We’ve all been there: you spy a job online that you’re a perfect fit for, spend a day or two tooling up your resume, press submit and… nothing. No reply, not even a rejection. Just a howling void of electronic silence — a silence almost deafening in its indifference. Yes, we’ve all been there.
So what happened? Where did you go wrong? Well, it could be at any number of stages. Gone are the days when getting someone in charge to read your resume meant simply responding to a job ad. With today’s online applications, chances are a “bad” resume won’t even make it into someone’s inbox.
So if you’re one of the thousands who are struggling to get your resume read, try following these steps:
Step One: The Writing Stage
Many people lose out on interviews because their resume is fundamentally at fault. If you can fix these problems during the writing stage, you stand a better chance of getting noticed.
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Remove Clichés
Are you a “forward-thinking strategist,” a “team player who gets results” or a “goal-orientated individual”? Then it’s time to reassess your self-image. Hiring managers hate clichés as much as the next person. Remove such empty phrases immediately.
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Hit the Right Keywords
By now, we all know to place certain keywords from the job ad into our resumes. But are you using the right ones? Modern recruitment sites use sophisticated software to weed out simple keyword-stuffed resumes in favor of more-accomplished ones. So what to do?
According to website Lifehacker, prioritizing your keywords is the way to go. Make sure you get those listed in the job title and as success criteria, but also those used twice in the ad, and even those simply related to these keywords (e.g. pairing “accounts” with “auditing,” especially if the ad doesn’t mention it). This will help you circumnavigate the robots and get your application into human hands.
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Account for Gaps
It’s well-known that some hiring departments will simply toss any resume with a gap of over two weeks. At least, they will if that gap is unaccounted for. Head this potential train wreck off now by owning those gaps.
Explain each one, in detail, with a positive spin. If you took time off to start a business that ultimately failed, explain what lessons you learned from the experience. Whatever the reason for each gap, show how it changed your life for the better and gave you confidence, creativity, leadership skills or whatever it takes to bolster your resume.
Step Two: After Submitting
So you crafted the perfect resume, sent it off and are now waiting to hear back. Don’t rest on your laurels just yet — there’s more work to do.
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Search for an Internal Connection
Everyone knows that an internal reference will help you on your path to getting interviewed, but what if you don’t have one? Well, you probably do.
Start by scouring LinkedIn for connections that might be useful to you. If that fails, try to draw up a list of 50 people working in your sector who might have had dealings with the company. Then contact them all to ask for information. More likely than not, you’ll come across someone who has a background with the company, however vague. If not, think about following certain people on Twitter, or visiting job fairs to get that face-to-face connection. There’s a way in, and it’s up to you to find it.
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Make Sure You Follow Up
A perfect follow-up call can be the difference between landing the interview and being consigned to the waste bin. You’ll only have a few seconds to make your perfect pitch, so make sure you have it rehearsed. And make sure you call the hiring manager personally, not some in-house recruiter. You need to make your pitch to the right person, so chase up those contact details and get calling!
Is your job search missing any of these steps? Which ones do you need to work on?
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