7 Resume Trends for 2021 that will Transform Your Job Search (with Examples)

This time last year, we shared our top 6 Resume Trends to Watch Out for in 2020, thinking it would be a regular year.

Oops.

Instead, in a year that could have  been lifted straight out of dystopian science fiction, a global pandemic chased us all into our houses; 909 Australians died from coronavirus; and (what feels like a decade ago) bushfires burned through 47 million acres of land.

Plus, even as businesses fast-tracked their digital transformations and instilled work-from-home practices in every department, they also cut loyal employees. Qantas slashed 8,500 jobs, Deloitte cut 700 positions, and Myer temporarily closed all its stores to stand down 10,000 people. In total, 600,000 people lost their jobs in April alone.

With everything transforming around us, it comes as no surprise that the way you write your resume is vastly different heading into 2021 compared to 12 months ago. And the first thing you should address are these 7 resume trends for 2021 that have emerged in the wake of 2020.

1. Include achievements during COVID-19

It’s understandable if the first thing you want to do is banish all signs of 2020 from your resume, but unfortunately it’s essential information and number 1 in our 7 resume trends for 2021.

Any special COVID-19 achievements should be detailed at length in your resume. For example, suppose you helped your business adjust to work-from-home practices by assisting in remote management processes. That’s a highly relevant and impressive achievement that should go near the top of your resume:

• Maintained excellent employee engagement rates above 80 per cent during COVID-19 by rapidly proposing and implementing new remote management practices.

Of course, even if you didn’t accomplish anything spectacular, the truth is your efforts were probably more important than you think.

One of the biggest problems businesses faced this year concerned their culture. Stress about catching coronavirus was only the beginning. Financial pressure, poor sleep patterns, favourite co-workers getting laid off, only seeing family members over FaceTime — it all adds up.

In situations like these, maintaining strong teamwork was worth more than anything. If you’ve been someone that other team members leaned on during the pandemic, it’s a great accomplishment to mention. Of course, you can make it sound a little more formal for your resume:

• Was a good teammate during COVID-19;

versus

• Oversaw crisis management for the team, maintaining a positive team culture during COVID-19.

2. Or add your courses during COVID-19 instead

If you rack your brains and still can’t think of an achievement you pulled off during COVID-19, don’t worry. The easiest thing to talk about was how you boosted your career development with an online course or something similar. Flag it in your Professional Summary or covering letter for bonus points.

But don’t think you need to fork out tens of thousands of dollars to enrol in a Go8 university just for the course. With the rise of online learning, some of the most reputable organisations in the world are offering free or cost-effective courses that take less than 10 hours — including Google, HubSpot, TAFE NSW, TAFE Vic, Khan Academy, Open Culture, and many others.

Adding a few of these qualifications can be an appealing way to show companies how employable you are.

On the other hand, if all you did was sink into your couch and watch Netflix all day … well, at least you still have some time to remedy that. Most businesses are still working from home, so you can still bolster your resume with a short online course in the new year.

3. Don’t worry about explaining a 2020 redundancy or career gap

Even in a regular year, you should never explain a redundancy in the resume. Even if your reason is convincing, it’s still irrelevant:

• Made redundant after role was automated.

However, if there’s one positive for jobseekers heading into 2021, it’s that you don’t need to do much explaining at all about losing your job. If you were working for Virgin Australia, the whole nation knows your company went into voluntary administration in April. Even the most heartless Hiring Manager isn’t going to hold it against you that you were unlucky enough to be in the industry hit hardest by the pandemic.

A ton of intelligent, accomplished, meaningful employees lost their jobs this year. So even if you were terminated from your position this year, you can produce your resume with full confidence that you’re still a strong asset to a company.

4. Update your LinkedIn in line with new changes

We sound like a dead horse, but LinkedIn only becomes more and more popular each year. In fact, with everyone locked at home, LinkedIn reported a 50 per cent increase in shared content on its website this year. We wrote at length about the most relevant changes here.

The short story?

It’s safe to say, if you don’t have LinkedIn in 2021, you’re well behind the eight-ball in your job search. Your competitors are positioning themselves as thought leaders with hundreds or even thousands of LinkedIn followers, daily Story updates, dynamic Events and Interests feeds, and the new ‘My Company’ page. If you don’t know what these are yet — head over to our comprehensive LinkedIn Insights article to see what the fuss is about.

Plus, the basics of LinkedIn are still essential. Your About section, headline, and role descriptions are essential information that make or break your LinkedIn page.

In particular, with greater competition, your headline is the first thing recruiters see, so make sure it’s both specific for your role while being eye-catching enough to seize attention. Here’s an example of a poor, generic LinkedIn headline:

Marketing Coordinator passionate about the construction industry

And here’s an example of a much more effective headline:

Marketing Coordinator (Construction) | Grew Facebook Ads ROI by 3.5x

5. Elevate your achievements with action words

In the equivalent section last year, we talked about how important it is to quantify your achievements. That’s the traditional wisdom that’s been repeated over and over in every resume writing guide published since the dawn of time.

So are numbers less important in 2021?

No — in fact, it’s still best if you know how to quantify your accomplishments. However, in a year where everything nosedived, even treading water was a great achievement. So if you didn’t grow your revenue by 30 per cent like a madman because you were somehow even more productive during COVID-19 than usual, that’s okay.

An achievement like this is very impressive:

• Protected revenue streams with a minimal decline during COVID-19.

But actually quantifying and making this achievement specific can make it look less impressive:

• Protected revenue streams and only lost four clients during COVID-19.

As soon as you quantify those ‘four clients,’ you’re bringing attention to your failures. However, if you keep it more vague, you keep the attention on your actual achievement — ‘protect[ing] revenue streams.’

6. Record a video resume in advance

Video resumes, as we wrote about earlier this year, are one of the most innovative ways you can boost your application.

The way to use them is definitely as a complement rather than a replacement for your traditional text-based resume. You send them along to the Hiring Manager at the first opportunity, such as before you have your first interview.

In short, video resumes offer some amazing advantages. They show your personality, display your video editing and tech skills, and offer a competitive advantage over most job seekers who don’t use one.

But don’t be too enamoured with them — the biggest problem with video resumes is how they offer the chance for companies to discriminate against you. If you believe you’re someone who gets less opportunities because of age, sex, race, ethnicity, or anything else, don’t feel obligated to submit your video resume.

Otherwise, a video resume can only boost your job search when complementing your traditional text resume. Companies love to hire for culture fit, and your text resumes have always been more about achievements, successes, and responsibilities than your personality. Preparing an additional video resume to send along can seriously elevate your application.

7. Consider using a professional resume writing services agency

Job searches have become more competitive, more brutal, and more likely to end in failure in 2020, and that’s likely to continue next year. With more people out of a job — and extremely talented people at that — applicants per job are well above pre-coronavirus levels. That means job seekers need to beat out more competitors to successfully land a suitable position.

Unfortunately, a lot of talented people without professional resume writers behind them aren’t even getting interviews.

Executive Agents, for example, uses a professional design team to optimise your resume template for ATS — applicant tracking systems. If you don’t have your resume optimised, chances are you won’t even get past the machine that automatically rejects almost 90 per cent of applicants.

Executive Agents is a 100 per cent Australian company with all employees in Australia. We’re also constantly innovating in the face of cutting-edge changes in the recruitment sector, such as LinkedIn, ATS, and COVID-19 trends.

If you’re looking to update your resume to land your dream job in 2021, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us for a free 15-minute consultation today.

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