When I tell the candidate her resume looks fine, she invariably asks, “Then why am I not getting any responses?” I soon find out her job leads consist solely of want ads and online job postings. Therein lies the problem.  

Too many job seekers rely on job boards and want ads as their only source of job leads. Since these leads are public knowledge, job seekers are competing with what feels like the entire human race, or at least the part that has an internet connection. No matter how well you’ve written your resume, you’re going against tough odds. You could be getting lost in the numbers.

Tip: Advertised jobs make up only 20% – 30% of all the open jobs, yet they attract over 90% of the job seeking population. Your odds of landing a good position drastically improve when you use other resources as well to find out about possible openings.  Some examples of other ways you might find out about available positions include networking using social media networks, mingling with other professionals at user groups and other professional gatherings, as well as, utilizing recruiters to find out about positions they have available with their clients.

Tip: If you truly want the lower level position, downplay the upper level responsibilities and emphasize the lower level tasks and accomplishments required at that level.

When jobs were plentiful and skilled workers were at a premium, you could expect a recruiter or hiring official to study each resume, willing to make whatever mental leap necessary to deem the candidate a fit for the job. Today, hiring officials believe there are enough resources on the market that they do not need to settle for anything less than the perfect candidate. Budgets are tight, and by golly they expect the most bang from every buck. The price for finding this perfect specimen is sifting through a mountain of resumes. To do this, recruiters and hiring officials must shift into rapid elimination mode, allowing each resume only a brief glance to prove itself worthy of the short list.

If you are going to make that short list, you must grab their attention immediately. Writers refer to this as ‘the hook.’ And every writer knows you must create this hook in the first paragraph or risk losing your audience. You literally have only a few precious seconds to do this.

One way to achieve the hook is to write a professional summary at the top of the resume that is carefully tailored to emphasize the exact criteria of the job. Think of it as an abridged cover letter—a short paragraph no more than 75 or so words that speaks very clearly to the job specifications. If you have the specs and still can’t compose a summary that targets the position, you’re probably wasting your time on this one in today’s competitive job market.

Keeping with my initial scenario, let’s say you’re in technology and over the past ten years you have been a database administrator, a programmer, a systems architect, and a network engineer. You’re applying for my systems architect position. Your professional summary should speak to your systems architect experience as it pertains to my job spec and either underplay or omit all the other experience unless these things are secondary requirements to my job.  

Once you’ve created this masterful summary, you then need to make sure the rest of your resume supports (emphasizes) what you’ve written by expanding those areas that boast your systems architect experience. You might be thinking, “No way! If I tailored my resume for every different job I apply for, I’d do nothing but write resumes all day.”  Well, hopefully you’re focusing on positions that are similar enough that after a few ‘saved’ revisions you’ll be able to cover whatever comes your way with only minor tweaks. If not, I’d be concerned that you are floundering and unfocused in your job search.  

Tip: Grab the hiring official’s attention with a hard-hitting summary that’s targeted specifically to his or her needs. 

Okay, here’s the situation. I’m a recruiter and I’m advertising a systems architect position for one of my clients.  I have a desk full of job orders to fill and more under- and overqualified candidates than I can possibly interview in a month’s time, and they’re steadily coming in by the droves. My ad requests candidates to first submit a resume. If you are qualified, I will contact you. And you can bet I will because I need to fill this position before my competition scoops me.

John Q ignores my instructions and calls instead. Just like any other recruiter with too many callers and too little time, I normally pre-qualify a candidate on paper before I invest an hour discussing the particulars. However, I’m desperate for the right candidate, so I reluctantly take his call. And I’m glad I did. He is exactly what I need. I tell him to email his resume ASAP. When my inbox chimes, I open the resume with high hopes. But I’m sorely disappointed and now understand why John, as he put it, ‘can’t seem to get an interview.’ What I have in front of me is a one-size-fits-all resume. And buried deep within the resume are vague hints at his systems architect work that we discussed in detail for almost an hour. Where is all the good stuff he told me? It’s a fortunate thing he got through to me on the phone because otherwise I would’ve never given this guy a second glance based on his resume. I call him back and coach him on the necessary revisions. I get him set up with my client and provide him with the basic interview tips. John, bless his soul, gets the job, and I have a happy client who believes in me.

 Unfortunately, not every job seeker gets a second chance like John. In fact, I’m quite certain I have more John Qs than I realize; but I’ll never know because I don’t have the luxury to interview every candidate whose resume doesn’t meet my job criteria. I can only go by what’s on paper. That’s why your resume is so important.

Tip: Revise your resume to showcase your experience as it relates specifically to the position for which you’re applying.  

Resume experts have leveled forests with how-to books.  They have many different theories on resume writing, most subjective, some contrary to others, but all designed to sell books.  To be sure, no single book fits all when you consider the different professions, industries, and employee grade levels from clerk to CEO.  What’s good for one profession might not apply to another.  

Here’s an example.  Many books and articles stress the idea that you must quantify the impact of your prior jobs in terms all companies understand: dollars!  Increased sales 30% by implementing this and that…  Reduced shipping costs 25% with a revolutionary system I designed…  Dollar quantification is great advice if that is what your position is all about.  But if I am an IT manager looking to hire a programmer, I don’t necessarily care if the candidate’s last program saved the company a half billion dollars.  I only care that he or she has the technical skills to work on my systems and the ability to take our business requirements and translate them into technical solutions in a timely manner.  My company has a management team that decides what programs will financially benefit the company.  The programmer’s job is to develop them.  If you want to quantify the impact of your prior jobs, do so in terms the hiring official can appreciate and in a way it relates to the role you’re going to fill (i.e. developed new programming standards that reduced development time for new applications and improved maintainability on existing programs, etc.).

Tip:  Do not accept all resume advice as the gospel; make sure your gut tells you the advice is relevant to you and your needs.  This includes the advice I give here and in future segments of this article.