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.