Most resumes today are either too traditional or overly artistic. Like it or not, unless you are seeking for employment in a more “serious” industry (e.g. law, banking…), applying for jobs with a traditional resume is no longer going to cut it. We came across this resume template on Reddit and absolutely love it for its minimal form factor. Besides, this CV also scored the applicant, Togn Bolo, a whopping 5 out of 15 callbacks and a 50% salary increase! Let’s see how you could emulate Togn’s success for your own resume template:

1. Clean Resume Design

Togn found a sweet spot in between the two and brought this aesthetically-pleasing functional resume to life. A clean resume design like Togn’s uses only a single font family with multiple weights, along with plenty of whitespaces to provide visual breathing room for the eye.

Noticed how there are no images used in the resume? Unless otherwise specified by the employer, you don’t have to waste your resume’s real estate by including a picture of yourself. It’s pointless, really, as interviewers would still check out your online profile, which brings us to point 2 below.

2. Contact Details and Links to Professional Profile

You probably already have your contact details such as phone and email on your CV. Since this is the 21st century, take the cue from Togn and include links to your professional social media profile on your resume.

We emphasized on the word “professional” because you really shouldn’t include links to every single social media network you’re on (unless you’re applying to be a brand ambassador or influencer). You can’t go wrong with a professional LinkedIn profile that works hand-in-hand with your resume. Bonus points if you have past employers’ or colleagues’ recommendations on your LinkedIn profile!

Though we said not to include links to other profiles, chances are employers would still look you up on Google. Now is the time to own your digital footprint and start spring cleaning your social media profiles from vulgarities or silly remarks that would land your CV in the rejected pile.

3. Work Experiences Come First

Unless you are a fresh graduate, your professional experiences always come first. The best way to present your past working experience is to follow a reverse chronological order. Start with your latest career at the top, down to the oldest one at the bottom.

If you have completed any projects or voluntary work, you should definitely list them after your experiences. Don’t have anything else to add? Try with a skills section to highlight your skills. Or a language section if you are multilingual.

4. Optimized Content for Readers

Put yourself in your readers, in this case, interviewers’ shoes. No one likes to read dense block of texts going on and on. Cut out unnecessary words and split them with bullet points. For instance, you could see that Togn has only 3-4 bullet points for each of his past experience.

Numbers also bring more meaning to texts. If you have done something extraordinary in your previous jobs, for instance increasing upsells by $2.9 million per year, you should absolutely list it on your CV.

Next, do not use any pronouns such as “I”, “he”, or “she” on your resume. You can see that Togn didn’t used any and goes straight into the action.

5. Optimized Content for Bots

Putting the readers aside, you should also optimize your content for the bots, and by bots we meant the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) that hiring managers used to scan the numerous resumes they received on a daily basis.

Basically what an ATS does is it scans your resume for keywords that relate to the position you are applying to. Hence, the no-brainer way to score on ATS is to read the job description carefully for keywords used, and then implement those keywords into your CV.

So keep these 5 things in mind when you are building your resume template. If you already did, let us know if it helped you score an interview or even nailed you your dream job at the comment section below!