5 Résumé Resolutions for 2025

If you’ve resolved to land a new job in 2025, the current data doesn’t look ideal. On average, it now takes people about six months to find a job, roughly a month longer than it did during the postpandemic hiring boom of early 2023, according to the US Department of Labor. You’re likely going to face some desperate competition, too. Of the seven million unemployed Americans, more than 1.6 million have been job hunting for at least six months. The number of people searching for that long is up more than 50% since the end of 2022.

It's no wonder people are stressing over their résumés more than usual. While not the most important aspect of a job search, this document is still a critical way to catch the attention of automated job-application systems or impress a hiring manager you don’t know.

Korn Ferry’s experts suggest that before you blast off your résumé in the New Year, you consider these tweaks. 

Do some rewriting.

Experts say a good résumé will include key words that describe the skills, abilities, expertise, and values that a recruiter seeks in a candidate for a particular role. An easy way to figure out those key words is search out some job descriptions of the role you want. Then you can make sure your résumé highlights the attributes they mention.

Don’t just laundry-list past experiences, either. Experts say managers and even automated systems are looking for candidates who can demonstrate that they’ve made a positive difference in their jobs. “When crafting each bullet point, instead of listing your job duties, ask yourself how you made an impact,” says Michaela Buttler, a senior consultant at Korn Ferry Advance. “How did your service in that role make the company better, faster, cheaper, more efficient?”

Target, target, target. 

Career pros suggest that you shouldn’t apply to all the jobs, or even most of the jobs, you see posted. You might not have the skills or requirements needed for many of them, and even if you do, with a little extra pondering you might realize the role doesn’t pay enough, or is in another state, or is really something you don’t want to do. “You’ll be wasting your time,” says Val Olson, a career and leadership coach at Korn Ferry Advance. 

Also, a résumé is almost never one-size-fits-all. Instead, target the document to individual roles, and make sure it focuses not only on the organization but also on talents and skills that are germane to the specific position. “All your listed experiences should be clear and concise, and support the focus of your résumé,” says Alyson Federico, a career coach at Korn Ferry Advance. If you are an IT person targeting a project-manager role, your résumé should highlight the skills needed in a good project manager, not a programmer—even if you’ve done some programming. 

Quantify to show you’re qualified. 

Ensure that you clearly show the specific outcomes and results of your accomplishments. Cite numbers, dollars, and percentages whenever you can. That way, the person who only has moments to scan your résumé will be able to understand your impact at a glance. “If you can’t quantify your results, express why your accomplishment was important, what it was designed to do, or who it served,” says Sunny Levitt, a career coach at Korn Ferry Advance. 

Format based on relevance. 

Résumés shouldn’t be pages-long treatises, but don’t get hung up if yours goes over one page. Most job-applicant systems will accept a two-page document. Just make sure to use the additional space for relevant information. If you’re applying for a sales role, does your future employer really need to know you taught elementary school? If you’ve been in the workforce for a while, experiences from more than a decade ago usually aren’t as relevant.

“A résumé is just as much art as it is science,” Olson says. Everyone has differing opinions about size, font, format, etc., so use your own style and let your résumé reflect your personal brand.

Tell a good story.

Experts say that a résumé with right key words might pass muster with an automated job-tracking system. But for most roles, a résumé is still designed to get you a conversation with a hiring manager, so it should be a conversation starter.

The document has to tell a story, one that conveys that you not only have the skills but also the potential to be a good teammate, coworker, and contributor. The experiences and skills you list should ultimately impress and intrigue.

Learn more about Korn Ferry’s career development capabilities from Korn Ferry Advance. 

Read more This Week in Leadership articles