User Friendliness
Quality & Professionalism
Cost
Support Options
Customer Service Availability
Dozens of resume building tools are available on the internet, and as the job market evolves and ambitious candidates demand more, new sites spring up, and old ones fade away. But a few things don’t change: Employers are always searching for resumes that stand out at a single glance, and candidates want professional, user-friendly resume builders that can help them create sleek applications that help them get noticed and land interviews. Some studies suggest that employers skim a resume 6 seconds before making an initial decision.
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We explored each site on the list from multiple points of view. We stepped into the shoes of a demanding employer, a candidate with limited time, a candidate with high quality standards, and a candidate who needs both speed and excellence: a flawless resume created as fast as possible. We looked at the resume examples presented by each site, and we reviewed each builder for user friendliness, cost, customer service availability, support options, and the overall quality and professionalism of the finished product.Then we presented the results in a simple grid. Each site receives an overall mark for the metrics listed, plus a brief review of their pros and cons.
User Friendliness
Quality & Professionalism
Cost
Support Options
Customer Service Availability
25%
User Friendliness
25%
Quality & Professionalism
20%
Cost
15%
Support Options
15%
Customer Service Availability
A beautiful resume can be a work of visual art. It can be a comprehensive account of your lifetime of career accomplishments. It can impress your colleagues and make you feel confident about where you’ve been and where you’re going. But while these are all great qualities for a strong resume, there’s really only one quality that matters when you’re responding to a job post: Will your resume result in an interview?
An effective resume will get you more interviews, while a weak one may do the complete opposite. In addition, an effective resume doesn’t just mean the document is well-written; there is actually a lot more than that. Here are some writing tips to help you get past the recruiting software (ATS) and get more interviews lined up.
Divide your document into five sections placed in this order:
You can add additional sections if you choose, such as awards or special projects, but these five sections should always be present on your resume, regardless of the job title or industry. Populate each section with just a few lines of text or with bullet points for readability. Keep in mind, your entire document should never exceed two pages.
If a job ad requires “a skilled account rep with hands-on design experience,” then your resume should include the phrases “skilled account rep” and “hands-on design experience.” Find the time to customize your document before submitting each resume, since matching keywords to match the language and words used in the job post can help your resume get past an ATS and into the hands of a human recruiter.
Look for repeating patterns, phrases, and industry jargon in job posts, and work them into your resume. Mimicking the language of the job ad will increase your odds of appearing in search results and getting an interview. If you don’t have time to customize your resume, then using an automatic resume customizer is your best bet.
While often the early readers of your resume won’t be people but resume scanners and other technology, the ultimate goal is to have a human being review your application documents. So don’t forget about the real human hiring manager when designing and writing your resume.
Make sure your language is concise and fluid—not a jumbled collection of keywords. Your phrases should be more than just understandable; reading them should be a genuinely pleasant experience.
You’ve achieved many things during the course of your career, and that’s great! Each achievement represents a hard-fought victory and deserves a moment in the sun. But before you pack every detail onto a one-page document, take a step back. Some of these details may be redundant or implied. For example, if you’re a senior editor, do you really need to include “proficient in Microsoft Word” in your resume? Condense your claims so that the most important, unique, and impressive ones will shine the brightest.
Most employers will skim your education, skills and work history sections with an eye for target words and red flags, but none of these sections will be read as thoroughly and carefully as the summary at the top of the page. When readers have only a few seconds to spare, they focus on this section above all others. So, as you draft this short paragraph, don’t cut corners. Make sure your summary is concise, well-written, and that it represents the very best of all you have to offer.
