I often have clients come to me and say “ I have a great resume, but I still haven’t been able to land a job. What’s wrong? ” Well, no matter how great your resume is, it won’t land you a job on its own.
A resume is merely a tool to help you land a job:
You might be thinking that if you have a great resume, you’ll immediately be able to land a job, but that’s just not the case. While it’s extremely important to have a great resume, your resume is just one tool among many that will help you secure the job of your dreams. Other factors which impact your ability to land a job include your cover letter, your LinkedIn profile, and your interview.
Put in the leg work:
You can’t expect your resume to do the work for you. It’s up to you to do the research, put in the legwork, and cater your resume and cover letter to each job you’re applying for. On average, each corporate job opening attracts 250 resumes. Of these candidates, four to six will be called for an interview and only one will be offered the job.
If you don’t cater your resume and cover letter to each job you apply for, you will simply get passed over. With the number of applicants increasing, many hiring managers and recruiters default to either using an applicant tracking system, or doing keyword searches to determine if candidates are qualified. Keyword searches are an easy way to determine it’s worth taking the time to look at a resume or not.
The best way to ensure that you come up on keyword searches is to go through the job descriptions that you’re interested in applying to and integrate those key words and phrases throughout your document. Do your desired job descriptions utilize key words or phrases which you can use in your resume? Does a job description have a more eloquent way of wording one of your job duties? If you’re not using current job postings to help you write your resume, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Wondering what current job postings to work with? Download the cheat sheet I created to help you determine what kind of jobs you should be applying to!
See how industry professionals talk about jobs and utilize that in your document. Using industry jargon will also help you appear more professional and knowledgeable about what you do.
Network:
According to studies done by Glass Door, referrals are associated with a 2.6 to 6.6 percent higher chance of an accepted job offer. Reach out to recruiters, friends, and industry professionals to put the word out there that you’re looking for a position. Often people won’t know that you’re in the market for a new role, and if they don’t know, they can’t help you. It’s a very small world, and you never know who might have an industry connection or information on an upcoming availability.
Be Realistic:
According to Career Contessa, the average job search lasts 6-9 months. Yup, you heard that right. This isn’t meant to scare you, but this is meant to help you be realistic when searching for a job. Between the high volume of applicants and how long it actually takes to cater your resume to each job, expect that the job search will take some time. This isn’t to say that you won’t be able to find a job sooner, but it’s meant to show you that good things take time, and it may take a while to find a job that is a good fit for you.
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Take your time to really make each application count, cater your documents to each specific job description, and stay active. If you are in between jobs and looking for a new opportunity, make sure you take advantage of your free time and focus on opportunities that will help you improve your resume.
If you’re someone who is thinking, ” I have a great resume, but I still haven’t been able to land a job, ” make sure that you’re looking at all of the different factors that go into a job search, and work on yourself as a brand. Focus on what you can offer put in the leg work to secure the job of your dreams!