What is The Number One Thing Employers Look for on a Resume?

John Krautzel
Posted by in Career Advice •


A powerful resume captures the attention of applicant trackers and HR managers alike. Including the right keywords from the job description, organizing it with bullet points and laying out what you've accomplished over the past several years are all steps toward a successful resume, but they might not give you the leg up you need. Although they're great to include, these things aren't necessarily what employers look for in a resume.

The most important aspect of your powerful resume is showing a company the potential return on investment it gets from hiring you. How much bang does the employer get for bucks spent on paying your salary, health insurance, catered weekly lunch and childcare? If you can prove that you're the best investment compared to the rest of the candidates, the job is yours.

Show how the company benefits from your presence by providing examples of proven results from the past. It's great that you spent five years managing a sales team of five people, but an employer wants to know what happened on your watch. A powerful resume includes the amount of revenue increased because of your sales team when you worked there. Other ways to affect an employer's bottom line include increasing efficiency, saving money and making money.

Take your past results and demonstrate how to solve a prospective employer's problem. Research the company to discover ways to improve cash flow, no matter what kind of position you have in front of you. As an example, suppose you apply for an administrative assistant job. Show that you can make the position more efficient by automating the ordering of office supplies, cutting down on paperwork and organizing work areas more efficiently.

The same goes for IT employees. Demonstrate how to improve the way workers access information through secure networks while using software that crunches the right performance indicators. If you recognize that a company's computers and software are out of date, that's a problem you need to solve on your powerful resume. Lay out a brief plan about why your past experience prepared you for the monumental task of replacing an old computer system.

An administrative assistant improves a company's bottom line by making the job waste less time. An IT person figures out how to run computers more efficiently. Both of these things cut expenses and increase profits, and that's where you find additional points to make on your powerful resume when you improve a firm's return on investment.

Add strong keywords to your resume that catch the attention of an HR manager. The word "results" literally leads into proven ways you helped employers in the past and how you can take your new employer to the next level. Use the word "proven" as a way start talking about your previous experiences and the way they prepared you for this next phase of your career. "Save" is an important word because you can save a business money by improving certain processes, decreasing expenses and limiting the time spent on projects.

A powerful resume sums up your ability to make the firm money. This catches anyone's attention because businesses are in it to earn profits. Show the boss the money, and the boss returns the favor.


Photo courtesy of website workshop at Flickr.com
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  • Nancy Anderson
    Nancy Anderson •

    @Eliot thanks for your comment. I would agree with you that the length isn't as important as the content. However, we get hammered all of the time for the length of our resumes and cover letters. That is why all of the recruiters and agencies are now saying short, short, short. From my perspective, I say - never sell yourself short. If you have the skills and background that the company is looking for, you best have it included or the game is over. Just make sure that you are not repeating tasks and that the technology that you are indicating is still valid and used. And keywords are king. We say it over and over again - use keywords or it won't receive the attention it deserves. Also, when you go on an interview, it's vital that you have a "resume" that covers everything that you have done - including your early work experience. I, too, have been in that situation where, on top of calming nerves, I had to struggle to remember what I did back then. Lessons learned. Now, on an interview, I will have my own personal resume in front of me - a comprehensive one that includes all tasks performed. This way I don't have to rack my brain to remember. Thanks @Eliot and best of luck.

  • Eliot S.
    Eliot S. •

    Short, short, short. This seems to be the most thing. Unfortunately, it isn't true. At least, not if the job you are applying for is highly technical, specialized and/or requires specific knowledge/experience. Hiring managers actually do care about who they hire and, therefore, their primary objective in not to flip through as many resumes as they can in 10 minutes. What is important is to catch their attention. This is why key words, not resume length, are most important. Once you have their attention, they will give your resume more than the alleged 6 second scan. Yes, everything you put in a resume should be relevant and important and it is not necessary to cover the same skill repetitively. But, if you have 5 pages worth of important experience, it should be there. In every pre-screen and interview I have had, even my early work experience was brought up by the interviewers. In fact, when I once experimented with a shorter resume by lobbing off the first half of my career, that period of experience became of greater focus, actually distracting from more important aspects of my more recent experience. I'm not saying your high school job as a paperboy should be on your resume, but if you have experience relevant to the job you are seeking, that is otherwise not represented, it should be on there.

  • Nancy Anderson
    Nancy Anderson •

    Thanks for the comments. @Andrew I know it can be frustrating. Aesthetics aside, the resume needs to be short, sweet and to the point. You need to capture keywords from the job posting and include them in your resume/cover letter so that they get through the ATS and into the hands of an HR person or a hiring manager. @Richard a resume is a resume is a resume. Doesn't matter what your job is, a resume still needs to get passed the gatekeeper (ATS). So, again, you need to keep it short and include keywords from the job posting. Bottom line here is that things have changed in the job seeker's world. Gone are the days when you could go into a company and fill out an application. For years now, even McDonald's and other fast-food places, have required a resume and an application to be completed online instead of in-person. Wish you all the best.

  • Steven P.
    Steven P. •

    Good advice for the millennials but for those of us 55+, the bang for the buck is obvious. In fact too obvious - how many times have I heard, "You're over qualified" (in other words, you are too old). In a world were little compensation is being offered - health care, vacation and time off, the real issue is there are too many people looking for too few jobs!

  • Eliot S.
    Eliot S. •

    Richard, having been a long distance trucker, I can suggest a few things: Being on time to pick up & drop off loads. Managing your drive and on-duty time, so you don't have to refuse loads. Being willing to go where and when they need you. Of course there are other obvious things, like no tickets, accidents, claims.

  • RICHARD B.
    RICHARD B. •

    not everyone is applying for an office job, how about some tips for the working class, no disrespect intended for those that sit at a desk and do the paperwork etc. but thats something im not really suited for, i am a transport driver, long distance is what i enjoy, I consider myself a paid tourist if you will, i see a lot of country, bottom line is only effective if i move my freight or what ever it is i am hauling at the moment on time, and run the truck cost efficiently, but what are they looking for in a resume that will get me that interview ?

  • Andrew C.
    Andrew C. •

    Let's make things even more complicated. Let's do research and spend countless hours of work deciding what color ink would be good to use one on resumes that will impress hiring managers between 2 and 3 pm in the afternoon! Research shows that meals have a divisive influence in hiring decisions, especially in entry level jobs. More? I say, let's keep it simple ok?

  • Nancy Anderson
    Nancy Anderson •

    @Rod pretty much anything that you do on a job affects the revenue for the company. I would ask my manager how my job affects the bottom line and if there are any metrics that they use. You could have finished a project early thus saving the company money. Again, you could ask your manager for the cost savings. Then you could save that and include it on your resume - for the future.

  • Rod S.
    Rod S. •

    I can see that sales teams track revenues, but how do the rest of us know how much revenue we helped bring in?

  • Larry Penner
    Larry Penner •

    While it isn't always easy to show one's "return on investment", it is worthwhile to do so. Many employers view people as assets. And efficient assets are more valuable.

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