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Enhancing Your Resume: Sound...

Enhancing Your Resume: Sound Better to Employers

8 min read · Updated on November 07, 2024

What are the secrets to learning how to sound impressive on a resume?

Today's employers often need to sift through dozens or even hundreds of applications to find a handful of candidates they want to interview. If your resume is dull and uninspiring, you'll never stand out from the crowd. That's why it's important to know how to sound impressive on your resume. Without the right strategy, however, that can be easier said than done!

In this guide, we'll explain the benefits you can enjoy when you learn how to sound impressive on your resume, explore tips that can make your resume details more compelling, and provide some examples that show you how to turn boring information into a more dynamic and interesting presentation.

Why does your resume need to be impressive?

If you've ever struggled to gain traction in your job search and have been disappointed in the number of interviews you've received, chances are your resume isn't making the right impression on employers. The good news is you can change that dynamic by learning how to sound impressive on your resume. If you can accomplish that feat, you'll enjoy a whole host of benefits, including:

Separating yourself from the competition

When you learn how to sound impressive on a resume, you can immediately differentiate yourself from candidates who are still relying on dusty old resume habits from yesteryear. While other job seekers are focused on dry lists of job roles and skills, you'll be emphasizing the key qualities and achievements today's employers expect to see from top candidates.

Establishing yourself as a professional and expert in your field

With a clear and concise resume that delivers compelling content to highlight your qualifications, you can demonstrate you're the professional hiring managers are looking for. Conveying skills, experience, and achievements in a compelling way can help to prove you're an expert in your field who can provide real benefits to any team.

Highlight your skills and potential value as an employee

The key here is “value.” Ultimately, all employers are looking for candidates who can bring value to their organization – which is why those boring resumes no longer resonate with hiring managers. When an employer picks up your resume, they have one main question in mind: “What can this candidate do for my company?”

By learning how to sound impressive on a resume, you can help that employer see your unique value proposition and inspire them to invite you for an interview.

Tips to help you learn how to sound impressive in your resume

Now that we've explained why it's so important to know how to sound impressive on a resume, it's time to explore some of the best ways to achieve that goal. The following tips can help you bolster your resume to create a truly compelling document that makes the right impression on employers.

Tailor your resume to the job

When you're trying to figure out how to sound impressive on your resume, start by reviewing the job description for the position you're seeking. The job posting will typically include specific skills and experiences the employer expects great candidates to bring to the job. The words they use to describe those qualifications are keywords you should add to your resume.

If the job description calls for project management experience, make sure you include those exact words in your resume – either in your skill section or in one of the bullet point achievements you list in your work experience section. Including those keywords can help you speak directly to the employer's needs, which will help you stand out from the competition.

As an added bonus, the inclusion of those specific keywords will also help your resume satisfy any applicant tracking system the employer is using. Those systems scan for unique keywords related to skills, educational credentials, and experience. If your resume fails to get past those ATS screenings, chances are the employer will never get a chance to see it.

Related reading : How to Make an ATS-Friendly Resume - Tips for ATS 2024

Create a compelling skills section

If you've only been listing a few key skills in your resume, it's time to focus on revamping your Core Competencies section. The most effective resumes list anywhere from nine to fifteen skills in that section – including a balanced mix of both hard and soft skills. You should always start by identifying any required skills in the job description and then add other relevant skills to round out your list. You don't need to include everything you know how to do, but you should make sure your skill list demonstrates your expertise.

Related reading : What Are Skills? (With Examples and Tips on How to Improve Them)

Use powerful verbs to describe achievements

It's also important to use powerful verbs when you're describing your achievements. Never use boring terms like “responsible for” or “led” – hiring managers' eyes will often glaze over when they read that type of dull language. Instead, use more powerful and descriptive words like:

Spearheaded

Implemented

Facilitated

Revolutionized

Accelerated

Reorganized

We've compiled a list of more than one hundred of these power words that can help you sound more impressive to employers. Before you finalize your resume, make sure you check out that list and see which ones will work for you:

Related reading : 100 + Keywords, Verbs and Action Words for Your Resume

Focus on value

This is probably the single most important tip for anyone who wants to learn how to sound impressive on a resume: emphasize your value. Of course, that doesn't mean you should use your resume to boast about yourself or describe yourself as a valuable asset. Instead, you need to include examples of accomplishments that demonstrate your value.

The key here is to create bullet point achievement examples for each job title you include in your work experience section. Describe those accomplishments using real numbers that prove the type of value you can provide to any employer who's savvy enough to offer you a job. For example:

Reorganized sales funnel process, reducing customer acquisition and onboarding time by 33%, contributing to 27% boost in sales volume and 21% increase in profitability

Designed and executed marketing campaign for online rebranding of ABC Corp., doubling customer engagement and increasing online sales revenue by 42%

In each of those examples, the candidate expresses value by highlighting specific achievements that demonstrate how they used their skills and expertise to create tangible and quantifiable results for their employer. By incorporating that strategy into your resume, you can more effectively highlight your potential value as an employee by demonstrating your proven track record of success.

Related reading : 47 Accomplishment Examples for Your Resume: Expert Picks

Weave testimonials into your resume

Have you been recognized for a major achievement? Have supervisors praised you for your innovation, problem-solving, or leadership abilities? You can add testimonials like that to your resume, too – but only if you know how to do it the right way. The key is to include that testimonial in one of your bullet points. For example:

“Received company praise and promotion for my proven ability to provide innovative solutions that consistently boosted productivity and profits.”

Eliminate or explain employment gaps

While most employers understand that even the most talented individuals may have some employment gaps in their work history, it doesn't hurt to minimize those gaps as much as possible. There are some effective ways to do this without resorting to dishonest means.

For example, if you have six months of unemployment between two jobs, you can close that gap by listing any skill development, freelance jobs, or volunteer work you did during that time period.

Create a stellar profile summary

Once you've completed the main sections of your resume, go back and draft a truly compelling profile summary statement. This should be a three to five-sentence paragraph that highlights your years of experience, job title, notable skills, and an attention-grabbing achievement. This summary should be placed near the top of your resume – below your resume headline and above your core competencies section. Use power words, several keywords from the job description, and real numbers to quantify your accomplishments.

Related reading : Resume Profile Explained (with Examples)

Learn how to sound impressive on a resume and land more interviews!

The job market is more competitive than ever before, and it's vital to stand out from the competition if you want employers to take notice of your qualifications. By learning how to sound impressive on a resume, you can create a more tailored and compelling resume document that speaks to each employer's needs. That can help capture their attention and increase the odds you'll be offered an interview opportunity.

Need more help learning how to sound impressive on a resume? Our team of resume experts is always available to provide the insight and assistance you need. Get your free resume review today!

This article was originally written by Rachel Fletcher. It's been updated by Ken Chase.

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Career Planning
Finding a Job

How to Make a Job Sound Super Impressive on Your Resume

Tips for Jazzing up Your Resume Job Descriptions

Madeleine Burry writes about careers and job searching for The Balance. She covers topics around career changes, job searching, and returning from maternity leave, and has been writing for The Balance since 2014.

Use Numbers

Prioritize readability, talk accomplishments, not tasks, choose powerful words.

Digital Vision / Getty Images

When it comes to applying for jobs, looking good on paper is important. After all, you'll only get to the next step—an interview—if your resume grabs the attention of hiring managers. If you've already done the basics of crafting your resume, it's time to move on to the next phase: making each individual position shine with the work experience section .

But how? We've rounded up tips and tricks that'll help make jobs sound impressive on your resume—without going too far, and making yourself appear boastful or silly.

Which sounds better? Option 1: "Served tables at busy restaurant" or Option 2: "Served 15 tables simultaneously at busy restaurant."

You'll probably pick option number two, which is just a bit more descriptive thanks to the use of numbers. It's surprising how meaningful metrics can be—and that's true even for positions that are English-major friendly. If your position is staff writer, your resume can list how many articles you write each month or how many page views you receive online, for instance.

Go ahead and q uantify your job descriptions with numbers , whether it's tables served, customers helped, or percent of growth in sales.

You probably thought about formatting, from font choice to margin size, at some point during your resume creation. But take a second look at each job description that you have listed, with an eye toward how easily each description can be absorbed. Consider the readability from both a copy and a design perspective.

If it's a bit too take in, consider cutting some copy or using less jargon. (Some jargon is good, but using all buzzwords and acronyms can make a resume hard to read.) And, make sure there's plenty of white space—you can add this by using bullet points or paragraph breaks.

Of course, it goes without saying that having typos or grammatical errors in your job description is detrimental to their readability.

Use this resume proofreading checklist to help guarantee your document is error-free.

It's tempting when describing a job on your resume to create a bulleted list of tasks, essentially writing down your day (or week's) to do list when you were on the job. But most likely, that's information that hiring managers already know from looking at the job title. Instead of a to-do list, share accomplishments and achievements.

Rather than write, "Designed window display on monthly basis," you might write, "Increased customer walk-in rate by 10% with themed window displays, updated on monthly basis."

If you led a meeting, talk about what happened during that meeting, how you steered it, or what got done as a result of your leadership. Or, if you create a monthly report, talk about why the report matter—did it help keep the budget on track, prioritize sales efforts, or engage customers? See more tips for sharing accomplishments on your resume .

A caution: Don't go over the top with your word choice. No need to break out the thesaurus on a hunt for zany, unusual words! But be aware that some words are just more exciting than others—here are some recommended power words to use on your resume .

Review your job descriptions for words that get re-used throughout the document. Try to vary them more. Instead of "managed," for instance, try "supervised" or "coordinated."

There are some words that often come up on resumes. Think: "team player" or "detail oriented." These words and phrases can feel stale to hiring managers. Consider ways you can show off that you have these skills rather than stating you possess them. For instance, instead of saying "detail-oriented" maybe you can have a bullet point about "Releasing clean code and helping others track down small code errors."

One cautionary note: There's making your job sound impressive and meaningful—and then there's boasting. If you puff up recognizable positions with over-the-top language, it can really backfire and make you seem silly.

The hiring manager will know what it means if your job title is "assistant" or "manager" and aggrandizing the position's responsibilities with inflated language won't help you land an interview.

And definitely, do not be deceitful or dishonest. Lying on your resume can cost you a job opportunity and is even grounds for dismissal if the lie is discovered after you're hired on—here's more on why it's important to keep your resume honest.

Make a Mistake-Free Resume with Our Resume Fixer

A full list of all the mistakes our resume fixer has found in your resume

Make sure your resume is error-free and compelling with Enhancv’s AI Resume Fixer

Resume fixer is a free and quick tool that can help you fix mistakes easily, comprehensive grammar and spelling fixer, repetition fixer, buzzwords and cliche fixer, quantifiable impact fixer.

Enhance your resume with our comprehensive resume improvement toolset

Content analyzer.

Our resume fixer tool does more than just rectify spelling mistakes — it offers actionable guidance to improve your content. If you've overlooked the inclusion of measurable achievements, our tool will highlight these areas. With insights gathered from thousands of successful resumes, our fixer tool ensures your qualifications and skills are showcased optimally.

Referral Link

Sharing your resume with someone who can offer a fresh perspective is a step towards securing that job. Use the referral link to your resume and send it to someone who’s been employed at the same company, or even better, in the same department or position. Connect with ex-employees on LinkedIn or join relevant Facebook Groups. By asking their opinion on your resume, you can gain valuable insights and feedback.

In This Guide:

What are the most common resume mistakes that need to be corrected, is hiring a resume writer the only way to fix a resume.

Poor Spelling and Grammar : This is perhaps the most common mistake, and one of the most detrimental. Poor spelling and grammar can give a employer the impression that you lack attention to detail or professionalism. Always proofread your resume before sending it out.
Being Too Vague : Your resume needs to clearly show what you've achieved in your previous roles. Statements that are vague and don't contain specific results or actions can weaken your resume. Always try to quantify your achievements.
Too Long or Too Short : Ideally, a resume should be one to two pages long. If it's too long, it might be seen as unfocused or filled with irrelevant information. If it's too short, it may appear that you don't have much experience or achievements.
Using an Unprofessional Email Address : Your contact information should reflect your professional identity, and an unprofessional email address can undermine that.
Not Tailoring the Resume for the Job : It's important to customize your resume for each job application , highlighting the skills and experience that are most relevant to the role you're applying for. A generic resume can come across as uninterested or unfocused.
Including Irrelevant Information : Information that's not related to the job you're applying for can make your resume look unfocused. This includes irrelevant job experience, hobbies, or personal information.
Lying or Exaggerating : While it can be tempting to inflate your achievements or skills, this can backfire badly if you're caught, and it's often easy for employers to verify this information. Always be truthful on your resume.
Poor Formatting : A poorly formatted resume can be difficult to read and can give the impression of unprofessionalism. Make sure your resume is neat, well-organized, and uses consistent font and style.
Using Clichés : Using cliché terms or phrases like "hardworking", "team player", or "detail-oriented" without supporting them with specific examples can make your resume seem generic.
Not Including Keywords : Many companies use software to screen resumes, and these systems often look for specific keywords related to the job. Make sure your resume includes keywords that are relevant to the job description.

Remember, your resume is often the first impression a potential employer gets of you, so it's crucial to make it as polished and professional as possible.

No, hiring a professional resume writer is not the only way to fix a resume. While it can be helpful for some people, especially if you're struggling with the format, language, or selling your experience effectively, there are several other strategies you can employ to improve your resume:

Self-Review : Spend time going through your resume meticulously. Look for errors in spelling, grammar, punctuation, and formatting. Make sure that your resume is accurate, clear, concise, and professional-looking.
Tailoring : Always customize your resume for each job you apply for. Use the job description to identify what the employer is looking for, and tailor your resume to match those needs.
Peer Review : Have someone else, such as a trusted friend or mentor, look over your resume. They may spot errors or areas for improvement that you may have missed.
Enhancv’s Resources : There are numerous of free Enhancv resources online, including templates, guides, and advice from career experts, that can help you write and format a strong resume.
Career Centers : If you're a student or recent graduate, your university's career center can provide guidance and feedback on your resume.
Workshops and Seminars : Look for resume-writing workshops or seminars in your area. These can provide valuable tips and feedback, and some are free to attend.
Professional Feedback : If you're in a professional organization or network, consider asking for feedback from peers or mentors in your field.
Using Resume Builders: There are several online resume builders that provide structured templates and guidance to help you create a professional resume.

Remember, the goal of a resume is to present your skills, experience, and qualifications clearly and succinctly to potential employers. You don't necessarily need a professional writer to achieve this, although they can certainly help if you're struggling.