5 Things You Have to Remember to Do Before Sending
Your Resume.
If you could choose between a beautifully tailored outfit designed
to fulfil all of your fashion dreams or a ready-to-wear baggy tee from some
random retailer, which would you pick? That’s a rhetorical
question. You’d obviously want that tailored outfit. Did I mention it
comes with bespoke pockets? Well, it does.
In the age
of personalization, we want everything to be made to fit us. So, why would we
expect a hiring manager to want anything different when they get a stack of resumes in response to a job offer? Whenever a
hiring manager posts a job offer, they receive 250+ other resumes on average in
response. From that pile, they need to find the one diamond that shines
brighter than all the others.
How can you expect your resume to shine
bright like a diamond? If you send in a generic resume that you didn’t tailor
to the job offer? You can’t. Plain and simple. I know, you probably
think that tailoring a resume is a difficult and time-consuming
process. Here’s what I have to say to you – no, no it is not. Not if you
make a good use of the info graphic by Up
to Work below and use the
following tips:
Starting
off on the right foot: a master resume
You
probably don’t realize it, but there’s a good chance you already have the
makings of a master resume. Do you have a working resume that you want to
revamp? That’s almost the same thing as a master resume. All you need to
do is add all of your work experience, skills, and
information. Everything once you’ve done that, you have a document
from which you can pick and choose the most relevant skills and experience for
your tailored resume. Having everything in one place, to begin with, will
make things easier when you start to tailor your new resume.
Here’s what recruiters really want to
see
Because
hiring managers get flooded with so many resumes, they will only spend an
average of six seconds scanning each one for relevance. So, what is it
that they are they trying to find? Keywords. They are scanning your
resume to find the skills and experience they asked for in the job
description. So, where is the best place to start looking for those
keywords? That’s right! In the job description.
Grab your
highlighter or trusty pen and mark all of the skills and required experience
you can find. If you are applying for a job online, adding keywords to
your resume is even more crucial. When you send a resume through an online
application, it is likely that it will go through an Applicant Tracking System
(ATS). The program is designed to scan your resume for keywords that match
those from the job description. If your resume is a good match, it will go
higher on the recruiter’s list of relevant resumes, and that’s where you want
to be.
Do keep in
mind that these systems are sophisticated enough to know if you’ve used the
keyword within a proper context or if you’ve simply stacked your resume full of
keyword gibberish.
So, what do
you do once you’ve found all of the keywords?
4
tips for tailoring your resume
Now that
you have a list of skills recruiters want, and a master resume full of skills
that you have, it’s time to match them. I’d like to bring to your
attention the fact that skills can fall under a few different categories:
Job-related
Skills
These are
the skills that are mandatory for you to have to do the job. In that respect,
most of the skills on the job description will fall under this category.
Transferable Skills
These are
key skills that you can take with you from one job to another. There will
probably be quite a few transferable skills listed in the job description as
well.
Adaptive Skills
These are
skills that you carry with you for survival. Often, they are skills that you
develop on your own and use in regular, everyday life.
Tip 1
Have a look at the job description and try to find the job-related skills first. What skills can you find that you must have? Your resume should include all of the job-related skills that you have that match those required in the job description. You should write them in as close to the top of your resume as possible, and they should be first in line in your skills section.
Tip 2
To draw attention to the skills you find most important or relevant, you should demonstrate how you’ve used these skills in the past. Use numbers and achievements to illustrate your use of these skills. Using facts and figures has two benefits. First, it draws the eye of the recruiter, making it easier for the recruiter to locate skills on your resume. Second, it allows the recruiter to imagine that you will provide them with the same results.
Here’s how
it works:
Instead of
writing: “Management Skills”
Write:
“Management of Large Teams (100+ people)”
For your
experience section, instead of writing: “Responsible for increasing sales and
retaining customers.”
Write:
“Increased quarterly sales by 10% over the course of two years, and increased
customer retention by managing the launch of a new customer loyalty scheme in
2014.”
Tip 3
Now, look
at the remaining skills and find those that are transferable.
These are
the “nice to have skills” that are easy for you to have, as they are usually
picked up in past jobs. If you have any of them, add them to your experience
and skills section where relevant.
Microsoft
Excel should simply go in your skills section.
Remember to
add details:
Microsoft
Excel (proficient with macros and pivot tables)
Transferable
skills that you feel strongly about can go in your experience section. You can
also add other valuable transferable skills that you have that the job offer
did not mention. Transferable skills are always relevant.
Tip 4
You can add
adaptive skills throughout your resume to describe yourself. For example, you
can start your resume summary off with an adaptive skill as an introductory
adjective.
Highly
Ambitious Marketing Manager
OR
Detail-oriented
Sales Associate
Now,
don’t trip at the finish line: tailor your cover letter
You need to
tailor your cover letter to the job description as well. Yes, you still need a
cover letter. And in most cases, recruiters will scan them in the same way
they will scan your resume. They will look for keywords from the job
description. So, add them where relevant.
Key
takeaway
Resume
tailoring is by far one of the most important things you can do to show a
recruiter that you care and that you are the person who is most fit for the
job. And you should be tailoring every resume you send in response to
every job offer every time. I can’t stress that enough. While it may seem
like common sense, the steps above should at least streamline the process for
you. Happy tailoring!
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