13 Best Kept Resume Skills


Even if you’re on the wonderful journey to becoming a business owner, chances are you might have to return to the daily grind from time to time. That doesn’t mean you still can’t include your entrepreneurial skills and experiences on your resume. So it’s best to know these best kept resume secrets specifically made for entrepreneurs.

1. A Few Seconds, and it’s Over
According to Monster, recruiters spend about six seconds scanning your resume before making a decision. This means if you don’t grab their attention within the first few seconds of them looking at your resume, it will likely end up in the trash.
Focus on a few attention grabbing facts or achievements from your business owner days, that will catch their eye and make them want to read further.

2. Job Titles Really Do Matter
Having the right job title can make alll the difference. Too often, people write something like “staff member” when they should write “marketing staff member” or “staff writer.” By being specific, you’ll give the hiring manager a better idea of what you actually did while on the job.

3. There’s No Such Thing as a Perfect Resume Format
There are plenty of resume formats out there, including reverse-chronological, functional, non-traditional, combination, and a few others. Something employers won’t tell you is that if they didn’t specify what type of resume to send in the job posting, it really doesn’t matter too much. You should choose the one that best represents you, and that shows off your good qualities to the hiring manager.

4. Objective Statement? Get Rid of It!
Objective statements are a bit of a joke, and most hiring managers skip over them anyway. Our advice? Don’t waste your time writing one. According to SnagAJob, objective statements either make a hiring manager mad or bore them to death. The only time you should write an objective statement is when you can do so in a creative and eye-catching way that you think the hiring manager would love. Otherwise, leave it off your resume altogether.

5. Save “Being Humble” for Your Grandma
It’s important to note that you should never lie on a resume. That being said, bending the truth a little isn’t the end of the world. You should feel free to list projects you only worked on a little bit, and talk up experiences and achievements you may not have really been an integral part of but that you were still involved in.

6. Bullet Points and Keywords Work
You need to make your resume scannable. Most of the time that means utilizing bullet points. And while using buzzwords or keywords in your resume may seem silly, the fact of the matter is that they can make a pretty big difference. According to Job-Hunt, it’s best to front-load keywords in your resume. This means putting them at or near the top of the resume.

7. Quantify Your Skills and Achievements!
Putting generic skills or achievements on your resume may do more harm than good. By not showing the hiring manager exactly how the skills and achievements matter, you run the risk of annoying them. That means your resume will likely end up at the bottom of the pile — or worse, the trash can.

You were a business owner after all! trash can. Get specific. Say how much money your company earned in the past year, and discuss the exact percentages that you saw revenue rise due to your skills. You always want to show and not tell a potential employer why you’re great.

Resume writing is an art, but an art that can be learned. Good resumes all do the same thing, despite the fact that they may look very different from one another. Crafting a good resume is done by pulling together all the right elements into one cohesive and impressive document. Most employers are essentially looking for the same kinds of things on a resume. All you need to know is what they would like to see (and what they wish you’d avoid doing).

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