Do hiring authorities view your uploaded resume or just read from the ATS fields? Find out the answer in this original blog post by Angela Watts, a former Fortune 100 Recruiter and current Executive Resume Writer.
Did you know that great resume writing is like a vanilla chai latte? Find out why!
The song “This Is Me” from The Greatest Showman movie may have won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song but employing this mantra in your resume won’t win you many interviews. While I remember how empowered and liberated I felt the first time I heard those lyrics, I also understand that simply “marching on to the beat I drum” won’t equal success in job search.
Please don’t misunderstand me, it is essential to identify and leverage your unique professional brand (“I am who I’m meant to be”), however, that brand must be conveyed in a manner that matters to each individual employer. If you submit the exact same resume to 20 different companies, 9 times out of 10 it won’t land you an interview.
1. ATS: 98% of Fortune 500 companies and 75% of all large companies are using Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS). These systems have the capability to screen your resume by analyzing your content for specific keyword matches. Many ATS provide screeners with scores or rankings based on these matches, which can influence their initial impression of you as a candidate. It’s highly unlikely that all 20 employers will be seeking the exact same keywords.
2. Jack of All Trades, Master of None: Employers are seeking an individual who is directly qualified for their open position. Why would they select someone who isn’t when they have hundreds of qualified applicants to choose from? It’s up to you to show them how your experience and accomplishments qualify you for their role.
3. Title Scan: Not only will ATS typically scan your resume for title matches, human screeners are often known to start with a quick title scan to rule out those who aren’t qualified. In a typical posting, about 50% to 75% of the applications received are from individuals who don’t meet the posted qualifications. Reading these resumes would waste time that Screeners don’t have to give. For this reason, they start with a quick initial scan of your resume to see if you have relevant experience. One way to ensure a title match (if your job titles don’t match), is to use the posting title as your resume headline.
4. Emotional Intelligence (EQ): 71% of surveyed employers say they value EQ over IQ. One of the key elements of EQ is the ability to consider the perspectives and emotions of others. Tailoring your content to what matters to a specific employer is an excellent way to demonstrate high EQ.
5. Growth Mindset: Run a search for “growth mindset” and you will find endless articles from top consulting firms and psychology experts about the importance of hiring individuals with a growth mindset. Employers are spending significant amounts of time and money to build a company culture around this perspective. Employees with a growth mindset continuously improve themselves and the organization. Being able to analyze your own experiences (both successes and failures) and draw key takeaways that relate to a potential employer, requires a growth mindset. By customizing your content for each position, you not only are conveying growth mindset, but you are also strengthening it through the activity.
In order to be “bursting through the barricades” and “reaching for the sun” as a job seeker, it is essential to customize your resume for each position of interest. Spending this time up-front will not only help you realize how well you align with the position requirements, it will also significantly increase your chances of being selected for an interview. With these new insights, “look out ‘cause here you come!”
Great RWs view your resume project as a team effort. They bring knowledge about hiring practices, a big picture perspective, interview skills that draw out key details and expertly compose each line to deliver maximum impact. You bring industry expertise, ensure accurate descriptions, separate company jargon from industry terminology and explain emerging competencies within your field. Together, you build an incredible document that captures your unique value proposition in a captivating manner. Its full of targeted keywords, demonstrates your character and beautifully balances your role descriptions with powerful graphics and accomplishment statements.
The foundation of great resume writing is strategy. Quality RWs focus heavily on understanding your career aspirations, targeted companies and ideal roles. Just like a CEO must develop a clear vision for company success, RWs must develop clear objectives to achieve resume success. By possessing strong interpersonal insight, ensuring realistic goals and executing effectively, superior RWs deliver significantly more interview invitations. You can separate strategic RWs from the pack because they focus on client education, challenge changes that don't align with stated aspirations and continue the relationship beyond the project. They are passionate about changing your application success and developing a long-term connection.
Top RWs aren't content to rest on their laurels. It's not just about a certification, award or title for these individuals. They are dedicated to repeatedly mastering their craft. Great RWs are consistently reading articles, attending webinars, participating in conferences, learning about new technology and APPLYING everything they learn. They frequently change their interview questions, designs and marketing techniques to maintain value within continuously changing candidate sourcing and screening processes. Exemplary RWs are very pragmatic in their practices, following-up with past clients to review resume efficacy, conducting surveys to improve the client experience and networking with colleagues to learn best practices.
Skilled RWs are typically early adopters of new industry technology, practices and resources. Rather than venting about the negative impacts of electronic screening, they focus their energy on understanding applicant tracking systems (ATS) and optimizing their clients' resumes to succeed in any environment. Expert RWs tend to embrace change and expand their services to align. As networking becomes a key route to interview selection, these RW champions offer courses and tools to improve networking success. When Facebook joins the job posting game, strong RWs develop services to transition personal profiles into sourcing bait. No matter what transformation employers throw their way, these RWs are ready to adapt and align their business model.
While industry-specific RWs can provide deep industry insights, I find the most effective RWs are multi-talented and perform regular field research as part of their writing process, whether or not they have previously worked in a client's profession. Industries are constantly changing and what was relevant 5 years ago, may not be today. Finding an RW who has robust skills in researching, interviewing, strategic planning and business writing will deliver a more compelling end product than working with an industry expert who lacks these skills. Again, you (the client) can be the greatest resource for critical field knowledge.
Finding a RW with all these skills may seem like a daunting task, however, these leaders typically offer a free consultation and are very willing to answer your questions prior to payment. Remember, their focus is on results over profit, so they are equally concerned with ensuring a good fit between before starting the process.
Are there any other RW competencies you feel are essential? If so, please tell me about them in the comments!
10/28/2016
With all the buzz about the "Gig Economy," many job seekers have begun to believe that "job hopping" is now an acceptable practice.
While the economy and employment arrangements are opening up to more freelance, contract and consultation opportunities, an employer's desire for dependable employees has not changed. Employers want to spend their labor dollars efficiently and effectively. Even before there were formal metrics for training and attrition costs, employers understood the value of a dependable employee.
In previous generations, employees started in a low-level position within a company and spent decades working their way up. Hard work and dedication lead to advancement and success...THEN...Steve Jobs started Apple in his garage and Mark Zuckerberg developed FaceBook in his dorm room. Well, it's not exactly that simple, but these and other overnight success stories have played a role in building a desire to find one's "big break" rather than a long-term employer.
The reality is that what seems like overnight success, rarely is. In nearly every case of extreme success there are years of work and failure that we don't see. The majority of millionaires and billionaires spent decades refining an idea, learning their industry and working long hours before they made it big.
Another consideration: you have to develop expertise before anyone will want to hire you as a freelancer, contractor or consultant. Most expertise is developed while working as an employee, learning through experiences, and training programs. Working for more than one employer can also provide an education about best practices and a high-level view of your industry.
If your goal is to be an entrepreneur, inventor, freelancer, contractor or consultant, you will first need to acquire knowledge and experience. The most direct and common path for knowledge acquisition is working for an employer. An employer wants to hire someone who is dependable. A common mantra in the recruiting world is “the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.” For this reason, many recruiters and employers make job hopping their first screen-out criteria. Eliminating “job hoppers” is an easy and appropriate way to reduce the number of resumes for review, while also reducing the chance of hiring a candidate who will cost the company time and money, with little return on the investment.
What is "job hopping?" Job hopping is frequently changing roles and/or companies. Most recruiters and employers want to see a stretch of 2 years in a role before moving on. A pattern of leaving roles more frequently than every 2 years can get you flagged as a "job hopper" and eliminate your resume from consideration.
As a resume writer, I can downplay frequent career moves and highlight the benefits of your varied experience...to a point. My creativity can only mask so much. At a certain juncture in the hiring process, the employer will likely ask you to list out your roles, dates of employment and reasons for leaving each role for at least the past 5 years (typically on an application). If you have demonstrated a pattern of job hopping during this time, been fired for cause or shown career regression, a well-designed resume won't save you.
Only YOU can BUILD your resume. Job changes (even during college) should be intentional and planned. Recruiters understand that internships will typically end after 6 months and that you may only be able to work during the summer. However, picking back up with the same employer the next summer demonstrates loyalty and quality work (since they rehired you.) After college, these attributes can be demonstrated by staying with each company for at least 2 years and in each role within that company (unless you are promoted) for at least 1 year.
The ability to make strategic, timely career moves suggests high emotional intelligence or emotional quotient (EQ), a capacity that 71% of employers say they value more than intelligence (IQ), according to a recent CareerBuilder survey. High EQ is also associated with the ability to: stay calm under pressure, resolve conflict effectively, show empathy, lead by example, make more thoughtful decisions, learn from mistakes and listen well. High EQ is what TOP employers are searching for and measuring for in their screening processes. You can demonstrate this desirable attribute through your resume and the employment choices you have made.
My advice to job seekers is this...put the time in, do the work, glean as much as you can from each employer, role and experience and you will set yourself up for a great career in which you can decide whether to continue on an employment or a contractor path. Build your resume and your career the "old school" way and you will have more "new school" options!
10/17/2016
This is such a great and timely question! With the increased use of LinkedIn and other social media sites in business today, it can seem like a dated practice to NOT include your photo on your resume or CV. But wait...before you insert a selfie into the latest version of your resume, let's consider the risks and benefits.
LinkedIn has changed the candidate landscape for recruiting and job seeking. Not having a photo on LinkedIn is considered “out of touch” with professional practice. So, can we conclude that not having a photo on your resume is also "out of touch" with professional practice?
Most companies employ or contract a Human Resources (HR) professional or employment law attorney to develop their hiring process. Their goal in hiring an HR law expert to design their process is to reduce the company's liability risk. Employer's want to avoid discrimination claims. The easiest way to circumvent a claim of discrimination is to avoid collecting any information about a candidate that relates to a Title VII protected class (race, national origin, color, sex and religion.) It is expected that individuals working in the business world are familiar with this legislation and the surrounding legal concerns. Including information that discloses your race, national origin, color, sex or religion on your resume can call your business acumen into question.
"But a recruiter who views my LinkedIn profile has access to my photo and, therefore, protected class information about me. What's the difference?"
This is very true. However, most companies will use LinkedIn as a passive candidate recruiting tool. They often run searches based on keywords in your profile and then direct you to a job posting or website, if they feel you have the qualifications for the role. From there, you will need to email or submit a resume (or CV) for consideration (not your LinkedIn profile). The sourcing professional who found you on LinkedIn is typically not the same person who will screen your information in the hiring process. The screening professional will review your resume and be unaware of any Title VII information included on LinkedIn or other social media sites. This way, their decision to rule you out or invite you to interview will be made solely based on the information provided in your resume.
With that said, there are progressive companies who accept LinkedIn profiles as a form of application. If you apply to a company with this practice, you should be safe to include a photo on your resume (if it is later requested). In certain countries (i.e. Germany or France) it is appropriate to include a photo of yourself on your resume. Many small businesses do not have a formal hiring process and will not count it against you if you include a photo. However, for the vast majority of small, mid-sized and large U.S. companies, including a photo on your resume may harm your chances for consideration. Some U.S. companies even have a practice of discarding any resume received with Title VII information on it.
Let's discuss any potential benefits to including your photo. A photo can humanize you and it can make your resume stand out from the crowd of black text on white paper. Are there other ways to accomplish this that don't involve the risk of being screened out? Yes. You can include a graphic, a unique font color or formatting that will stand out from other resumes. You can incorporate a strong summary statement that explains your distinctive characteristics and strengths (thereby humanizing you to the reader.)
A recent study by The Ladders found that recruiters spend an average of 6 seconds reviewing a resume before making a determination about whether to pass on a candidate. When a photo was included on a resume, recruiters spent much of this sparse time looking at the photo rather than reading the content of the resume.
Ultimately, you need to learn about the organization before you submit a resume. Are they progressive, are they based in the U.S., who will initially review your resume (a recruiter, a hiring manager or a computer)? With this information, you can make an educated decision about whether or not to include your photo. Even at the most progressive company, it still may be to your advantage to omit your photo so the recruiter spends their time reading about your accomplishments rather than viewing your latest headshot.
