It’s easy to be frightened by headlines about mass layoffs and a potential recession. And many workers may be preparing themselves to look for a new job in the New Year.
One of the first questions job seeker’s ask themselves is, “Is my résumé good enough?”
They may wonder, “Am I marketing myself well enough?”
And they may Google, “Can I get a new job in 2023?”
I’m a former search consultant and a current executive résumé writer, and I’m happy to report that the answer is “Yes”—especially for people who go to the job market with a résumé that prioritizes decision-makers’ needs.
Here are five trends that will take hold in 2023—and how you can leverage them to succeed no matter what the New Year throws your way.
Trend 1: The rise of the market-driven résumé
Over the past several years, the most effective résumés have changed. Effective résumés used to share what job seekers wanted to say about themselves. Now, they address market needs.
In 2023, that will mean knowing what keeps CEOs and hiring managers awake at night.
A recent survey of CEOs suggests that CEOs are worried about critical issues like the following:
1. Growth: CEOs see 2023 as a tough year for business. So, try to demonstrate how you can drive growth even in a slow or down economy. Share your quantified growth stories at the top of your accomplishment bullets.
2. Talent retention: Many CEOs are worried about people. Have you built and retained a great team? That’s another bullet point to include. Share your average annual retention rate if it tops 85%.
3. Technology: In 2022, I saw a wide range of tech adoption in my clients’ companies. Digital transformation continued. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) gained ground. Many organizations have barely started on those paths. So, if you’ve worked on any digital, AI, or ML initiatives, they must be on your résumé in 2023.
Beyond CEOs’ concerns, look at job postings to better understand hiring managers’ pain points. When postings list deliverables, address them on your résumé. When postings don’t include specific deliverables, infer them or ask a mentor to help you identify them. You can also get the information from recruiters.
And remember, you don’t have to be the top executive on an initiative. If you worked on a project with a good outcome, report it, the impact, and your role.
Trend 2: Progression from achievements to impact
For years, career advisors have encouraged job seekers to add accomplishments to their résumé; they also emphasized that candidates should quantify those accomplishments. In the year ahead, decision makers will want to understand the impact of any given achievement.
For instance, an achievement might read, “Collected 30% of past-due accounts receivable.”
But an impact statement would expand it to, “Collected 30% of past-due accounts receivable. Enabled $1 million loan pay-down and $70,000 annual interest expense reduction.”
Trend 3: Proving skills
CEOs worry about finding and keeping people with the skills they need to grow their organizations. And major job-search engines like LinkedIn advocate for skills-based hiring.
But many hiring decision makers have become skeptical about applicants’ skills claims on résumés.
So, what can you do? First, identify the five most critical skills required by the job. Next, weave proof of using those skills into accomplishment/impact bullets. If you can’t do that, see if you can earn a certificate to demonstrate baseline competency.
Hiring for skills will likely increase. But the days when you could add a skills list to the top of your résumé and expect to be credible have passed. In 2023, your résumé will perform better when you share proof.
Trend 4: Simplicity
The practice of loading a résumé with more decorations than a Christmas tree peaked in 2022. The trend for résumés in 2023 is simplicity.
This means recruiters don’t want to see adjectives, adverbs, charts, and fancy designs on résumés. Many organizations will clearly state that they don’t want these flourishes.
Hiring managers want simply stated facts and hierarchical, easy-to-follow, reverse-chronological formats. And these leaders will ensure that simplicity is a résumé trend in 2023.
Trend 5: New tools
Finally, job seekers in 2023 will have the opportunity to use new and powerful tools to supercharge their search process. Here are a few:
- ChatGPT: ChatGPT is one of the most powerful language processing AI models to date, and it can help answer job seekers’ questions. I asked it, “What are the biggest issues facing CEOs?” It gave me a five-point answer to my query. While not profound, this tool can inspire any job seeker staring at a blank screen as they write their résumés.
- LinkedIn Career Explorer: Give Career Explorer a job title and it will return a list of relevant skills for the job. Explorer has 6,000 jobs in its database, so your odds of receiving helpful information are high.
- Rewordify: I highly recommend job seekers use Rewordify. This tool enables users to insert a job posting and find the most relevant keywords for your résumé.
High-velocity change surrounds us. Embrace these trends on your 2023 résumé to help make a great first impression!
Donna Svei writes executive and board résumés. Previously, she was a retained search consultant for 25-plus years and a C-level corporate executive.
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