Today, resumes are more than just a summary of work history. They are a reflection of your professional identity, skills, and adaptability. Understanding what’s new in resume trends can help you stay ahead of the competition and improve your chances of landing the right role.
Read on for some key trends shaping resumes in 2024 and how you can adjust your approach to fit the changing demands of the modern workforce.
7 Resume Trends to Follow in 2024
1. Skills-Based Resumes Gaining Popularity
Recruiters are increasingly looking for resumes that highlight a candidate’s specific skills rather than focusing solely on their job titles or the companies they’ve worked for. This shift has occurred because employers are now more interested in what a candidate can do.
A skills-based resume typically places key skills front and center, often categorized by technical abilities, soft skills, or even industry-specific expertise. This approach is especially beneficial for those who may have non-traditional career paths, such as job changers, freelancers, or professionals re-entering the workforce after a break. By organizing the resume around what you can do, you can demonstrate your versatility and relevance across a broader range of positions.
2. AI-Friendly Formatting
In 2024, resumes are being increasingly screened by applicant tracking systems (ATS), making it essential to craft a document that is readable by both humans and machines. ATS software scans resumes for relevant keywords, skills, and experience to rank applicants, and those that don’t fit the software’s criteria may be filtered out before a recruiter even sees them.
To make your resume AI-friendly, simplicity is key. Complex designs, unusual fonts, and graphics can confuse the ATS, causing it to misread or miss critical information. Instead, stick to clear headings, bullet points, and a logical format. Additionally, including relevant keywords (terms directly related to the job function or industry) can help your resume get picked up by the software and passed along to hiring managers.
3. Professional Summaries Over Objectives
Traditional resume objectives have become less common in recent years, and in 2024, they are largely being replaced by professional summaries. A professional summary is a brief, 3-4 sentence overview at the top of your resume that encapsulates who you are professionally, highlighting your key strengths, experience, and value you bring to a prospective employer.
This trend reflects a shift in how candidates are positioning themselves. Rather than stating what they are looking for (which was the norm with objective statements), candidates are now focusing on what they can offer and their career goals. A strong professional summary is essential to encourage hiring managers to read your resume further.
4. Emphasis on Remote and Hybrid Work Skills
With remote and hybrid work environments becoming popular across many industries, the ability to work effectively in these settings has become a crucial component of resumes. In 2024, recruiters are looking for candidates who can thrive in virtual workplaces and manage teams, projects, and communication online.
Listing experience with remote collaboration tools (such as Slack, Zoom, or Microsoft Teams), as well as soft skills like time management, self-motivation, and communication, is a growing trend. Even if your prior roles were not fully remote, highlighting any experience where you used remote tools or worked with a dispersed team can set you apart as adaptable to the evolving nature of work.
5. Presenting Achievements with Metrics
Quantifying your achievements is not a new concept, but in 2024, it’s more important than ever. Recruiters want to see the tangible impact you’ve had in your previous roles. This means going beyond job duties and responsibilities and focusing on measurable outcomes.
For example:
Instead of stating: Managed a marketing team.
Try: Managed a marketing team of 12, achieving a 30% increase in revenue over 6 months.
Adding these specific numbers or percentages helps paint a clearer picture of your contributions and demonstrates that you can deliver results.
Quantifying your achievements is especially helpful for professionals in roles like sales, marketing, or operations, where numbers and data can easily support their claims. But even in less data-driven industries, finding ways to measure your success, such as customer satisfaction ratings, process improvements, or project completion times, can add significant value to your resume.
6. Portfolio Links and Personal Branding
Another growing trend in 2024 is including links to personal portfolios, websites, and online profiles. This is particularly useful for professionals in creative fields like design, writing, marketing, or software development, but it’s expanding across various industries. A portfolio provides a platform for displaying your work in more detail than a resume allows, offering visual or contextual examples of your skills and achievements.
For example, a marketing professional might include links to campaigns they’ve worked on, or a developer could link to projects they’ve built.
7. Detailed, Well-Explained Resumes
In 2024, there’s a growing preference for resumes that provide more depth rather than just being short and concise. Recruiters are increasingly interested in understanding the specific impact you’ve made in past roles. Instead of simply listing tasks, it’s more effective to explain the results and contributions in detail.
This trend doesn’t mean writing excessively long resumes, but it emphasizes meaningful, well-explained achievements. Providing context and specific examples helps recruiters see your full value, making your resume more compelling and unique.
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