Welcome back to my Job Seekers series. I hope that the information myself and my associates put together in this series will help all job seekers get better results in the career mart.
I’ve had cause to mingle with quite a number of young’uns on the job market of late. One of the major feedback I get is that despite applying for almost every job advertised, uploading resumes on resume banks they still come up empty. Sadly, many of these young’uns have grown weary and have lost heart.
While sometimes it may be beneficial to have the job mart doors shut in your face. Fortunate? Yes, fortunate, because sometimes this forces dynamic job seekers to dig deep into their entrepreneurial wells and come up with a business solution or product that disrupts the industry. But I am not going to go off tangent today. Not all job seekers successfully pivot into entrepreneurship. Some just sink; they lose their shine, their joy or living. Some become desperate; doing desperate things; like making the trek across the Sahara in search of ‘greener pastures’. Others turn to a life of crime. These are not viable options for anyone.
So, I want to enlighten the young’uns of what recruiters, HR Assistants and employers are looking for and at when they peruse submitted resumes.
Structure & Presentation:
How have you structured your resume. When a recruiter or HR Assistant has over 1,000 resumes to look through in one day, the burden is on YOU to ensure that your resume is one that will STAND OUT from the file. Do not let your structure be the reason your resume lands in the reject pile.
What do I mean by structure? How have you laid out your resume? Have you chosen a structure and format acceptable to the industry wherein you seek employment?
For instance, if you are not seeking a role in front of the camera, why do you have a professional headshot (photo) on your resume? In sectors like banking, law, medicine no one wants to see your headshot on your resume so please leave it out.
Recently a client was seeking an IT Help Desk officer, and some of the resumes that came in were not formatted properly (that gets to me). There was one in particular that stood out because the resume was typed in landscape and the font color was not quite red but close. This resume went straight to my reject bin.
Find the right structure for the industry you want to get into and adopt that structure. And make sure your resume does not seem whimsical. Your resume must represent your professional side. Recruiters want to see this professional persona shine through your resume. Make it so.
Length:
This could be a contentious issue for some, but I will give you my own personal perspective and leave you to research other perspectives and make your decision.
I am of the school that believe that you resume should not be more than 2 pages long (one side). The name of the game is ‘short and sweet wins the day’.
It may mean you have to take out your nursery school and secondary school information; if you have more advanced degrees you may not need them anyway (unless they are specifically called for in the job advert). It may mean you have to trim your list of responsibilities; you will definitely have to edit your ‘objective’.
Sometimes your resume is just too much to read in a jiffy and that alone lands it in the reject bin or at best the keep in view pile (a pile that most will hardly revisit as newer resumes pour in).
Roles, Responsibilities & Achievements
On account of the desperation to land a job many job seekers apply for jobs they are not experienced for. How do we know? Your previous experience!
Imagine this, an organization seeks and experienced Financial Analyst to join its growing team. Note the words “EXPERIENCED FINANCIAL ANALYST”.
All resumes come in and the HR Assistant or recruiter is reviewing the pile. And they get to resume from Charles Smith who has stated that his previous experience is ‘CORPS MEMBER’ at XYZ Finance Ltd.
It is quite possible that Charles may in the course of working with XYZ did carry out the function of a Financial Analyst and therefore does have some experience.
The recruiter has 99,999 other resumes to look through and does not the time to go over Charles list of responsibilities with a fine tooth comb so Charles is deem inexperienced and into the reject bin his resume goes.
Ask yourself, what can my resume say about me as I am not there to defend myself verbally?
Always ensure that your previous roles fit the range of roles and experiences the potential employer is looking for.
For the more experienced job seekers, recruiters will ‘wink’ at resumes that only show ‘roles and responsibilities’ from freshers and job seekers relatively new to the job market. But this will NOT FLY for you.
Experienced job seekers need to highlight their achievements in their previous roles. As you go higher, more is expected of you and employers need to know that you are not a freeloader but a potentially viable and productive member of the team.
What have you achieved? Did you save money in your previous role? Make money for your employers, improve a process? The list is endless. This must be crystal clear in your resume. Need I add that you present achievements that you can prove? Make sure you state your targets as amounts or percentages and demonstrate how you’ve overachieved clearly and succinctly.
Gaps
Are there gaps in your resume? Periods of time that you cannot account for or periods of time where it seems your schooling and or work overlap? You need to do the best you can to account for your gaps. If you took a gap year, or went for extended leave etc. you may want to be forthright and explain this gap in your cover letter.
Speaking of gaps, there are some roles where qualifying factors for the job is age (some countries do not have laws against this) and to meet the cut applicants fudge their dates. This is lying, you know that don’t you?
I once had a chap present a resume that portrayed him as a child prodigy that started university at the age of 12! He fudged his dates! This is one of the things desperation does to us. And we assume the recruiters can’t do the math? This is guaranteed to not just land your resume in the reject bin, but you could end up blackballed by the recruiter.
Skills
Last week I shared with you how a lawyer included the basic employability skills in his resume but failed to include any skills relating to his legal profession.
What you need to do is ensure you include all relevant skills gained and required of you in previous roles. Your skills will complement your experience and should ultimately illustrate your suitability for the job offered.
The trend is to copy and paste nice sounding skills from other people and present them as yours. You could get into a bit of hot water if you do this.
I was once on an interview panel, and a bight [looking] young man sat before us. His resume said he was an expert in Microsoft Excel. Since I had my laptop with me, I pushed it over and gave him a task. He choked! He couldn’t even create tables! Hot water, right? Don’t let this be you.
Next week I will do a deep dive into employability skills employers are looking for and share what each one means. [make sure you subscribe to this blog, so you don’t miss out on this update].
Education:
Is your educational background relevant to the role you have applied for? You wouldn’t expect a trained chef to seek a job of a financial analyst would you? That sounds far fetched, but you won’t believe the shenanigans our young’uns get up to.
If the job advert stated essential or desirable educational background or certification, make sure you highlight these prominently in the version of your resume you submit.
Keep your information concise and clear. Leave no room for ambiguity. Recruiters do not like ambiguity. Ambiguity sends your resume to the reject bin.
Finally, once you’ve got these details on point, your resume will need to look, feel and read well if it’s going to grab the attention of the recruiter quickly and effectively. To do this, make sure you pay attention to the following details.
- Keep to one font type (you can use bold to highlight headings only)
- Use simply bullet points to outline skills, achievements, responsibilities, etc. rather than rambling sentences.
- Spelling or grammar mistakes are to be avoided at all costs.
- Ensure your resume runs in reverse chronological order (immediate past job presented first) and is written as concisely as possible.
- It will help to include important keywords throughout your resume. To do this, scan the job description and make sure your language mirrors it. This will create a link in the mind of the reader between you and the requirements of the role. Avoid excessive jargon and be mindful that the person reading it may not be a technical or industry expert; but they do know what to look out for.
- Ensure your resume is formatted in such a way that the recipient will be able to open it easily – no hiring manager wants to download software to view a resume. Personally I find pdf resumes irritating – especially when I have to copy the names and details to report. Send simple Word documents.
- Make sure that when you save your resume, you include your name (i.e. Charles_Smith_Resume Version April 2018.doc) in the saved title. I once had a resume saved as ‘SexyRose…’ it made me laugh for a second; but didn’t get ‘Sexy Rose’ in the door.
You may possess all the desired skills and experience to excel at a role, but if you don’t document them clearly in your resume, you may fall at the first hurdle in being considered for a new role.
Don’t assume that you will wow interviewers with your charm. You have to get the ticket to the interview first. The only way is to have a brilliant resume that will never end up in the reject bin.
I hope this list has helped and you have taken notes on the things to change in your resume. Do you have any questions? Please feel free to leave a comment and I will respond posthaste.
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[…] that, you may want to review other blogs in the series here, here and […]