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There are truck loads of applicants on the market right now and the level of competition is fierce - I’ve seen people quote over 500 applications with no interviews and I’ve also seen recruiters say their job postings received more than 1,000 applicants.

As a regular peruser of communities like Reddit and LinkedIn, I come across posts from people asking about how they can stand out among the sea of applicants. With that much competition, you’ve got to do something to give yourself a competitive edge.

So in an effort to stand out, some resort to dazzling recruiters with fancy fonts, colors, or even pictures. But all of that won’t work. First because recruiters aren’t children that can be wowed by sparkly resumes, and second because fancy resumes often cause problems with company applicant tracking systems (aka ATS).

In today’s issue of The Launchpad, I’m going to show you what good content looks like; specifically, what good bullet points look like, because at the end of the day, over half your resume consists of bullet points.

So without further ado…

What makes a strong bullet point

• Start with Strong Action Verbs: Begin each bullet point with a strong action verb. For example, "Led a team of 5 in a successful project".

• Quantify Achievements: Wherever possible, quantify your achievements. For example, "Increased sales by 20% over a six-month period". For more on this, check out Launch #25.

• Highlight Relevant Skills: Highlight skills that are relevant to the job you're applying for. For example, if you’re a graphic designer, you could say: "Utilized Adobe Photoshop skills to create compelling visual content".

• Use Keywords from the Job Description: Incorporate keywords from the job description to show that you're a good fit for the role. For more on this, check out Launch #4.

• Be Concise and Specific: Keep your bullet points concise and specific to clearly demonstrate your experience and skills.

Now even with a strong action verb, a solid metric, or a relevant skill keyword, you still need to put them together in a way that sounds good, is easy to read, and is easy to understand. Here are four ways you can structure your bullet to do just that:

1. Action, then Explanation: Start with an action verb, then explain what you did. For example, "Developed a new marketing strategy that increased company sales by 15%".

2. Problem, Action, Result: State a problem or challenge, then discuss the action you took to address it, and finally, specify the result. For example, "Identified a significant inefficiency in the production process, implemented a new workflow, and increased productivity by 20%".

3. Skill, Task, Tool: Mention the skill you used, followed by the task you used it for, and the tool or method you used. For example, "Used strong organizational skills to manage multiple project timelines concurrently with Microsoft Project".

4. Responsibility, Context, Achievement: State your responsibility, provide context or details, and then specify your achievement. For example, "Managed a team of 10 salespeople, overseeing all aspects of client engagement and meeting quarterly targets consistently".

Note that what you say and how you put it together will depend to some degree on your industry and title. For some industries for instance, adding metrics may not make much sense (sometimes you simply won’t have them), while for others, they’re crucial.

Say you're a salesperson that’s looking for a role in SaaS sales. Having a strong track record backed up by real numbers is essential. An example bullet point in this case would focus on quantifying achievements and highlighting relevant skills, such as "Exceeded sales targets by 30% by leveraging referrals and word of mouth marketing".

On the other hand, if you’re an IT help desk specialist, your bullet point might emphasize problem-solving skills and specific technical expertise, such as "Resolved complex software issues by utilizing advanced knowledge of Python scripting and system administration tools".

Most people don’t do this and submit resumes that read like generic job descriptions. If you apply the above to your resume, I guarantee you’ll be a cut above over half of your competition.

One last thing: A resume in this market isn’t the only thing you need to stand out. You’ve got to put your salesperson hat on and network to be successful because unfortunately, it’s an employer’s market right now. I’ve touched on this in past issues of The Launchpad (formerly the Job Seeker’s Gazette), here and here.

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