Essential Tech Tools for Crafting an Impressive Resume
Resume writing is an extremely useful skill in 2024. Due to the extreme digitalization of the hiring process, your job-hunting success is highly dependent on your writing and presentation skills.
This is more relevant to the people who work in technology-related fields such as web development and software development (among others). They have to provide actual working portfolios to prove their skills.
This information also needs to go into the resume in a succinct yet bold manner. This means that a different approach is required for making a resume.
Today, we are going to teach you how to use tech tools that aid you in this endeavor and make your resume more effective. Note that all the tips in this article can be applied by anyone creating a resume.
Important Tools to Improve Your Resume
Given below are some types of tools that will vastly improve your resume when used correctly. Let’s take a look.
Keyword Scanners
Keyword scanners are a type of tool that can search for keywords in a job description and present them to you. These keywords are extremely useful because incorporating them into your resume makes it more likely to get you selected.
The question is, why? Well, the thing is that nobody manually checks resumes anymore, well, at least at the screening stage. Instead, companies use application tracking software (ATS) to automatically select the most suitable resumes out of hundreds.
ATS works by searching for specific keywords relevant to a job description. These keywords are provided by the users of the ATS. The problem here is that they don’t make those keywords public. As a result, you have to do a lot of guesswork.
However, keyword scanning tools like Huntr can help you find these keywords. That’s because most of the time the keywords are used in the job descriptions. Huntr and other tools like it can analyze the descriptions and select the words that are most likely being used by the ATS for screening.
Granted, these tools are not 100% accurate, but they are much better than blind guesswork.
Resume Builders
Resume builders are a class of tools that help you create your resume. They provide templates for different job types, and some of the more sophisticated ones even help with the text.
With the advent of AI tools, resume building has become much easier as AI can help consolidate an applicant’s information quickly and efficiently. A good resume builder can help you generate a suitable format for listing your skills and achievements related to the job.
Tools like Rezi can provide the most suitable resume formats, while other tools like resumekit can write the content. So, using such tools in conjunction with each other ensures that your resume looks appropriate, lists all your skills, and has a consistent tone throughout the document.
QR Codes
One of the biggest problems faced by resume writers is to list their portfolios in a suitable manner. We mentioned in the introduction as well that people who have a lot of software-related skills have issues making their resumes.
They have to link their portfolio projects in a way that they can manage the reader’s expectations while also showing their skills’ worth.
Simply listing URLs of websites where the project can be found is viable, but it's not eye-catching or interesting. At the very least, a description of the project should accompany the link.
However, a much more interesting method is to use a QR code. Tools like QR code generator can help you create custom codes that link to your portfolio.
QR codes also work with physical and digital versions of a resume. With physical versions, a reader can use a QR scanner on their phone (usually built-in) to navigate to the portfolio website. In digital versions, QR codes can often be clicked to open the link.
A simple URL does not have that versatility. It also does not look as good, and it is not eye-catching. A QR code has none of those problems. So, it is a great idea to use it in your resume.
Grammar Checkers
A grammar checker is an extremely nifty tool that can find and remove common grammar mistakes from a write-up. It is a good idea to use a grammar checker on your resume to look for errors before you finalize it.
After all, bad grammar leaves a terrible impression on the reader. It can be enough to get your resume disregarded. So, always make sure that your resume has impeccable grammar.
Aside from your resume, if you have a portfolio website, then make sure the grammar there is perfect, too. After all, your portfolio is pretty much a part of your resume.
If there is a difference in the quality of grammar between the portfolio and the resume, then one might suspect that different people made them. This can sow some distrust against the candidate. You can avoid this by using a grammar checker.
You can use various tools for this, such as Grammarly, Scribbr, and Quillbot.
Design Tools
Design tools are great for making your resume look stylish and professional. A simple text-based resume may work with an ATS system, but ultimately, the final screening is done by a human.
Your resume needs to impress that person. Since visuals are a key part of giving a good impression, your resume needs to look the part in order to be selected.
You can use design tools like Canva to choose a professional-looking resume template. Canva also allows you to change the design yourself. For example, you can change the color, size, and transparency of the various elements. You can even add or remove design elements if you like.
This makes designing your resume much easier. There are other design tools that you can use, but Canva has the advantage of being free.
Conclusion
So, there you have it, some necessary tech tools to enhance your resume. By using these tools effectively, you can ensure that your resume not only passes the machine screening but also the manual/human screening.