What are SaaS companies looking to see in your resume? The Salient team have compiled their top tips to help you refresh your resume. These tips will help you get started with a good general resume but we always recommend tailoring to the particular sales opportunity you are applying for where possible.
Keep you experience narrative clean and relevant
- Order your job history chronologically, with the most recent at the top.
- Include the months and years of the start and finish date for each role – missing numbers raise red flags.
- Include quantitative data – numbers, quotas, targets, avg deal sizes, your measurement of success (SQLs per what period).
- Highlight any achievements in addition to quota achievement (eg, ‘sold largest deal in APAC’, ‘improved NPS to x’, ‘won MVP award’).
- Highlight the key logos won and also include industry segments focused on (FSI, retail, insurance, manufacturing, etc).
- Elaborate on the most recent 3-4 jobs that are relevant. More experience extending back beyond 10 years, you might consider condensing into single line bullet points with ‘company, year, position’.
- Start with a short but personal summary. Make it specific to the role you are applying for – how has your experience made you the perfect candidate and what excites you about this role? Don’t speak in the 3rd person – it’s impersonal and too formal for SaaS.
- Keep it concise. Cut down content that isn’t relevant to the job that you are applying for and make sure your key strengths for the role stand out. Bullet points are a great way to go.
- Take some time to understand the market motion of the company you’re applying for and highlight relevant experience you’ve had with a similar motion (eg, product led growth company with sweet spot in SMB).
- If the company you’re applying for is at an earlier stage of growth – eg, start-up, early scale up or a new region launch, be sure to highlight any similar experience you’ve had in this stage of growth. SaaS companies at this stage will sometimes be wary of profiles who haven’t demonstrated success in an environment like this (context of ambiguity, change, requiring entrepreneurialism etc)
- Include any out of work achievements and passions! The hiring manager wants to get to know you, so list any involvement in sporting clubs, university clubs, high academic awards, hobbies, side hustles etc.
- After all this, don’t ruin it by forgetting the basics. Do a thorough spelling and grammar check and ensure your contact details are correct and up to date.
Considering a new role in SaaS sales, marketing or customer success? Reach out to the team for more advice on polishing your resume and available opportunities in the market.