4 Simple Resume Tweaks That Will Rock Your Results

Everywhere you look these days there are articles, blogs, and online resources with tips and tricks to improve your resume. How in the world can you determine what advice to trust – and, more important, what advice actually works?

Even for a resume writer like myself, it's challenging to keep up. But, that’s what I love about working in this industry. We are always learning how to boost our clients’ success at landing a job interview. Attending seminars and conferences, in addition to, networking with recruiters are some of the ways professional resume writers hone their skills and keep relevant on the latest career-related techniques.

Following are a couple of ways to help you perfect your resume results:

• Generally speaking, allow one page of resume for every ten years. I know it's hard to fit it all in, but the resume is an overview of your career. Many job seekers continue to create a biography with every blessed detail of every position they ever held. This is definitely not a good game plan. More importantly, this overkill strategy of writing what I call a "thesis" for a resume, instead of an overview of your background, simply does not work. In fact, it's one of the major reasons why job hunters receive zilch responses to their resume.

• If you want to really rock your results, pay close attention to the job posting and position requirements. I cannot emphasize this enough. Read that job posting line by line, word by word. It's sort of like reading a recipe. Look closely at every word that's on the posting and analyze the specific needs for the role. Just last night, my daughter (who is not a college grad) sent me a posting and said, "Mom, they say in the posting that they prefer a college grad but it's not a requirement." See where I'm going?

I think an additional and essential element in reviewing a job positing is to read between the lines to determine what other skills might be advantageous. The absolute mission of your resume is to land you an interview, so make sure you don't go overboard with an excessive number of pages or too much detail. Your resume is not a biography, so don't overload your reader. Think and write succinctly.

• Change the keywords in your resume. How do you figure out what keywords to incorporate into your resume? There’s a really great, and easy, way to accomplish this. Simply cut and paste your job description into a site called www.tagcrowd.com, which is a Web application developed by Daniel Steinbock at Stanford University. The text is formulated into a tag cloud that’s a visual graphic of the keywords in your job description. It generates a set of words which will pop up, and bingo -- you’ve got your new set of keywords based on that job description. Another method is to simply Google, “What are the keywords for {fill in your job title}?”

• Create multiple resumes when you are applying for both SIMILAR and DISSIMILAR positions. One of the most frequently asked questions of resume writers today is "Do I really need to use a different resume?" Oh yes, you do. Here's why: Skill sets required for most positions are different. And, with that in mind, it makes sense that your keywords and competencies reflect what is stated in the different job postings. The smart job hunters understand this and will modify their resume to include attention-getting words and phrases. Including the right keywords is critical since ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems) scanners are being used by almost every major company to sort through thousands of resumes that are uploaded into their systems every day.

Unfortunately, many job hunters will never . . . and I mean never . . . make it to the interview table because they refuse to modify their resume. No one said this would be easy. Even if you have the proper credentials, job experience, and education, it may still be difficult to get to the interview table. The scanners will simply not recognize your resume. ATSs are in full force, so let’s not kid ourselves on this point.

Reviewing the company mission and reading the introduction to the job posting is critical. There is a ton of information within both of these areas that will help to finesse your resume copy so you match what the company is looking for. Again, look carefully at the opening paragraph to every job posting.

Finally, keeping a spreadsheet of your job applications is a great idea! Use this one on Google docs or build your own. List your dates of application, contact names, company names, and where you saw the job posting. Being organized and updating your spreadsheet will go a long way in your search. You will also be able to determine which resume is working for you more so than the rest. And, when that recruiter calls you and phone screens you, there will be no missteps on your part.