11 ways to update your resume when you get a new job

TC added a link to Beth's LinkedIn page, while Beth made sure her other relevant social media accounts, such as her Twitter account, were linked to her LinkedIn profile.

"While it's important for most candidates to add LinkedIn to their résumé, it's even more so for Beth, since she is in PR, and social media is a critical area of expertise for her career progression," Augustine said.

TC created a qualifications profile for Beth "that set the tone for the rest of the résumé," Augustine said.

"The professional title clearly states Beth's current job, leaving no room for ambiguity," Augustine said. "However, the word 'manager' in the title can be swapped out at any time to reflect whatever specific position Beth is targeting."

Below that, TC included Beth's professional summary, which Augustine said gives the reader a sense of Beth's most marketable soft skills and hard skills and the extent of her experience.

"While you might be able to get away with omitting a professional summary from your entry-level résumé, you must include something at the top of your mid-level résumé that summarizes your goals and value proposition," she said.

"Think of it as the place where you incorporate your elevator pitch into your résumé," Augustine said.

"A proficiency in another language is a good selling point in virtually every role," Augustine said.

TC not only incorporated the word "bilingual" in Beth's professional summary but also listed her language skills in a languages section at the end of her résumé. TC also included the term "fluent" in the languages section to include all the keywords a recruiter or ATS system may be trained to seek out.

Based on sample job descriptions of roles Beth might aspire to, TC identified keywords Beth could expect to see in her target job listings and maximized their use throughout her résumé.

TC incorporated these keywords and phrases throughout every section of Beth's résumé, from the "Areas of Expertise" table at the top to the "Technologies" section at the end.

"This technique will also help Beth's résumé pass the robotic screen and advance it to a live person for review," Augustine said.

In describing Beth's experience, TC emphasized her accomplishments over the tasks she was responsible for.

"When you're describing your experience, dedicate a few lines to explain your responsibilities, and then use bullets to accentuate your most important and marketable contributions and achievements," Augustine said.

"Remember, bullet points are tools to attract the reader's eye — use them sparingly," she said.

If you ended one job in November 2015 and started the next in January 2016, Augustine said you may want to include the months to indicate there were only two months between your roles.

In Beth's case, though, she said there weren't any major gaps in employment, so TC chose to use only years to represent Beth's tenure.

"By doing so, this also eliminated extra words and gave the design of the résumé a cleaner, less cluttered look," Augustine said.

"At this stage of her career, Beth has several internships and a college degree to promote on her résumé," Augustine said. "Now that she has five years of relevant experience under her belt and a slew of valuable and marketable skills, it's time for Beth to graduate to a two-page résumé length."

"Even if an ATS scan isn't going to recognize a certain musician, or the significance of a well-known media mogul, we want the hiring manager to notice these names once the résumé reaches her hands," Augustine said.

This was one reason why some of Beth's internship experience was included in her final résumé, she said.

"In most cases, once a professional graduates, enters the 'real world,' and racks up a few years of marketable experience, it's time to remove any references of their college career from their résumé, including school activities and internships," Augustine said.

But TC intentionally included some of Beth's internship experience in her résumé.

Augustine explained that, for Beth, her intern roles are important because of the connections she made there.

"It is also important for professionals like Beth to demonstrate that she can work with various organizations, from boutique agencies to large corporations to municipalities," Augustine said.

"While it may be tempting to jazz up the design of your résumé, it's important to remember that recruiters are accustomed to looking for certain pieces of information in specific areas of a résumé document," Augustine said. "The less time a recruiter spends hunting for information on your résumé, the more likely you are to make it to the next stage of the hiring process."

Augustine said that applicant tracking systems — the bots that scan your résumé and decide if you're a good fit for the position — tend to have trouble reading and parsing résumé information when it doesn't follow a traditional layout.

To solve this, TC streamlined Beth's résumé overall so that recruiters and hiring managers may review information quickly.

"With clearer headings and more organized content, it will also play well with the ATS software," Augustine said.