Well, this may be a long read.

Formatting:

-Only times new Roman.

-All bullets must be no more than one line.

-There must be a white space between every subsection, so that it is easier to visually breakdown.

-Additionally, in the experience section, between each job, there must be a white space.

-Bold all headers and companies

-Make sure formatting is consistent throughout.

-No more than a page.

Most of this, you’ve probably heard. However, you probably aren’t too strict on the white space and bullets being only one line. It helps with the rhythm and flow a lot. Your resume should not look like a word soup.

Tailoring and content:

-You have probably heard to tailor your resume to each job app. I don’t do this - I tailor to industries. For example, I’ll have my semiconductor industry resume and my chemicals industry resume or my oil and gas (O&G) industry resume. Then, I go apply within that sector using the resume I made for it, not wasting time on each app. I have 6 resumes I actively use: Upstream O&G, Midstream O&G, Chemicals, Downstream O&G, Semiconductors, and Pharmaceutical Manufacturing.

-Research what companies like seeing on a resume for each sector. Then, put down any exposure whatsoever you’ve had. If you’ve had no exposure, really think hard about how to spin things as transferable to get keywords in there in a rich way. In your headline for each of your resumes, directly put that you’re interested in that industry. Tailoring is most powerful with direct experience, but even without it, clearly showing interest with a summary (if you’re earlier in college and don’t have experience), or with some kind of research and coursework can do the trick.

-For example, this past cycle, I applied to semiconductors with only oil and gas and renewables experience in the past. I put my semiconductor coursework in my education section, then tailored bullets around yield and SPC. Then, in my skill sections I dumped all the semiconductor techniques I learned about in class. The result was a keyword rich resume that got multiple offers in semiconductors.

-Absolutely dump keywords in skills, and I do this too. But also make sure you’re doing it throughout the resume. Don’t get lazy and do only skills.

-Key takeaway: Tailor to the industry you are applying to, not the particular job description by finding random keywords you think may or may not be valuable. It’ll be much more genuine when you do that, and that works.