If you are on a job search and have been sending your resumes out, there is the tension of awaiting positive feedback from employers. It gets worse when the efforts are not yielding any results. In most cases, when employers don’t call you for the next stage of the recruitment process, the fault can be traced to your resume. It is the first thing they look at to know if you are the right candidate or not.
Your resume is your personal brand. In these days of google search, employers may go-ahead to get more information about you online but your resume is usually their first port of call. Take a look at the mistakes job seekers make on their resume that prevent them from getting a response:
1. It lacks personal branding
Personal branding is about how you market yourself to a potential employer. When employers read your resume, they need to see the value you bring to their organisation. This differentiates you from other candidates. Are you deadline-driven and customer-focused? Are you a doer or an achiever? What is it that’s important to the employer from whom you’re seeking to obtain employment? And how do your expertise and experience meet their greatest need? These are important to employers and how they operate a business.
2. It is fluffy
Ensure that your career summary and work history is well-written and devoid of fluffy words. Let the message you send across be credible and clear. It has to be specific about who you are, your experience/expertise, and what you offer the employer.
3. You ignored your skills and accomplishments
Use your resume to market your skills and achievements. On the experience summary, write the skills you possess that are needed to succeed in this particular job. Highlighting your skills in the experience summary will draw the hiring manager in, and keep them reading. Include the career successes you are most proud of that correlate to the job you’re applying for.
4. Duties and responsibilities taken over
Maximize the space on your resume by using the STAR method (situation, task, action, result). Also, include challenges you faced, how you addressed them, and what the outcomes were. This makes the information contained within your resume much more relevant.
5. Metrics, Facts, and Figures are missing
Give the employer something unforgettable about yourself. Ask yourself questions like how much, how many, for how long? This is how you quantify your work experience on your resume. This is the secret to getting a call from an employer. Go ahead and develop your personal brand, then market yourself more effectively to potential employers.