Archive for the ‘Resume Writing’ Category
 The recruiting process varies by industry, company and profession, but end result is the same: only one person out of many candidates is hired. Not every company sends out rejection letters and only few say why.
For those who aren’t hired, it can be a mystery to understand what happened, but knowing what exactly goes on behind the scenes may give you the inside track for a job.
Many employers use recruiters or human resources (HR) personnel to pre-screen applicants that meet a job’s basic qualifications. The goal is to remove only candidates that are a clear miss. Some screeners read every resume, but many search for certain keywords. Some of them consider cover letters and others may ignore cover letters completely. To stay on the safe side, it is better to submit a well-written cover letter and include relevant keywords that usually found in the job posting.
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 You stressed out and really need to get a job as soon as possible. You have responded to many online job ads and uploaded your resume to a number of recruitment web sites, but no one is calling to invite you for an interview.
One of the main reasons might be a lack of resume keywords.
Keywords are specific words or phrases used to describe an applicant’s skills or experience. They are often specific buzz-words that are used in a particular industry. Most companies use applicant tracking software, which scans resumes for keywords relating to experience, job titles, skills, training, and degrees. Resumes WILL NOT show up in a search unless they contain the exact words or phrases that the employer is searching for. Most Fortune 1000 companies and many smaller companies now use these technologies.
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 Have you been looking for a job during a few months with no results? You probably think it is a bad economy because you have been doing everything you could. You are right - it is not the best time for job seekers. But have you been doing everything you could?
Let’s try to understand what you might have done wrong or did not do at all.
1. Have you created a great resume? It is extremely important to have a great resume. Only a well-written resume can get you noticed and should convince an employer to invite you for an interview. And that is exactly what you need!
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 Are you looking for a job? Sending out your resume everywhere and not getting responses? Is it the economy or your resume? Let’s look at the resume one more time and try to understand what the problem is.
Presenting the most common mistakes job hunters make when writing their resumes:
1. Leaving out the job objective. What direction are you moving in? What career goals do you want to achieve? You describe it in your job objective. The job objective is a brief introduction to your resume that establishes your employment goals. It needs to be specific enough to identify the types of jobs you have the right skills and qualifications for. Including your objective not only helps you understand your own goals, but also gives employers an idea of where you are going, and how you want to arrive there.
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 The advice is very simple: unless you write a personalized cover letter, addressed to the person who is likely to be reading your resume, and unless it is tailored specifically for the company and the position, don’t even bother including one with your resume!
Generic cover letters rarely get any attention. In fact, 9 out of 10 recruiters admit they don’t look at them at all…
…unless it has their name on it.
Before writing a cover letter, consider its purpose. Many job seekers would agree that the purpose of a cover letter is to capture attention and to make your resume stand out.
Unfortunately, cover letters are rarely written in a way that accomplishes that. Why?
Let me give you an example: Next time you open your mailbox at home, pay attention to the junk mail you throw away right away vs. what captures your attention. Chances are you would immediate throw away advertising claiming special deals that look like they are sent to millions of other “lucky” customers. You know there is nothing special or unique about them. However, you would probably pay more attention to the mail that is customized to your needs or preferences or something that has a personal touch and is of value to you. For instance, a hand-written envelope with your name on it containing a personalized coupon for a 50% discount on an item that you really need would probably get a lot more attention from you.
Are you getting the analogy?
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 Looking for a job is a full time job. There are so many things that should be done. You need to write a good resume and a cover letter. You need to find places that hire, send out your resume, interact with recruiters, prepare yourself for an interview, etc. After all this done we often forget to write a thank you letter.
Why Should You Write It?
The interview thank you letter is an effective and easy way for you to remind about yourself. It gives the interviewer a clear signal without actually saying the insinuating words, “Hello Mr. X! Do you remember me? I was the best candidate for that job!” It also shows that you understand and practice good business etiquette. Remember, a good interview thank you letter can help the employer decide in your favor.
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Common Job Board Scams
In the past I worked in the marketing department of a major job board for several years. For the most part job boards care little about the actual user. Until recently, most were focused on one major goal: selling more job postings at the highest price point possible. However, in recent years, with the economy shifting into the employer’s favor most major job boards are trying to make up revenue by selling more products to desperate job seekers. Most of these upgrades and services are entirely useless and can even hurt your search efforts in some cases.
1. Resume “Upgrades” or paid search engine “Spotlight”
You know all those offers to upgrade your resume? Offers they’ll put you in the top search engine position to help you stand out to employers for only the low, low, price of $150.00? Yep, a heaping pile’o’scam. CareerBuilder even offers a service with different levels from “Copper” to “Titanium”. Not only is there not a difference between the levels, but it won’t make any difference in how many employers view your resume. In fact it can even hurt. When employers search the database, the resumes are returned much like job search results are returned. It first goes by keyword relevance, then how fresh or new the resume is. After 90 days or so, if you haven’t actively updated your resume, you’ll slowly slip into oblivion from the search results. When there’s an “upgraded” resume in the search results it displays it with a nice colored bordered box around it and a bolded title. The main problem: the employer doesn’t really care whether or not your Resume has a border around it, they just care if you fit what they’re looking for. In fact when I was doing training years ago for a client, one of the HR people asked me why there was a green border around one of the resumes, I said that person had paid for the “upgraded” resume service, the manager chuckled and said “wow, that person must be desperate.” Quite honestly, in this economy employer’s don’t need to search the database as much, they have people beating down the door to work at their company, so all you’re really doing is filling a profit gap for the job board.
Pro-Tip: All job boards work on keyword frequency. So if you want to make it to the top of the list on the search results, all you have to do is use a particular keyword more than anyone else. For example, if you want to make it to the top of the list for “project manager”, you just need to use the keyword “project manager” more than anyone else. One time I searched that term to see who was on the top of the list, the guy literally had “project manager” on his resume 400 times.
2. Resume writing services
Hey it can’t hurt to have someone take a look at my resume for free and tell me if anything is wrong with my resume, right? Wrong. First you’re resume will always have something wrong with it. You could be Donald Trump and have a resume hand crafted by J.R.R. Tolkien and their automated system will always kick back a response that says your resume needs to be rewritten. In fact, I remember a story of one woman who used our resume rewriting service, then submitted the rewritten resume to the resume checker, only for it to tell her that it needed to be rewritten :-).
The main problem is most of these job boards outsource their rewriting service to places like India, where they churn and burn rewritten resumes all day long. They may clean up the formatting and your grammar a bit, but it’s not worth the cost. You’re better off following free tips and templates online. Then have one of your unemployed English major friends look it over for grammar.
3. Resume Distribution
Hey they’ll distribute your resume to 1000 of qualified employers, think of all the interviews!! The only problem is these are going to places like hr@bigcompany.com or info@megarecruiters.com , generic e-mails which will likely go ignored, or if someone does look at, will likely be deleted. Employers aren’t eagerly waiting around for the next e-mail “blast” to come through. Recruiting firms and large employers get massive amounts of resumes sent to them each week. It’s just not humanly possible to look at each one, let alone ones come from some sort of blast service. Most have spam filters or you will go into their generic database, never to see the light of day by anyone.
This is what you’re paying for. Colored borders no employer cares about. Resumes being rewritten by people whom only care about getting to the next one. Your resume is being sent to addresses that aren’t valid and aren’t qualified. It’s being sent to, and received by, people who didn’t ask for it, don’t look at it, and don’t care. If it still sounds too good to be true, remember what your mom told you when you were a kid: if it’s too good to be true, it probably is.
We’ve asked a number of experts in recruiting and HR: How do you sort through resumes? What makes you keep a resume vs. throwing it away? Here are the things that most certainly will have your resume thrown away:
- Misspellings
- Job Instability
- Mismatching Objective and Job Experience:
- Lack of Clarity
- Lack of Specifics
- Lack of Career Progression
- Too Long
You can read the complete artcile on Resumark.com: What do Employers look for in Resumes? Don’t Have Your Resume Thrown Away!
 We’ ve recently compiled a list of Top Ten Resume Tips that everyone needs to know before sitting down to write or update their resume. This list was compiled with the help of our LinkedIn Job 2.0 group. Without further adieu, here it is: Resume Tips Everyone Needs to Know (see the complete artcile)
- Don’t lie on your resume.
- Keep it simple – use simple language and straight to the point.
- Tailor your resume for each specific job application.
- Customize cover letter that you submit with your resume.
- Keep it Short. Use bullet points to deliver key points in your resume.
- Include your accomplishments and not just your job duties.
- List quantifiable results along with your accomplishments.
- Proofread, proofread again and then have someone else proofread your resume.
- Keep it professional. No photos, no colored paper or fancy typefaces.
- Include reliable references that will guarantee excellent feedback.
The complete artcile is available at Resumark.com
An effective letter can draw a recruiter to your resume. If done the right way, it also can showcase your initiative, creativity and writing skills. A cover letter should contain three main sections:
FIRST PARAGRAPH
- Identify the position for which you are applying.
- State how you learned of the position and why you are interested in the position or organization.
SECOND PARAGRAPH
- Summarize why you are a strong candidate for the position.
- Target the job description and specifically discuss how your skills relate to the job requirements.
- Highlight one or two of your accomplishments or abilities that show you are an excellent candidate for the position.
- Detail positive characteristics and past experiences that illustrate how your qualifications will benefit the organization.
CLOSING PARAGRAPH
- Thank the person for considering your resume and offer to provide additional information.
- Include your phone number and when you can be reached.
Source: www.michigan.gov
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