Some, especially young, job seekers underestimate the importance of a resume. The fact is that it is the questionnaire that allows you to make the first and most important impression even before meeting with the employer. Submitting a poorly written and formatted resume is one and the same thing as coming for an interview in a dirty shirt and worn shorts. So how to provide information about yourself so as to interest the employer? Experts will talk about this.
The numbers don't lie
ZipRecruiter is an English-language job search site with over three million resumes, and employers have the right to simultaneously place fifty vacancies for different positions. The main feature of the site is that recruitment managers have the opportunity to rate the read resume on a scale of one to five. One star is bad, five is excellent. Actually, as in school.
Scott Garner, senior manager of corporate communications at ZipRecruiter, said that such a system was introduced not by chance, but in order to help candidates to correctly create a resume. Employees of the online platform analyzed the questionnaires, compared with estimates from employers and developed a special formula for success.
Scott says the key components of the study are the keywords, length, and sections of the resume. Based on the data received, a template for an ideal profile was compiled. You will learn how it looks from today's article.
Cover letter
Experts from the job search site ZipRecruiter recommend that all applicants be sure to attach a cover letter to the resume. Having this component increases your chances of getting a five-star rating by twenty-nine percent. Any employer is pleased when a candidate addresses, rather than distributing to all companies in a row.
However, in order to make a good impression, you must choose the right style of presentation. You must be polite and at the same time be confident that you will get this job. Experts found that cover letters with the phrase "Thank you for your attention" received five stars ten percent more than those in which there were no polite words.
Prove your worth
Why does an employer post a job? For the simple reason that the company now needs an employee for this particular position. What does it mean? This means that you, as an applicant, should focus on your desire to help the development of the company, and not on your own career growth. You must present yourself as if you are a "lifesaver" that will help to cope with any problems.
Scott Garner noted that the resumes with the words “development”, “me”, “training” most often received only one star, because the applicant was focused on himself. Recruitment managers are interested in team players and people who are willing to work with full dedication for the benefit of the company, which is why such self-centered profiles were rated so low.
On the other hand, one should not say what contribution you can make to the development of the company. It is necessary to prove this with concrete facts from previous experience. Recruiting Manager Cecilia Deel says: “The worst thing a jobseeker can do is list my skills.”
What is this talking about? The phrase "I am sociable, I can find a common language with people" will not make any impression on the employer. These are all empty words.But if you write: “I have increased the client base from one hundred to a thousand people in a month” or “I was elected as the manager for two projects” will make the recruiter take a closer look at you. Therefore, do not forget to operate on specific facts.
Reorganize your sections
When writing your resume, include the maximum number of sections directly related to the vacant position that you are applying for. It is such profiles that are almost twice as likely to receive five stars from recruitment managers. Make sure that you have sections such as “History of work”, “Purpose”, “Training”, “Links”.
Garner noted that employers want to know everything about you that may be relevant to the job you are applying for.
There are sections that employers consider inappropriate. Such resumes are usually twenty-four percent more likely to receive poor grades. Therefore, it is better to exclude such sections as “Achievements”, “Personal Interests”, “Languages”.
Pay attention to the number of words
Long resumes are not welcomed by the employer in the same way as too short ones. If the length exceeds seven hundred words, then the score is close to one. Five hundred words is somewhere in the area of the “troika” - the “quartet”. Profiles from six hundred to seven hundred words in length receive the maximum mark. If you follow this advice, you will receive thirty percent more responses.
The choice of words matters
The study showed that keywords that include managerial skills, problem-solving abilities, and an active job attitude were associated with the highest ratings. Seventy percent more such resumes received five stars. Here is a list of words that should be included in the questionnaire to interest the recruitment manager:
- experience;
- control;
- project;
- development;
- business;
- skill;
- professional;
- knowledge;
- year;
- team;
- governing.
At the same time, Garner warns that an overabundance of these words can lead to the opposite results. The system may not show you in the search results, so do not spam. These words should appear in the text, but only if they describe your skills.
As for the bad words, the presence of which in the questionnaire will make the employer doubt your professionalism, then these include:
- difficult;
- need;
- the first;
- to me;
- time;
- yourself;
- chance;
- develop;
- teaching.
What does the hiring manager who reads such a resume understand? That a person is inexperienced, it is still hard for him, he needs help. Agree, not the best feature. This should not help you, but you should receive money for your work. In the end, you are not allowed to practice.
Red flag
Now remember, and most importantly, exclude the following phrases and words that, according to the study, affect the recruiter like a red rag on a bull:
- value added;
- result oriented;
- team player;
- strategic thinker;
- detail oriented;
- problem solving;
- think outside the box;
- unique;
- dynamic;
- self-motivated.
And one more thing: as few adjectives and epithets as possible - as many verbs as possible. This will create the impression that you are a person of action, not a idle talk.
Experience still matters
A resume with the right characteristics has a higher rating, but do not forget that the correlation should be directly related to your experience. That is, in your resume, the word “management” can be synonymous with the word “success”, your dignity, the main quality. That is, you want to convey that you have organizational skills.
And now you hope that thanks to this keyword you will be found and invited for an interview, but this does not happen because the employer is looking for a person who already had managerial experience, and not one who has some abstract abilities.
So do not forget that your questionnaire is not read by robots, but by recruitment managers, so do not try to adapt to computer programs. Focus on the requirements of the employer - and you are sure to find the job of your dreams.