Test and refine

Once you have developed a clear and logical structure for your document, as well as crafted bullets that convey the relevance of a particular task convincingly, the third step in building a great résumé is to test and refine yours accordingly.

This requires doing a more detailed analysis of the elements that are most relevant in your document, including evidence on how your skills have developed and most solid evidence for a particular skill set you’re making a claim about.

This might mean that you reorder bullets under certain role or project headings to ensure the most relevant bullet or most impressive achievement stands out primarily. When you’re completely satisfied with the structure and organization of your document, you will need to make sure that it’s formatted to add to your argument.

How did Navid test and refine his résumé to take it from good to great?

Rationale:

Navid moved “Education” further down on his résumé because the skills he used to earn his degrees are more important to highlight than the actual credentials. Further to this point, although the job description asks for a master’s degree, Navid knows that he is not automatically qualified (or overqualified) for this position just because he has a PhD.

Navid realizes that he needs to provide evidence of the relevant skills he developed throughout his education. This evidence can be found under his role as a doctoral researcher and within his “Relevant Projects” section — both of which appear before the “Education” section.

Rationale (first bullet point):

Because the job description states that XYZ University is seeking someone with “2 to 3 years of university (or related) experience” Navid wants to clearly indicate that he meets this key qualification. He recognizes that it’s a good strategy to start with a strong, quantified experience bullet in the “Summary of Qualifications” section and to frame his experience in such a way as to map it onto the job description.

Rationale (second bullet point):

By adding that he won a student-nominated Teaching Assistant Award, Navid provides the employer with direct evidence that he is well-liked and able to connect with students. This statement also indicates to the employer where he/she can find additional evidence in support of the claim that Navid has exceptional interpersonal skills (i.e., under his Teaching Assistant role).

Rationale (first bullet point):

By moving this point further down under his Doctoral Researcher role, Navid is able to highlight his experience supervising students as well as his collaboration and presentation skills before drawing attention to his written communication skills. Based on the job description, Navid believes these skills are more central to the role than written communication. He also knows that it’s important to strategically organize his résumé, so the most relevant information appears first.

Rationale (fifth bullet point):

Rather than simply listing that he presented at a conference, Navid has identified the positive outcome that stemmed from this action. By adding that his presentation resulted in an invitation to present again, Navid provides tangible evidence of his ability to successfully engage an audience.

Rationale:

Navid changed the verb in this bullet point from “gave” to “presented” because the latter is a strong, action-oriented verb that is clearly associated with a skill set that Navid made claims about in his “Summary of Qualifications” — namely, communication skills. He also explained how he presented the information using PowerPoint slides and interactive activities to refer to his computer proficiency and to highlight his engagement with students.

Rationale:

By specifying that he worked with first year students and not just students in general, Navid can show greater alignment between his experience and what the employer is looking for. The job description explicitly states that supporting first year students is a critical component of the Student Success Centre’s programming.

Rationale:

Navid removed the specific content information from this bullet point because it is irrelevant to the position. Including extraneous technical details that are not meaningful to the employer distracts from Navid’s argument and makes it weaker. However, by describing his data analysis skills in more general terms (e.g., “quantitative analysis techniques”, “predict outcomes”), Navid focuses on the most applicable aspects of his knowledge for this particular job.  

Rationale:

By adding additional contextual information and reformatting this section, Navid maintains the same professional formatting that appears in the rest of the résumé rather than having a list of activities and interests that appears like a brief afterthought at the end of the document.