Customizing Your Resume & Opening the Door for an Interview
One of the most common frustrations I hear about when speaking to job seekers groups is the lack of response to submitted resumes. I remember one individual telling me that he submitted “a hundred resumes online for different postings”. When asked by me if he had uploaded the same resume for each of the 100 positions, his answer was a definitive, “yes”. I then told him that he had answered his own question regarding why no one had responded to those online submissions.
Unless you take the time to customize your resume for each desired position, the chance of being noticed in a stack (or e-mail Inbox) of possibly hundreds of submissions is likely to be pretty dismal.
It is relatively simple to customize your resume for each job – the tough part is getting yourself to invest the time necessary to do it right.
Here are some quick tips that should help you make your resume a lot more noticeable amongst the competition and open the door for an interview invitation:
1. Start by “dissecting” the description for the desired opportunity. You are looking for the skills and experience mentioned throughout the position description (e.g. time management, attention to detail, ability to build relationships,…etc.). The more often those items are repeated, the more important they are to the hiring manager (who probably wrote or had input for the description).
2. List the skills determined in step #1 and then determine for how many of them you can provide a good example of your proficiency.
3. Spend some “quality time” on the Internet and do as much research as you possibly can about the organization to whom you are applying. Company websites are the natural place to begin this process. You should also “Google” employee forums, stock analyst reports, press releases or general news items about the prospective employer.
4. Using the S.T.A.R. (Situation or Task, Action and Results) method, develop the bullet points for your resume that demonstrate how you applied each of the requested skills within previous positions to produce exceptional results.
5. Incorporate into your bullet points some of the “intel” you gathered from the research performed in step # 3. For example, if you learned that ABC Company is very proud of its development of a work environment/culture that enables employees to be entrepreneurial, then your resume content needs to demonstrate how you have flourished in such an environment and/or how you have enabled former co-workers/subordinates to do likewise.
The real trick is to position this information in such a way as to grab the attention of the resume screener or hiring manager as quickly as possible. Think of when you go to purchase a new book. For those potential book buyers who do not have a specific title or author in mind before they enter the store, most will read the book jacket and use that “teaser” to determine if they are interested enough to continue reading and consider the purchase. If they are not, the book is promptly closed and returned to the shelf. Trust me; pretty much the same methodology is used when a hiring manager pulls a resume from the “rack”.
The resume’s “Career Summary” provides an opportunity to make a great first impression with the reader. I strongly suggest following the “Career Summary” with six to nine, one to two word bullets that list your areas of expertise (which just so happen to match up very well with the skills as listed in the respective position description).
Now that you have “told me” what you supposedly are capable of doing, it is time to prove it. This is the job of your accomplishment/key achievements bullet points. Writing these bullet points, using the S.T.A.R. format, allows you to tell a convincing story about what you have accomplished in the past (and “how” you did so) and does much to create some excitement for the hiring manager about what you will be able to accomplish - if brought into their organization.
The reality is that a hiring manager might dedicate 30 – 45 seconds to your resume, unless they feel you “seem to have the skills/expertise I’m looking for”.
Is your resume going to prompt a hiring manager to consider “buying the book”?
Unless you take the time to customize your resume for each desired position, the chance of being noticed in a stack (or e-mail Inbox) of possibly hundreds of submissions is likely to be pretty dismal.
It is relatively simple to customize your resume for each job – the tough part is getting yourself to invest the time necessary to do it right.
Here are some quick tips that should help you make your resume a lot more noticeable amongst the competition and open the door for an interview invitation:
1. Start by “dissecting” the description for the desired opportunity. You are looking for the skills and experience mentioned throughout the position description (e.g. time management, attention to detail, ability to build relationships,…etc.). The more often those items are repeated, the more important they are to the hiring manager (who probably wrote or had input for the description).
2. List the skills determined in step #1 and then determine for how many of them you can provide a good example of your proficiency.
3. Spend some “quality time” on the Internet and do as much research as you possibly can about the organization to whom you are applying. Company websites are the natural place to begin this process. You should also “Google” employee forums, stock analyst reports, press releases or general news items about the prospective employer.
4. Using the S.T.A.R. (Situation or Task, Action and Results) method, develop the bullet points for your resume that demonstrate how you applied each of the requested skills within previous positions to produce exceptional results.
5. Incorporate into your bullet points some of the “intel” you gathered from the research performed in step # 3. For example, if you learned that ABC Company is very proud of its development of a work environment/culture that enables employees to be entrepreneurial, then your resume content needs to demonstrate how you have flourished in such an environment and/or how you have enabled former co-workers/subordinates to do likewise.
The real trick is to position this information in such a way as to grab the attention of the resume screener or hiring manager as quickly as possible. Think of when you go to purchase a new book. For those potential book buyers who do not have a specific title or author in mind before they enter the store, most will read the book jacket and use that “teaser” to determine if they are interested enough to continue reading and consider the purchase. If they are not, the book is promptly closed and returned to the shelf. Trust me; pretty much the same methodology is used when a hiring manager pulls a resume from the “rack”.
The resume’s “Career Summary” provides an opportunity to make a great first impression with the reader. I strongly suggest following the “Career Summary” with six to nine, one to two word bullets that list your areas of expertise (which just so happen to match up very well with the skills as listed in the respective position description).
Now that you have “told me” what you supposedly are capable of doing, it is time to prove it. This is the job of your accomplishment/key achievements bullet points. Writing these bullet points, using the S.T.A.R. format, allows you to tell a convincing story about what you have accomplished in the past (and “how” you did so) and does much to create some excitement for the hiring manager about what you will be able to accomplish - if brought into their organization.
The reality is that a hiring manager might dedicate 30 – 45 seconds to your resume, unless they feel you “seem to have the skills/expertise I’m looking for”.
Is your resume going to prompt a hiring manager to consider “buying the book”?
Mike –
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments. A new job seeker would be well served to incorporate your advice into the preparation of their resume. The more experienced job seeker should already be doing what you’ve suggested. Still, your comments serve as a good reminder to them as to how they should be positioning themselves both when originally creating a resume as well as customizing it for a specific position.
William A. Payne, Esq.
Workers’ Compensation, Liability Claims Administration and Human Resource professional in transition.