Five Quick Tips to Creating an Online Searchable Resume

1) USE KEYWORDS: Resumes are skimmed initially by hiring managers and recruiters in 5 - 10 seconds, sometimes faster if they are keyword searching large sites like Monster or CareerBuilder. They are looking for specific information to fill a specific role. Be sure to include keywords in your resume that will zero in on your desired position. A resume with the pertinent keywords will ensure your resume gets found and gets a longer look.

2) NOT TOO MUCH INFORMATION: Resumes with too much information or too much "fanciness" get passed over quicker. The pertinent information is too hard to find. Keep it simple, straight forward and easy to pinpoint your experience and strengths. Refrain from fancy fonts, lines, headers and too many additional nonessential things.

3) SIMPLE FORMATTING: When you submit your resume through a website or ATS/RTS (applicant/resume tracking system), that fancy formatting is often removed or altered. This means that your resume doesn't look at all like what you intended. If it doesn’t get altered on the site you upload to it is likely to get altered when recruiter and hiring managers upload it to their company’s tracking site like Sales Force. Be sure you are looking at it from that perspective. The more straightforward you make it initially, the more intact it will stay as it travels through the screening process. In today’s hiring landscape it is best to stay streamlined, bullet pointed and easy to follow.

4) AVOID ALL CAPS & CATCHY TITLES: Catchy titles and placing your name in ALL CAPS were both “best practices” at one point in the hiring game. Today it is best to instead use the same size (not all caps) font and save your resume with a title that is just your name or even the year or something similar such as “Christy McDonald Resume” or “Christy McDonald 2015 Resume”. Eliminate catchy titles when using career websites. Instead of “dynamic sales professional” opt for something that is concise such as “Licensed Multi-state Health/Life Agent”. That way you are already ahead of the game on using keywords and giving hiring managers/recruiters a heads up as to exactly what type of sales you are in.

5) BE SURE TO HIGHLIGHT SKILLS PERTINENT TO YOUR DESIRED POSITION: It is really important to list out specific skills that are pertinent to the position you desire. For example if you are in healthcare claims processing and have used three different claims processing systems you will want to be sure to list them on the resume. I would suggest a targeted “Skills/Systems Experience” section on your resume that would bullet point them out. That way they are easy to find when someone is quickly looking over the resume and when hiring manager and recruiters are doing keyword searches on large sites like LinkedIn, CareerBuilder or Monster.

Here are two great FREE resources that will aid you in creating a great resume:
http://resume.monster.com/
http://advice.careerbuilder.com/?categories=Resumes

3 Keys to Customize Your Resume

1. Utilize Proper Language

The first rule of customization is to ensure your resume contains the same language found in the job advertisement. Many companies use junior human resources staff as the first reviewers for the resumes they receive. Since HR staff typically know a lot about HR and less about the business of their company, they often look to match your resume with the keywords used in the job ad. This is why it’s important to customize your resume for an untrained eye; generally, the first person (or software program) looking it over is not discerning enough to know what you mean unless you use the exact same language.

2. Optimize Your Resume With Keywords

For a job seeker who is looking at several different industries, matching keywords can be the most time consuming part of the process. For instance, someone with a background in nonprofit development may be looking at various nonprofit positions as well as opportunities in sales.

Although both jobs essentially involve bringing in money for the employer, the nonprofit industry talks about “fund-raising” while the sales industry talks about “market share.” In order to save herself the hassle of changing the language of her resume every time she applies for a job, this job seeker would want to design both a standard nonprofit resume and a sales resume as the basic documents to work from for either type of job.

3. Put Important Details First

Another way to customize your resume for a specific job opening is to construct the various sections of your resume in the same order as the items listed in the ad. For instance, if an advertisement says, “Seeking licensed master’s level social worker for clinical supervisor,” then your resume should display your academic degrees and social work license near the top. Employers generally use their ads to tell you what they’re looking for—so don’t make it hard for them to find it!


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