If you have ever gone on a job hunting frenzy, the chances are that you may have contacted several career councillors, recruiters and mentors. And almost all of them would have said the following sentence at least once: Tailor your resume for the job you are applying to. While it seems like an obvious thing to do, you may be surprised to know that at least 67% of candidates do not tailor their resume as per the job that they are applying to. Many candidates are left confused about what exactly needs to be done when it comes to tailoring your resume for a specific job. Here are our top tips to make sure that your resume looks relevant to the job you are applying to.
There are two main ways to tailor your resume – Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and quick scans. Both these methods comprise of a keyword scan and the only difference between the two is that one is done by a human and the other uses a technology supported R2D2 scan. You will be surprised to know that 70% of companies use R2D2 to scan resumes. One way to get selected in both kinds of scans? Tailor your resume to include related keywords or phrases.
The first step to tailoring your resume is to mark all the keywords and write them down in a separate document. Use these keywords all through your professional summary, job skills and experience outlined in your resume. You can start by making a master list of all skills and list even skills that you may not think are relevant to your job, like calligraphy even when you are looking for a job as a foreman, for instance. Once you have written down all your skills, rank them. Starting with your strongest and most valuable skills. This list will come in handy when you have to compare identical skill sets and have to choose only a few skills to highlight.
Now refer to the specific job posting again and highlight the common skills. Once you have all the common job skills, put them down in your resume. To place them appropriately, start by finding a couple of offers similar to yours. Then go on to LinkedIn and snoop around for professionals who work in a similar job title that you are applying for and see which skills they have prioritized.
To make sure that you include all the skills and in the right priority, categorize the skills as “job-related,” “transferable” and “adaptive.” Job-related skills are usually technologies you know, platforms you have worked on, etc. Transferable skills are skills that can be transferred from one professional to another (like efficient communication) and adaptive skills are skills that describe intangible abilities like being detail oriented, for instance. Once you have listed all the skills, highlight job-related skills on the top and follow with the rest throughout the resume.
If you have more questions regarding resume building or are looking for jobs, contact Trades Labour Corporation to learn about the best way to land employment in industries such as construction and more. TLC can help you find work in most major cities in Canada and the Pacific Northwestern United States