If you’re in the market for a new job it’s important to have a killer resume. Martin Yate is the best selling author of the “Knock ‘Em Dead” book series. In a new report for CareerCast.com he outlines the necessary elements to making sure your resume gets you the interview. Then it’s up to you!
In our digital age using the right keywords to improve your performance with online search engines is key.
Decide on a single Target Job Title, one that you have the credentials and experience for. Put it at the top of your resume, which is the area favoured by algorithms. Follow that up with a Performance Profile describing your ability to do the job.
Understand what your customer is buying, because a job search is in actuality a sales job – the product is you. You’re making a case that you will be the best at the responsibilities and “deliverables” of a specific target job. Your resume should focus on how employers think about, prioritize and describe that job’s deliverables.
Yate explains that 50% of your success is in your prep work. Perform a Target Job Deconstruction: collect six job postings and analyze how your target employers think about and express their needs for that job. Prioritize their common requirements and capture all of the words and phrases used to describe the job you want in your resume to enhance the probability that your resume will get pulled from databases for review by recruiters.
Forget the job objective – a waste of prime real estate at the top of your resume. Instead, title and place your Performance Profile also at the top. It should illustrate your ability to do this job. Take the most common requirements from your Target Job Deconstruction and rewrite them as your Performance Profile.
Long paragraphs are daunting and hard on the eyes. Keep yours to a maximum of five lines. You can follow it with a second paragraph or bullet points.
Follow your Target Job Title and Performance Profile with a Professional Skills or Core Competencies section. Again, having these near the top of your resume improves your performance with search engine algorithms and provides the recruiter with a series of “aha moments” as each word and phrase drives home what a perfect fit you are.
Keyword scatter: Repeat each skill listed in your Professional Skills section in the context of your previous jobs/experience where that skill was developed and applied. This puts your skill claims in context for the reader, and each additional time you mention a skill, it exponentially multipies your resume’s ranking in a search that uses those words.
Killer stuff…and there’s more. Check out www.careercast.com/career-news/seven-secrets-killer-resume.
