Now, tell us, what’s next for you?
Ashley Faison:
I am putting together a professional development program and am really, really excited to work with clients in a group setting online. Clients can go to my website at ashleyfaison.com and learn about my offerings there. I should have a new program up and running and ready for registration in October.
Mac Prichard:
Well, terrific. I know listeners can learn not only more about you and your services by visiting your website, but you encourage them to go to your Instagram page as well, and we’ll include both your website and your Instagram address in the website article and show notes about your episode. But that is iamashleyfaison on Instagram.
Now, Ashley, given all of the great advice you’ve shared today, what’s the one thing you want a listener to remember about your seven ways to revamp your resume fast?
Ashley Faison:
I’m hoping that you walk away knowing that you have everything inside of you that a new job, a promotion, really, really needs. That you have the confidence to pull out your resume while listening to this podcast and start revamping your resume right away.
Mac Prichard:
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Next week, our guest will be Elizabeth Bachman.
She’s the go-to person for advanced training in speaking, presentation skills, and leadership.
Elizabeth also hosts the “Speakers Who Get Results” podcast.
Facts about your accomplishments matter when you look for work.
But the stories you tell about your career are what employers remember.
Join us next Wednesday when Elizabeth Bachman and I talk about how to use stories in your job search.
Until next time, thanks for letting us help you find your dream job.
This show is produced by Mac’s List.
Susan Thornton-Hough schedules our guests and writes our newsletter. Lisa Kislingbury Anderson manages our social media.
Our sound engineer is Matt Fiorillo. Ryan Morrison at Podfly Productions edits the show. Dawn Mole creates our transcripts. And our music is by Freddy Trujillo.
This is Mac Prichard. See you next week.