Remove your full mailing
address tables, graphics, pictures, personal statements, obvious skills like
teamwork. Time management those are basic skills every single human being
should have regardless of whether you`re applying for a job or not.
You should also remove
irrelevant work experience, high school, middle school information completely.
Get rid of references available upon request. You don`t have to state the
obvious eliminate any and everything that can be used to discriminate against
you.
Hi guys and welcome to
another job search career type of blog. Today we want to share some tips on how
you can actually increase or improve your chances of recruiters. Looking at
your resumes and actually giving you a call to screen you. Consider you for
potential job opportunities.
About Author
I and my team work as a recruiter
that`s our corporate job. Whatever you want to call it but I am a recruiter and
I am a job search coach so aside from doing recruitment work working with
candidates and clients on a day to day basis. When I am at work when I am
outside of work I am also working with different job seekers who are trying to get
hired. I position them and coach them to guide them in their job search for
them. To be able to attract and be hired in their dream positions. So as a recruiter
and not just me this is for recruiters in general
on average. We can work on!
Let`s say five to 30. Sometimes
even 40 jobs at one time so that means. Simultaneously, we could be working on 15
completely different positions. Dealing with different hiring managers and
different companies and even if it`s an internal corporate recruiter.
They could be working on
15 different positions that are within the same company but different hiring
managers and different departments. That means the recruiter receives hundreds
upon hundreds upon hundreds of applications. It`s just not realistic as a
recruiter for me to call every single person that`s going to apply for a job
even if we wanted to it`s just not gonna work.
As a job seeker for
recruiters to contact you. You have to do your part, to make your resume
somewhat attractive. You know like sort of like a bait to attract recruiters to
look at your resume. And be like we want to contact this person to be honest.
If we have 100 resumes, your
resume has to stand out for me to decide to call you over the 99 other resumes.
We have so typically what happens when a recruiter is going through resumes. Is
they will have different paths?
First Pile
The first pile is when
we look at a resume. We`re like yes! we really want to connect with this person.
Oh my goodness! This is exactly what we are looking for. Oh and yes, finally we
have found like a star. We found my candidate your resume will give a recruiter
that kind of feel that kind of vibe.
Second Pile
The second pile is this
person looks good not bad but let me see what else is out there. Let me see
what other resumes. We will come across we are not completely saying, NO! We
are not saying yes, either they look qualified for the job.
But we don`t know
there`s just something missing that “x factor” element is not there. But also
consider them. Let me see what else we come up with.
Third Pile
And the third part is
like no, there`s absolutely no way! We are contacting this person like why did
this person even apply for this job like. Did they apply for the job in their
sleep? Like what is this is so frustrating. These are the kind of people that
waste our time. You know so that`s the third pile and so your objective as a
job seeker should obviously be to make it to the first pile where the recruiter
looks at your resume.
And they`re like, Wow! We
are really want to connect with this person. Well sometimes they`ll even be like
you know what let me drop everything else. That we are doing and call this
person before anybody else. Call them and so in today`s blog we just want to share
with you five things or five elements that recruiters on average are looking at
when they`re screening candidates.
You know here and there
the reasoning or the logic might be different. But for the most part these are
the things that the standard recruiter is going to be looking at whether you
are applying directly to the company. It`s a corporate recruiter or whether you
are applying through the agency.
It is an agency
recruiter we are all looking for these five things and we want to see these
five things in your resume. To get excited about calling you and connecting
with you and potentially presenting your resume to the hiring manager.
Relevant Skill
The very first thing is do
you have the relevant skill set. You would think that this is so obvious but in
working in recruitment. We have actually learned that, No! It`s not obvious,
most people don`t actually realize that you need some sort of skill set for that
job that you`re applying for.
You want to ask yourself
do I have the skill set for this job. Am I just like applying to like try my
luck or can I actually do it now? We are not saying that you know you have to
be like a bang on fit 10 out of 10 in order to apply for a job.
Not necessarily something
that we always tell people to do. Especially in my coaching practice is to fill
up a suitability map. Let`s say you have a particular job. You want to try out
for look for three job descriptions for that same role because you know
different companies have different job descriptions.
So come up with three separate
job descriptions for that one rule list down the skills on one side and then on
another side try and list out your relevant experiences. What tangible
experience you can think of that you actually have that matches that skill. If
you can come up with like at least 50 percent of the skills then yeah give it a
try, why not! But if you can come up with like at least 75 to 80 of the skills
then you have a stronger chance of recruiters contacting you for that position.
Especially if you are working
with an agency because you have to remember that if you are working with an
agency. They are being paid by a company
to find you, right. And a company is not going to pay a fee. No matter how much
it is ten thousand, fifteen thousand, twenty thousand dollars, for somebody who`s
not qualified.
Somebody who doesn`t
have the right skill set so always ask yourself. If you are actually skilled or
qualified for that job. In addition to being skilled for that job you want to make
sure that you remove irrelevant skills as well.
Let`s say you are applying
for a new role and you have certain skills that are on your resume. But that
are not relevant just remove them because you are just like using up space. Unnecessarily
where you could be focusing on other things that are relevant to that job.
Current Role
You are applying for the
next thing is your current role. Your current role is super important over
here. You want to ask yourself, questions! Like have you included the best
parts of what. You do a lot of people actually take their job descriptions. That`s
what they list on their resume.
If we look at your
resume. We are going to be able to tell in just a matter of seconds. If you
have copied verbatim from your job description or if this is like your original cv writing. You are actually telling me what it is you do on a daily basis or whatever
it is you are including on your resume.
Let`s start the best
parts of what you do and when we say the best parts. We are referring to the
parts that are relevant to the job that you are applying for. Not the best
parts that you think are exciting for you or you think are fancy.
You want to talk about
what capacity you work with others. Are there any projects that you are working
on that? You worked on in the past that you actually took a lead on and that
was successful. That saved the company money or saved the company time your
current role or your most recent role is the one that we are going to look at
first.
So it is important that
you really lay it out properly and you explain to us in a clear and concise
manner. What it is that you do without bombarding us with too much information?
But focusing on what`s important what is relevant to the job that you are applying
for.
If you impress me in
that first current role then you know we are going to be intrigued to keep
reading further. It`s also important that you communicate the value and impact
that you bring to the table. So listing out what it is you do is not enough
that`s just like a basic that is just a standard requirement.
You need to tell us what
you are doing but in addition to telling us what you are doing or what you have
done. You need to be able to quantify your value. We want to see numbers,
figures, type of impact. You had in your current role in past roles. Don`t be
afraid of selling yourself your resume is a branding document.
You are supposed to sell
yourself that is exactly what you are supposed to do. Obviously, you don`t want
to be like overzealous or anything like that. But you do want to sell yourself.
You do want to make yourself appear in a certain light.
Don`t be afraid to
mention your successes and sometimes we know like with certain positions. You
might not have a specific figure to say. Okay, we improved sales for example by
30 within an eight-month period but every single job has metrics that you can
measure.
For example, if you are
an office manager or an administrative assistant. You`re not necessarily dealing
with like numbers or figures like some other roles would maybe you came up with
an easier process with an easier template that`s going to reduce the time.
It takes to key in
something from 10 to 7 minutes that is an accomplishment. Whatever it is that
you do or don`t like overthink it or think too much out of the box. Because then
you like be thinking. Okay, I have nothing to say even in the simplest thing. You
can find a way that you improve the process. You can find a way in which you save
the company time. You can find a way in which you have saved the company money.
If you are working in
customer service, you can list maybe one or two examples of how you saved the company
high value clients about. How a client was super angry and you turned around a
frustrated customer into a loyal customer. No matter what it is that you do trust
me there is a way of finding the value.
Consistency
The impact that you have
had the fourth thing and this is so important is we want to see consistency. So
does your resume tell a story? Are you a job hopper? Like have you gone from doing
job to job doing? Something completely different to job “X”. Doing something
completely different like what story is your resume telling and not that
there`s anything wrong with doing different kind of roles.
But we want to see a
connection. We want to see a story like how is it you know flowing it can`t
just be like completely random. If your resume is not telling a consistent
story. People shy away and even if you have done separate completely different
roles communicated in a way that there is a flow how do your past roles or your
most recent role or the role before your most recent role align with the job
that you have just sent in your resume for .
Is there a connection or
is it like something completely different night and day? Tell us a story make
your resume easy to read. We already mentioned recruiters are filtering through
hundreds of resumes you want to make it easy for them. You don`t want them to
receive your resume and your resume has got good information. But they`re
flipping through your resume and they`re like this is just too complicated like
you know.
Just make it easy to
read 99 of candidates. Don’t make the mistake of wanting to put everything in
their resume. Because they think everything is relevant and they want the recruiter
or the hiring manager to see everything. But for the most part we will tell you
that recruiters don`t read everything that`s on your resume information.
Overload is never a good
thing stick to the most important things. Like the critical things that are
relevant to the role you`re applying for. Everything else you`ve done is really
not that important. If it is important you can discuss it with the hiring
manager. You can discuss it with the recruiter once.
They contact you during
the phone interview during the video interview or in-person interview. But
don`t put too much information on your resume. We have seen like a lot of
people saying that your resume should only be one page that`s a lie your
resume.
Doesn`t have to be only
one page unless you are a recent graduate but if you do have working experience
there`s nothing wrong with having a two-page, a three-page resume depending on
your seniority. You know how many jobs you have had but even if your resume is
two to three pages. Don`t bombard us with too much information.
Give us the information that is important and so the next time you`re applying for a job or you`re redoing your resume we want you to ask yourself these five questions.
These are the things that are at the back of recruiters hands when they`re going through resumes. We hope you found this information helpful. If you did give this blog a thumbs up share it with a friend that you know is looking for a job.