How to Tailor Your CV for Recruiters

As someone who has reviewed resumes for over a decade, I want to take a moment to offer a few tips for those wondering why their resume isn’t leading to callbacks. 1. Ensure that your resume objective is relevant to the role you’re applying for. I often see resumes that simply don't fit the role. For example, if you’re applying for an administrative assistant position but your objective is tailored to IT, I, as a recruiter, will be concerned that my role doesn't match your long-term goals. Editing and saving different versions of your resume for each role can be tedious, but alignment with the role is crucial for callbacks. 2. Verify that the dates on your resume are accurate. It’s a significant waste of time during a phone interview to discuss date discrepancies. Moreover, if you lack the attention to detail to remember when you stopped working somewhere, it raises concerns about your overall thoroughness. Continuously update your resume to maintain its integrity and keep your employment dates and responsibilities fresh in your mind. 3. Highlight your achievements on your resume. Mention any additional training, awards you've won, improvements you've implemented, and processes you've established for your employer. Your resume should not only list what you did but also how well you did it. It can be helpful to review your resume with a trusted friend from your previous job to ensure you haven’t forgotten any of your outstanding achievements. 4. Avoid overusing jargon on your resume. Recruiters might not be familiar with all the specifics of your industry. While including acronyms and industry-specific terms can showcase your expertise, they may confuse someone who is not the first person to review your resume. If you cannot articulate your experiences in a way that someone outside of your industry can understand, you may find it challenging to secure callbacks and perform well in interviews. I think a great best practice is to have someone outside of your industry review your resume to ensure clarity. These are just a few tips I’ve gathered from reviewing thousands of resumes. There are many excellent resources available to help improve your resume- use them! AI, resume writers, and friends in talent acquisition can all help! Job hunting can feel like a full-time job — I’ve been there. Remember, your resume plays a critical role in getting you noticed, so take advantage of these resources and let your resume represent you effectively.

🌟🔍 As both a job seeker and a recruiter, I've experienced firsthand the challenges of navigating Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) in the job search process. Let me tell you, it can feel like a maze at times, but fear not! I'm here to shed some light on this often mysterious aspect of job hunting. 💼💡 When I was on the job hunt, I quickly realized the importance of understanding how ATS works. These systems are designed to help recruiters manage the overwhelming influx of applications they receive for each job posting. But as a job seeker, it's crucial to know how to optimize your application to ensure it gets noticed amidst the sea of resumes. As a recruiter, I've seen firsthand how ATS can be both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, it streamlines the hiring process, allowing us to efficiently screen and review candidates. On the other hand, it can inadvertently filter out qualified candidates if their resumes aren't properly formatted or optimized for ATS algorithms. So, what can you do to ensure your resume makes it past the ATS gatekeepers? Here are a few tips: 📌 Tailor Your Resume: Customize your resume for each job application by incorporating relevant keywords from the job description. This not only helps your resume get past ATS filters but also demonstrates your fit for the role. 📌 Optimize Formatting: Use a clean and simple resume format with standard fonts and headings. Avoid graphics, images, and fancy formatting that may confuse ATS algorithms. 📌 Use Standard File Formats: Save your resume as a PDF or Microsoft Word document to ensure compatibility with ATS systems. Avoid using uncommon file formats that may not be compatible with all systems. 📌 Proofread Carefully: Check your resume for spelling and grammatical errors before submitting it. ATS algorithms can flag typos and errors, potentially causing your application to be overlooked. 📌 Network: Whenever possible, leverage your network to bypass ATS altogether. Networking and referrals can often lead to opportunities that may not be advertised publicly. Navigating ATS can be daunting, but with the right strategies and mindset, you can optimize your chances of getting noticed by recruiters and landing your dream job. Remember, it's not just about meeting the qualifications; it's about understanding how to navigate the digital landscape of the job market effectively. Let's unlock your potential together! 💪✨ #JobSearch #ResumeTips #CareerAdvice

As a Recruiter with Engage Partners Inc. candidates often ask me to give an honest assessment of their resume. Although I never want to offend anyone, I believe that being transparent is most important. Here are some tips: 1. Clarity is Key: Make sure your resume is clear and concise. Use bullet points and headings to organize information neatly. 2. Highlight Achievements: Instead of listing tasks, focus on your accomplishments. What impact did you have in your previous roles? Numbers and results speak volumes! 3. Tailor for the Job: Customize your resume for each position you apply for. Highlight skills and experiences that align with the job description. 4. KEYWORDS MATTER: Many companies use applicant tracking systems. Use relevant keywords from the job listing to increase your chances of being noticed. 5. Showcase Skills: Highlight technical skills, certifications, and achievements that showcase your expertise and potential. 6. Tell Your Story: Your resume is a snapshot of your career journey. Use it to tell a compelling story of your professional growth. 7. Proofread Carefully: Typos and errors can hurt your chances. Proofread your resume meticulously or ask a friend for a fresh pair of eyes. 8. Keep It Current: Regularly update your resume with new skills and experiences. Don't forget to add your latest achievements! 9. Professional Summary: Consider adding a brief professional summary at the top to introduce yourself and your career goals. 10. Formatting Matters: Use a clean, professional format with consistent fonts and spacing. Make it visually appealing. 11. Last but not least - read your resume as though you are the recruiter hiring for the position. Would your resume stand out? **Remember, your resume is your first impression on potential employers. Craft it with care, and it can open doors to exciting opportunities.**

As a recruiter, I don't spend a lot of time on your resume I know many of you are shocked by that statement... So let me tell you what I look for when I scan your resume: -A strong professional summary -Job Titles -The first 1-2 bullet points per experience (more towards recent experiences) -Relevant keywords, numbers, and metrics -Education (if it's a specific requirement for my open position) & Certifications That's it So, let's breakdown how we make a great first impression with each of these areas 1. Professional summary should be roughly 4 sentences, highlighting accomplishments and achievements related to the job description while adding in the relevant keywords (not buzzwords, there are differences) and quantifiable metrics. Note: For someone who has experiences that are earlier in their career they fear will get skipped over by the recruiter, the summary is a great place to bring those front and center. 2. Job Titles (you don't have to put the EXACT title you have right now, just don't flat-out lie) need to be relevant. Example: Someone applying for an account manager role with a title of outside sales rep can say "Outside sales account manager" or something to that effect. Again, don't LIE and take this too far. This is all to say you don't need to put your EXACT title. Make it relate to the field you are looking to get into with your resume. 3. Lead with your strongest bullet points first (accomplished [X] as measured by [Y], by doing [Z], AKA the Google Recruiter Method) then followed by your bullet points that are more about what you did in your role on a day-to-day basis. Include relevant keywords. 4. Education is simple, do you have the degree I'm looking for? Certifications are always beneficial (don't put your LinkedIn certifications on your resume, please...these need to be legit certifications) And there you have it Below in the comments I'll leave links to some articles that reference a "recruiter heat map" that will show you how we look at resumes You'll see where we spend the most of our time and the least of our time *Hint: It'll back-up what I just laid out here

Struggling to hear back from recruiters? Boost your chances with these 10 game-changing tweaks! What if I told you that the challenge lies in the one thing that connects you to recruiters? Your RESUME! Having conducted numerous resume review mentorship sessions, I've spotted common pitfalls. Here are my top 10 suggestions to overcome them: 📜 Trim the Fat: Keep your resume concise and skimmable. Recruiters dedicate an average of 6 seconds to skimming it. Your aim must be to captivate them with a single glance. 📜 Power of Bullet Points: Swap paragraphs for clear, concise, and impactful single-line bullet points. If they become lengthy, consider splitting them into two. 📜 Show your Impact: Utilize the 'STAR Method' to quantify your impact. Space on your resume is limited, so use it judiciously. Employ tangible, quantifiable metrics to showcase your actual impact rather than just listing responsibilities. 📜 Keywords are the Key: Incorporate role-specific skills and keywords aligned with the job. The more your keywords match, the higher your chances of getting noticed. 📜 Tailor your Resume for Every Role: Align your skills and experiences with the job description and requirements. Employ Word Cloud apps to extract essential keywords from the job description and integrate them authentically into your resume. 📜 Transferable Skills Matter: Highlight your versatile skills and unique experiences, even if they don't precisely match the job requirements. These highlights make you stand out. 📜 Simplicity Speaks: Forego fancy formats and fonts. Opt for a clean, standard .doc format. Pro Tip: LaTeX templates work wonders for maintaining a consistent, clean format. 📜 Structure Matters: Place your best projects at the top and other achievements in reverse chronological order. Recent graduates should prioritize their education and showcase their GPA. Ensure you provide clear start and end dates, organization names, and locations for each experience, whether personal projects, education, professional experience, or volunteer work. 📜 Master the One-Pager: Aim for a one-page resume if you possess less than a decade of professional experience. 📜 Narrow your Field to Improve your Chances: Craft a laser-focused approach that stands out in a competitive job market. Remember, your resume is a highlight reel, not your life story or a thesis! Keep details minimal and impact maximal! Pro tip: Optimize your LinkedIn profile and include as many details as you'd like. (Stay tuned for my LinkedIn Optimization guide!) ⭐ Bonus tip: Get a referral! That's the best way to get noticed and hear back from recruiters. What other resume tips do you swear by? #ResumeTips #CareerAdvice #JobSearch #ResumeWriting #GetHired #AmazonJobs #AWS #CareerSuccess #LinkedInOptimization #JobMarket #ProTips #hiring #recruiters #opentowork #mentorship #beavailable

RESUME TIP: Should you customize your resume, and how should you do it? 💡 Have a separate resume for each TYPE of job you are pursuing. I would NOT recommend customizing your resume for every job - that's too much work. Now, when you do this, you have to do more than just change your objective or summary at the top of your resume. That literally does nothing. I see this all the time - a candidate will send me their two "versions" of their resume and the only difference is the objective: Seeking a ____________ position blah blah blah. They simply change that one spot. This will not accomplish anything. 💡 Change your bullet points under your employment. Make sure you either create some different bullets to specifically target the duties for each type of job you are seeking. 💡 If you already have bullets for both / multiple, re-order them! You want to bullets specific to the resume job type to be the first bullet points under each job. Those are what people read first. 💡 Change or re-order your skills summary as well - again, you want the first skills listed to be the most relevant ones to the resume job type. 💡 Consider "functionalizing" your titles to reflect the job you are targeting with each resume. Example: Me, for one. I could target recruiting management or senior recruiter positions - I do both daily. For my "senior recruiter" resume, I might enter my current title as "Senior Technical Recruiter / Manager." That's an accurate reflection of what I do. In my "recruiting manager" resume, I'd probably have my title as "Technical Recruiting Manager." Hope this helps! Let me know if you have questions. #resumetips #resumeideas #resumebuilding #resumes #resume

"Why does my Resume never get a callback?" This is what a client of mine asked on a call. He was depressed from the constant rejections. I saw his Resume, the problem was clear. 🚫 His Resume was too generic, did not stand out at all. "But Rohit, how do I make it stand out?" Well, let me tell you how. 1. Use a Unique Value Proposition (UVP): ↳ Start with a headline that encapsulates your professional identity and unique value. ↳ Make it memorable and specific to your strengths. ↳ This UVP sets the tone for your entire resume. 2. Quantify Your Achievements: ↳ Numbers speak louder than words. ↳ Use numbers to demonstrate your accomplishments. ↳ Whether it's sales increased, costs reduced, or projects led, quantification makes your impact clear. 3. Leverage Keywords Strategically: ↳ Identify and use keywords from the job description. ↳ This ensures your resume aligns with what the employer is seeking and passes ATS scans. ↳ Keywords bridge the gap between your skills and job requirements. 4. Highlight Transferable Skills: ↳ Clearly identify skills that are valuable in many contexts, especially if changing industries. ↳ Show how these skills apply to the position you're applying for. ↳ Transferable skills demonstrate versatility and adaptability. 5. Use a Professional Design: ↳ Opt for a clean, professional layout that makes your resume easy to read. ↳ Avoid excessive ornamentation but consider subtle design elements that reflect your personal brand. ↳ A visually appealing resume can make a strong first impression. 6. Focus on Problem-Solving: ↳ Highlight specific problems you've solved in previous roles. ↳ Describe the challenge, your action, and the outcome. ↳ This approach shows your ability to think critically and achieve results. 7. Customize the Resume for Each Job: ↳ Tailor your resume for each application, emphasizing the experience and skills most relevant to each job. ↳ Customization shows you've taken the time to understand the role and company. ↳ This effort can set you apart in a crowded applicant pool. ✅ Do this and your Resume will stand out in this competitive job market. --------- Follow me for daily content to 10x your Job Search! #Resumewriting #resume #resumetips #resumewriter #resumewritingservices #jobsearch

Positioning your resume for a target role is critical to your job search. You want to submit a resume highlighting your strengths and accomplishments in a way that captures the attention of potential employers * for each job *. 👍 Yes, this takes work, but let me break down the 6 steps I use to customize resumes quickly and easily. I always start with a solid core resume providing a strong foundation for a more detailed resume. I then analyze your experience and the target job description for alignment and tailor your resume. This involves: 1️⃣ Titling Your Resume List the target position title right under your name on your resume. This lets the hiring manager or recruiter know precisely what role you seek and sets the tone for your resume. If the role is outside your current experience, add “candidate” to the title. 2️⃣ Drafting a Strong Summary Grab the reader's attention and entice them to read on by highlighting your top accomplishments that make you a strong fit for your target role. 3️⃣ Including Bullet Points Highlight your value-added contributions in easy-to-read bullet points that begin with action verbs and outline the challenge you faced, the action you took, and the results of your actions (CAR statements). 4️⃣ Adding Numbers Bolster your accomplishments with numbers to emphasize how you have contributed significantly in current and previous roles. 5️⃣ Incorporating Relevant Keywords Identify keywords in the target job description and incorporate them into your resume, particularly in your summary and bulleted accomplishment statements. 6️⃣ Identifying Transferrable Skills If you don’t have direct experience in any areas needed for the target role, identify transferable skills that can be applied to the role and illustrate how they can be valuable to the position. ✔ Tailoring your resume increases your chances of catching a recruiter's attention and demonstrates your genuine interest in the position, differentiating you from applicants submitting generic resumes. #SaraSays write your #resume like a pro!

This is what I do if I had to apply for a Product Manager job like this one. 3 things I do to stand out in my applications 👇 The most important thing about your job applications is that your resume and LinkedIn are not for you. It is to help recruiters and hiring managers see that you have the experience and skills they need. 🔵 Relevant accomplishments on your resume >> Anything else Every job description has "Required" qualifications. This is EXACTLY what hiring managers are looking for and you should prioritize writing accomplishments related to, ideally, every single one of them. Adding keywords in a skills section is not enough. Saying that you have skills in "Leadership", or "Roadmap" without context is meaningless. Instead, use the X-Y-Z formula: "Accomplished [X], as Measured by [Y] by doing [Z]" to show that I have the experience they need. For example: "Increased the usage of [feature] by n%, by leading a team of engineers and designers to develop, A/B test, and launch a new user onboarding flow." In a single sentence, I mix multiple concepts and PM keywords that I find in the job description: → Launching → Leadership → A/B testing → Developing a feature → Working cross-functionally The more tailored your resume to the job description, the higher your chances of getting a call for an interview. 🟠 Required Qualifications >> Preferred Qualifications >> Everything else Have you applied to a job that has REQUIRED 2+ years of experience in PM but you don't have any and wonder why you didn't get a call for an interview? Yes, not meeting the required/basic qualifications may be a strong reason to not get an interview. When you tailor your resume to a job description, make sure that you are prioritizing in this order: 1 → Basic / Required qualifications 2 → Preferred qualifications 3 → Responsibilities 4 → Anything else Showing that you have the required qualifications in the form of accomplishments on your resume should be your top priority! 🟢 Tailoring for every job can be exhausting, here's a different approach Tailoring your resume is not easy and can quickly become overwhelming. I divide my experience into types of PM jobs for which I can be a good fit. For example, I may want a marketplace 0 to 1 job... but I don't have that experience so it'll be hard to tailor my resume to that. So, I focus on my strengths: → AI/ML for either consumer or Enterprise → Consumer Growth → B2B Platforms (a bit of a stretch) Instead of tailoring my resume to every job I apply for, I create one resume for AI&ML, a second one for Consumer Growth, and a third one for B2B Platform. 🚀 Networking, networking, networking Needless to say, I don't rely only on applying for a job. I spend as much time networking with recruiters and hiring managers on LinkedIn. I focus on a key message: → Why am I reaching out → Which job did I apply to → Why am I a good fit --- 🚀 Need help with your PM resume or interview? Check out my comment below!

DAY 1 of my #Resume Tips for #TransitioningTeacher & #EdTech series! Topic Today: Help the Recruiter! Leave a reaction or share, it really helps! 1. Recruiters have 6 - 10 seconds, MORE is not BETTER: Sticking to under 20 resume points is not a bad thing, nor does it show a lack of experience. Think of it this way; recruiters are looking for X, Y, and Z - and if you put A, B, C, D... they will stop looking as it is not time-effective for them. Focusing on what you TRULY do and the role you want is not bad, adding EVERYTHING takes away from your best skills. 2. Have planned skill grouping to focus on before you write: This is like finding your 'North Star' for each bullet point. I usually focus on Content Design, Analysis, Collaboration, Behavior Management, and Mentorship; and from there you can have more job-specific skills; such as Customer Success or Administrative Assistant work. Then, while you write your points - there is no 'Oh man what do I write?' because you know you are grounding the point in that skill tree BEFORE you write it. Example: I made 50 lessons, so that is Content Design skill mainly, so I will write it for that. Action verbs can be 'Developed' or 'Created' and then what you made, and the result. Easy when you plan accordingly. 3. Grouping your experience by skill makes it easier for recruiters to find what they want: There is nothing wrong with grouping your points with intention and just a jumbled list. Always be intentional, you aren't presenting this to someone; they are reading it solo. Be Intentional with what you're structuring and where they are placed. If you are applying for a Data Analysis job, put your analysis skills at the TOP, clumped together. Then identify the second most important skill; probably Collaboration - put all those points second. Then Content Creation third, and so on - this way recruiters are not SEARCHING for the validation they need. Again, the idea is to make it EASY on a recruiter to support you, not make it harder! Do you want even MORE help with your resume? Submit it here for a free resume review from me, including ATS Score, Plan, and feedback: https://lnkd.in/gREk7u9B _________________________________________ Make sure to: 👍 React, ✏️ Comment, and 📣 Share this post.