Jeff Altman, Big Game Hunter
The job market is a competitive place. While junior position vacancies can cause hundreds of applicants, senior positions make you damaging crop cream in the field. Under these challenging conditions, it’s hard to make your resume stand out. Although estimates vary, it is not uncommon to send more than 100 resumes before getting coveted job opportunities.
So if most resumes lead to failure, your key mistake means you missed a job opportunity, what should you do to make your odds favorable? Let’s take a look at the main reasons why most resumes fail and what steps you can do to change your destiny.
5 Reasons for Failure of Most Resumes
Here are some of the most common resume mistakes that you can ignore your job openings even if you are much more qualified:
Too generic
If your resume is too generic, it simply won’t stand out from other candidates. Each resume you send needs to be tailored to the specific requirements of the job description. Pay attention to the key skills listed in the job ads and focus on them to show how you can put them into practice in your career. Adjusting your resume also means that you have considered the unique qualities and appeal of your organization. Organize with a name and make sure your resume summary outlines why you want to work for it.
Outdated formats and structures
Ignoring current resume conventions, formats and structures is a sure way to ensure the latest speed of what you are looking for in modern employees with your employer. This may include:
- Make unnecessary resumes (usually one page is long enough, and for senior executive positions you may need to extend it).
- When traditional chronological forms may be more effective or vice versa, choose a skill-focused resume.
- Writing in third person, even using “i” statements in first person.
- Add outdated resume sections such as references, long-term career profiles, personal photos or too many personal details.
Not optimized for ATS
When you write your resume, it is important to keep in mind that both humans and machines can read it. Most recruiters and large organizations use some form of automation or software to screen resumes, called Applicant Tracking System (ATS). If you don’t optimize your resume for ATS screening, your resume may not even enter the stage of human reading. This means using keywords that match the job descriptions throughout your resume and making your resume in a clear, easy-to-scan format without text boxes or too many images.
Focus on responsibilities
One of the historic resume mistakes is to list the duties and responsibilities of previous jobs, rather than outlining your career achievements. If the purpose is to make yourself stand out among other candidates, listing basic job responsibilities and tasks will be the exact opposite. Each candidate who follows a traditional career path will accomplish the same tasks and responsibilities as his previous roles. Simply telling your employer that the way you can accomplish tasks is not able to stand out and show your unique qualities.
It looks unprofessional
You can do all kinds of careless and unprofessional things for your resume to get discounted from running right away. For example, basic spelling and grammar errors are completely avoidable, with no excuses to send resumes containing them at all.
Another way to suppress chances is to add an email address that undermines your professionalism. You may still use an email address that was founded a few years ago, including a nickname or informal, spoken or satirical language. This can instantly mark you as a merciless candidate. Set up a professional-looking email address based on your name and some other unique personal details, such as your birth year, location or occupation (such as AmandawilsonMarkarketing@mail.com or Simon.martin.2001@mail.com).
The top 5 tips for successful recovery
These simple fixes ensure that your resume overcomes the most common shortcomings and failures, putting you in a strong position to advance to the next stage of the recruitment process:
Tailored roles
The most powerful thing you can do to improve your chances of successful job applications is to create a customized resume for each application. The level of your tailoring resume is up to you, but generally, the more tailored you are for a specific role, the more effective your resume will be.
If you are working on your main resume, delete any previous roles, skills, or qualifications that do not match the job description. If you write your resume from scratch, make sure every job, skills, and achievements in your job or education are related to that role. Write a custom resume summary that clearly outlines why you are a strong candidate and explains how roles and organizations match your career stages, values, and priorities. Finally, make sure your resume contains matching keywords used in the job description to maximize the ATS filtering phase.
Highlight your achievements
The best way to get rid of a universal resume that focuses on tasks and responsibilities is to focus on achievement. Recruiters will want to see the value you added in your previous role. This could mean referring to the revenue you add, or the cost savings for previous employers, leading new programs, winning awards or career milestones you surpass. Link each achievement to a skill so that readers can evaluate the impact you have made in your career so far and how to apply it to new roles and organizations.
Write a fascinating resume summary
Your resume summary or goal is your opportunity to engage readers and allow them to read in more detail. Choose one or two key skills and career achievements that reflect the character’s requirements while also emphasizing the qualities that make you a unique and outstanding candidate. Write in an implicit first person perspective (omitting the “I” statement) and make sure you quote why you are applying for a role and how it fits your career.
Select the correct resume format
Before you settle in your resume format in your application, consider your skills and experience and the requirements of your role. While most professional roles require traditional chronological resume formats (focusing on work experience), different formats may be more effective in some cases. For example, if you lack relevant work experience but have a lot of transferable skills, the traditional resume format simply won’t make you fair. In this case, a feature or skill-based resume format may be more effective.
Design with professional resume
The final thought
This can take hundreds of job applications to find success and actually be offered a position, so it is understandable if you may not want to spend too long tailoring your resume for each individual application. However, this may prevent you from succeeding, creating a cycle that is difficult to break through. Only by taking the time to tailor your resume to each specific app can you really attract hiring managers and show that you are a perfect fit for your role and organization.
This may also mean that you need to be more sensitive to what you apply for. Try to use more job search time to customize your resume for the role that suits you best, and spend less time sending batches, universal apps, hoping people stick with it. Take the time to avoid the most common resume traps and create a resume that demonstrates your best qualities and meets the job description requirements, which will put you in the best position to succeed.
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About Jeff Altman, Big Game Hunter
Large Hunter Jeff Altman is a coach who has served as a recruiter for a hundred years. His job involves career coaching, as well as executive job search coaching, job coaching and interview coaching. He is the producer and former host of “Base-free Broadcasting Station”, the first podcast in iTunes for more than 3,000 episodes of work search.
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Jeff’s Kindle book “You Can Fix Stupid: No BS Recruitment Advice” is available on Amazon.
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