You’ve done the work. You’ve got the skills. Now comes the hard part: the job application.
Nothing’s more intimidating than having to update your resume, even for the extroverts amongst us. But the truth is, a great resume can help you get your foot in the door and is often the reason you’re thrown in the ‘yes’ or ‘no’ pile on a recruiters desk.
In this competitive digital marketing age you need to show employers who you are and what you have to offer, quickly and succinctly. Your resume should be a summary of your job roles, employers’ names, and dates for the positions held. It should enable a recruiter to quickly and easily see the highlights, successes, and progression of your career.
Try these five points when you’re building out your resume:
1. Get the order right
Such an important thing! Don’t start with your education – it’s not the most important thing. Start with you. What’s great about YOU? Try this order….
- Start with a captivating intro paragraph at the top, summarising your skills and qualities
- Then work history and education
- List your creative, advertising, and digital marketing skills.
- Add extra resume sections to stand out from the sea of candidates.
2. Make it about you
You are the product, and you are what your resume is marketing. So make yourself stand out with your name as the title and easy to understand information. Hint: you don’t need your birth date or a headshot. That stuff isn’t important. Heck, most people don’t include their school anymore. Add a LinkedIn profile or any other professional site that allows the employer to get to know you a little better and show them you’re a real person who’s interested in the position.
Treat yourself like a brand, and market yourself.
3. Know your audience & do your research
Who are you talking to? Tailor the information you include on your resume to the position you’re applying for. Be selective about what experience, volunteering, and skills you choose to include. Those 10 years of a summer cafe job? Probably not very relevant if you’re applying for a job in digital marketing, so leave it off. But that part-time job while you were in high school, running the social media campaign for your local hardware store is worth including.
Familiarise yourself with the keywords that the company uses in its documentation and job descriptions, and integrate them into your resume. This will help show recruiters you’ve done your research as well as show that you’re a good fit for the position.
So if you’re applying for an SEO specialist or digital marketing role? make sure you mention your SEO and SERP experience as well as your familiarity with PPC.
4. Show off your achievements with metrics
Anyone can list achievements. But if you use analytics and metrics to communicate how you improved a business, such as increasing traffic to a site or revenue in general, you’ll prove you’re worthy of the job. Go with the rule: What was the problem, what did you do and what was the outcome?
If you highlight the fact that organic traffic has increased on a project you were involved in, your skills using SEO analytic tools like WordPress, Moz OSE, SEMrush, or Google Analytics will stand for themselves.
Don’t leave anything up to guesswork – let the recruiter know exactly how much you were involved and how much you achieved with a project.
5. Proofread
Ermahgerd, PLEASE proofread your resume. It can make or break a digital marketing resume.
If you’re applying for a digital marketing position that is content-heavy, just about the worst thing you can do is have a grammatical error. #AWKS. These blunders will make recruiters think you’re inattentive when creating content. Get your mum/ dad/friend/housemate to read over it before you send it off. There are also some great websites that’ll do it for you e.g Grammarly.
Ok, now you’re ready. Good luck!
Looking to upskill in digital marketing? Check out Monarch’s online courses here or call us on 1300 738 995 to chat about your next career in marketing.
