18 August,2023
Table of Contents
Hiring managers get hundreds of applications after posting a job requirement on recruiting platforms, such as LinkedIn. Is it possible to make any difference in the deep sea of sameness? Yes, if you know how to use your secret weapon – a resume headline. It will attract the managers and hook them so that they read the resume completely. But what is a resume headline?
When you write an online article, you give a headline that makes them curious. This makes them click the headline to read further. Similarly, the goal of resume headlines also catches the hiring managers’ attention so that they ‘click’ on your profile and read it completely.
We will share everything related to resume headlines and resume writing in this blog, from what they actually are and how to craft the most compelling one. It doesn’t matter whether you are a fresher or have years of experience in a professional field; this guide will assist you in making vanquishing headlines.
So, buckle up and prepare to uplift your job search with impeccable resume headlines.
A resume headline is a catchy phrase that showcases your skills and work experience. In other words, it’s the best way to introduce yourself concisely to recruiters. But why does a resume need a headline?
Well, hiring managers do not spend more than 7 seconds on any resume while skimming them before rejecting them or adding them to the ‘maybe’ pile. However, your goal is not to get rejected or make it to the ‘maybe’ section but to persuade the hiring manager you are one of the top candidates.
Your resume’s headline essentially lists your talents and makes it clear to the recruiter that you are qualified for the job. It will entice them to read more if it is worded properly.
Recruiters’ best buddy is an applicant tracking system or ATS. After scanning all candidate resumes, the software only provides the “matches” to the recruiter.
Approximately 79% of candidates are turned down just by this procedure! How does the software operate, then? The ATS analyses your resume in search of pertinent experience and keywords. The resume is immediately rejected if it can’t be located.
However, a strong resume headline helps avoid this because the application may notice your professional title and determine that you are qualified for the position immediately. And when it passes the ATS software requirements, it boosts your resume’s visibility.
Understanding the differences between a resume headline and a summary before you start writing is crucial because people often get confused between these two. As you already know, a resume headline highlights who you are as a candidate briefly, but the summary is quite different.
While your resume summary concentrates on your general experience and skill set, your resume headline elaborates on the job title you have chosen to include and uses keywords to highlight its best aspects.
Also, most employers think a resume summary is nothing but the repetition of information. So, it’s unnecessary. It doesn’t decrease any value if you don’t add it to your resume. On the other hand, a resume headline is a must to get shortlisted for an interview call.
According to novelist Stephen King, “An opening line should say: Listen. Come in here. You want to know about this.”
The same impact must be created through your resume’s headline.
Here are four ways a resume headline might help you avoid the job hunt dark hole –
You should tailor your resume’s headline to the position you’re looking for. You can improve the likelihood that the hiring manager will see your resume by customising the headline for the position.
You may portray yourself as a suitable fit for the position by using a headline specifically customised to the job requirements. Your chances of getting a job interview can go up if you do this. And that’s why you need to understand the industry you are applying for. Make sure your headlines have all the related keywords. The employer will find it simpler to understand how you may benefit their business as a result.
Make this the primary focus of your headline if you have a decade or more of professional experience under your belt. Consider your career history for a moment, listing your top traits, successes, and experiences that are applicable to the position. Think about what distinguishes you from other applicants and how the needs of the employer align with your special selling features.
An attention-grabbing headline can help your resume bypass the applicant tracking system. Too many applicants are eliminated because they are “not a good fit” before the hiring manager even views them.
Put the appropriate keywords in the title of your resume to cause hiring software to allow you to pass. The software immediately reveals your appropriate job title, talents, and experience.
Limit the amount of filler and extraneous information. Keep in mind that these hiring managers are skimming through a large pool of candidates, so your resume might only get a few seconds of attention. You want to strike the perfect mix between keeping your headline brief and saying enough.
You don’t want your resume title to be overly brief or to leave out crucial details. But if it’s too long, the recruiting manager won’t pay any attention. Remember that the headline is only a single component of your resume and that there will be many possibilities for you to go into more detail about your experiences, soft talents, and hard skills in other sections. Concentrate on creating a headline that is succinct, direct, and pertinent to the position you are applying for.
You must always KNOW what you want to achieve with your resume headline. It’s not meant for you to outline your entire career to the recruiter. That’s the purpose of your resume’s body sections, but not the heading.
Additionally, you shouldn’t provide the recruiter with information on how to get in touch with or locate you. That is the job of the resume header and address section. So, what is left now?
Grabbing and concentrating the hiring manager’s attention. But how do you do that?
Instead of utilising the headline on your resume to “tell” the reader that you are a successful sales representative, prove it with accolades, statistics, or certifications.
Here are a few instances:
To demonstrate the value you offer to a position, just noting your years of professional expertise may have more influence.
Every job has different requirements; therefore, it could be advantageous to make a new resume heading for each position you apply for. Make sure your headline is specific to the position you are looking for, including the precise job title and any other information you think the employers will find valuable. Employers might want to know that you’re passionate about this particular position.
Start the first line of your resume with a powerful action verb that showcases your qualifications and achievements, such as “managed,” “developed,” or “achieved.”
Use pertinent terms from the job post to demonstrate your acquaintance with the sector and the particular position.
The stronger your resume headline, the more detailed it should be. Your headline becomes more impressive when you can quantify an accomplishment. The recruiting manager can see that you are qualified for the position through your hard data. Degrees, licences, qualifications, and unique experiences are all examples of professional accomplishments that you should present on your resume.
Quantifiable data examples include:
Do you possess any concrete evidence of your skills?
The hiring managers will undoubtedly be looking for it. You can rely on it. One approach to achieve this is to include a statistic or other means of measurement with your accomplishments.
For instance:
“Sales increased by 20% in Q1.”
Customer service agent who has a 90% retention rate.
Despite the fact that this is normally found in your section on previous experiences, measurements are nonetheless permissible in the resume headline. This helps your resume headline be succinct, organized, and relevant to the job position.
Your resume title gains zing from strong words. Words like vibrant, enthusiastic, motivated, driven by goals, results-oriented, etc., are examples of these.
Choose words that are distinctive and unlikely to be found on other resumes. The purpose of your resume headline is to make you distinguish from the competition, so make it as specific as you can. Instead of using the overused words “hardworking” and “team player,” use “industrious” or “collaborative.”
Now that you know how to craft a resume headline, let’s look at some real-world examples that highlight the concepts we covered. These resume headline examples cover a range of fields and degrees of experience, and they are all excellent in catching the hiring manager’s eye.
Take note of how each headline is specific to the position and highlights the candidate’s qualifications, successes, and work history. And make yours the most compelling one.
We hope these examples encourage you to create your own right away! But before that, take a look at the things you can’t do in a resume headline.
You need to watch out for these common mistakes most people make in resume headlines –
When you use a generic headline, it shows that you are not ready to give your 100% effort to get the job. How can you expect that you will get an interview call then? Also, using generic headlines doesn’t add any value, and it’s not going to increase your resume’s visibility.
Common words like these just serve to detract the recruiter’s focus from your resume, making it appear as though it has the flu.
Consider all the other people who have likely used the same exact phrase when you’re putting together your resume. Try something fresh if you believe it to be an overused and washed item.
If there is no context, writing your resume headline-only focusing on job titles will not work. It not only loses the compelling power but also presents itself as low-effort work from your end. And if your headline is weak, no one will spare their time to check your full resume.
You need to tailor your resume headline. In other words, you need to customize your headline every time regarding the job descriptions. When you produce a customized headline, it helps your resume to pass the ATS and also convince the recruiters that your profile is relevant for the job. It also shows that you are serious about your professional life.
Try to remember all these facts while constructing your resume headlines to make them enticing.
When you’re working on your resume headline, you might not think about the font. However, specifics matter.
Even if you have the best résumé in the world, if the typeface hurts the HR manager’s eyes, it’s unlikely that they will call you back anytime soon.
The same is true if you choose a typeface that blends in so well with the background that it practically becomes invisible.
The majority of HR managers focus on the resume layout first. Depending on the layout, they decide whether it’s worth reading or not.
So, you need to focus on the following key pointers:
We advise choosing a typeface and font size that stand out but not excessively. The font you choose will directly affect the reading. Therefore, it must appear well on both paper and PDF.
But first, let’s look at a font you should never use before we discuss the top resume fonts: Comic Sans.
Yes, you’ll be noticed. Not in a nice way, though. Putting jokes aside, the most popular font is Times New Roman, 12pt. Although there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, you should be aware that it will be the majority of people’s default font.
Do you desire for your resume to be distinguished from the other Times New Roman resumes? If so, think about utilizing:
It is a contemporary typeface with a humanist aesthetic that was created in 2010. It maximizes readability, looks beautiful everywhere, and is not industry-specific. It may be used for any job application, and it will make your resume stand out.
Does this look familiar? This font may be familiar to you because Google created it in 2011 for the Android operating system. But fear not—commercial use is permitted without charge. Although it has a tech look, you may use it in any industry, tech or not.
Highway Gothic served as the inspiration for Overpass, a relatively recent font that was created in 2015. It has a highly formal and elegant appearance, making it perfect for more traditional sectors. However, due to its stylish design, you can utilise it successfully in a variety of different sectors as well.
After selecting your font, think about the font.
For standard text, we advise using a 10–12 point size, and for section headers and titles, a 14–16 point size. This strategy should help you conserve some space and prevent the HR manager from squinting to understand the text. It’s crucial to remember that after you’ve chosen a font and font size, you should use that same combination across the whole resume.
What you need to know about resume layout is as follows:
Choose a line spacing of 1.0 or 1.15 between the text and the double lines that follow the subheadings. Feel free to modify this in accordance with the available space on your resume.
Using bullet points will make it simpler to scan through the experience portion of your resume. Just be careful not to misuse them; keep them to a maximum of 6 points for each segment.
Keep your resume to one page unless you have at least five years of experience (2/3 pages at most).
Therefore, you can now proceed to really write the major sections of your resume once you have the general structure and feel down.
Who does not use social media today?
With so many social media sites available, like LinkedIn, Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok, and more, it is difficult to avoid having an online presence. There are various methods to use social media to support your job hunt, even if most of us use it for personal or professional reasons.
Here are some pointers on leveraging online platforms to speed up your job hunt.
Have a compelling headline that says more than just what you do or where you work. Make sure your title communicates what you do, how you bring value, and how you stand out from the competition.
Here is one of my examples: Competent Coach & Senior Recruiter | Assisting YOU in obtaining your ideal position and gaining professional clarity.
Although there are a few hurdles to overcome, social networking is a fantastic tool to aid in your job search. So, if you’re going to utilise these online platforms to assist with the job hunt, make sure you complete a digital detox, wipe up your profiles, and inspect the settings for privacy so that employers don’t see anything you don’t want them to see.
The best experience you have to offer should be highlighted in your title. Employers frequently actively recruit potential candidates online using applicant tracking systems (ATS). These programmes use keywords and other criteria to search and rank resumes.
Your resume headlines are your professional taglines that help the recruiting managers to remember you. So, the importance of an attention-grabbing resume headline in a highly competitive job market is high. You’ll have all you need to write a headline that attracts attention and accentuates your special skills if you adhere to our step-by-step tutorial.
Don’t forget to highlight your unique selling propositions, adjust your headline to the specific job needs, and write in a succinct, impactful manner.
You’ll attract hiring managers’ attention and improve your chances of landing your ideal job with a strong resume headline. Therefore, go ahead and polish the headline; your future self will appreciate it.
Ans. A resume headline is a succinct introduction of what you are professionally. In other words, resume headlines give information about one’s skills, work experience, certifications, achievements, etc.
Writing headlines for a resume is important because it attracts the hiring manager’s attention and encourages them to check the resume. In other words, a resume headline can increase the chances of getting a job.
Ans. A resume headline is to attract recruiters and give them a concise idea of what you professionally are in a few seconds. Writing the headline is very crucial.
However, a resume objective or summary is not that important. Most employers think of that as a repetition of the same information. If recruiters want to know about your objectives, they can do it by reading your application.
Ans. Compelling headlines are the most creative ways to land your dream job. It helps the recruiters to see who you are immediately and what makes you different from others. Your headline shows them what advantages they can get if they hire you. So, yes, an attractive resume headline really makes a difference.
Ans. Here are the key elements that make up an attention-grabbing resume headline –
Ans. You must read the job description and take notes of the required skills, qualifications, and experiences for the post before you start to write your resume headline. This strategy will help you to mold your resume headline for different job applications or industries.
Ans. Often experts compare resumes with 30-second commercials. So, the headline gets only 2 to 3 seconds of the recruiting manager. That’s why you have to showcase your USPs in the headline to get noticed. Write your skills, experiences, education, strengths, etc., using powerful adjectives to attract hiring managers.
Ans. Collect the important keywords by reading the job description carefully. Understand the required qualifications and skills for the position. After that, use those specific and relevant keywords in your resume headline. The ATS software will detect those keywords, and your resume headline will pass the ATS screening.
Ans. There are some ways that you can use to format and present your resume headline for maximum impact –
Hi everyone, I am Ruby Walker, an irreverent copywriter, blogger, and an essay writing expert. I have been working as an English and essay writing specialist at myassignmenthelp.com for 12 years now. With a never-dying passion for writing, I pursued a PhD in English. As a PhD student, I became familiar with the major struggles that students face working on essays, assignments, and dissertations. So, now, I use my knowledge and guide students on how to beat all those hurdles and get closer to top grades. When I am not creating some money-minting sales copies or killer essays, you'll probably find me travelling to different corners in the world.
WhatsApp
