A senior sales professional, let’s call him Dileep, seeking a job change, was struggling to get interview calls. I was going through Dileep’s resume which displayed the following headline:
ACCOMPLISHED RESULTS ORIENTED SENIOR PROFESSIONAL / BANKING INDUSTRY
What a waste of precious space! There is no individual expertise reflected about what Dileep gets to the table. This can be anybody’s headline. Why would a recruiter get attracted? Then throughout the resume I noticed that there were multiple core skills added as keywords. Keywords like channel sales, key account management, goal oriented, training and development and so on. And when I discussed with him about success stories backing up many of the skills he had mentioned, Dileep was at sea. He could hardly come up with stories relevant to all the skills listed. His LinkedIn profile also was not optimised.
On discussion I found out that Dileep was simply focusing on getting interview calls through the online jobs route. Now, that is what can happen if you get carried away with the objective of somehow beating the ATS by customising your resume as per the job by adding keywords that don’t reflect the real you.
It is very important that you as a job aspirant do not miss the woods for the trees. Don’t lose your true identity, your unique qualities under the pressure of searching for a job and start depending only on making online job applications.
The following tips will help you retain your individuality during your job search:
1] Hidden job market:
75% of jobs are not publicised, (source: Forbes). They are “hidden” i.e. not advertised.
They are hidden. They are invisible. They are not posted on company websites, online job portals/sites, job forums, newspapers, LinkedIn etc. But they are there. These are the best jobs waiting for the best candidates. Why? Why are 75% of the jobs, not advertised? Because recruiters want to save costs, and/or want to keep hiring decisions as quiet as possible, and /or want to seek out the best talent from internal sources.
Most job seekers, however, put their efforts in competing for the 25% i.e. jobs that are put on online job sites, company “careers” section. Learn how to tap this hidden job market and amplify your chances many times over while not just retaining your individuality, but by making the most of it.
2] Transferable skills:
This exercise is critical. Make a list of your transferable skills and rate each skill. From the list identify those that truly define you. That will help you brand yourself on your career tools like your resume, LinkedIn profile and pitch letters.
3] Elevator pitch:
Develop an elevator pitch which helps you present your unique qualities within 30 seconds.
4] Resume:
Develop a 2 page resume and ensure that you include your success stories which are the outcomes of using your skill sets. It needs to be hard core facts with action verbs. In Dileep’s case, as he was a sales professional, I asked him to add action verbs related to sales. No need to add any icing to the cake like making it visually appealing while losing the essence of what you want to communicate.
5] LinkedIn profile:
More than 70% job applicants don’t know about this or take the easy way out and ignore it: After checking out your resume, the next thing any recruiter would do is go to LinkedIn and check out your profile. And that’s where you may potentially lose the plot (as most, unbeknownst to them, do). That’s where most can’t understand what is going wrong with their job search efforts. Optimising one’s LinkedIn profile is absolutely critical. You need to see it as a make-or-break effort. Pay special attention to the Headline and ABOUT section and bring out your unique qualities and what other professionals say about you. List down your skills for which you want to be endorsed. That helps in branding your profile (online executive presence).
6] Interviews:
On an average, each corporate job offer attracts 250 resumes. Of those candidates, 4 to 6 will get called for an interview, and only one will get the job (Source: Glassdoor). So your chance of getting past this stage is 1/250 i.e. 0.40%. But let this not frighten you and, in fact, let it become a reason for you to strengthen your belief in your individuality. How? By doing an in-depth research on the pain points of the job and demonstrating how you with your expertise and experience can solve the employer’s problem better than any other candidate.
Finally and most importantly, do not forget that you have reached this far in life because of your individual strengths. Dig deep into those qualities, own them and retain them throughout your job search. Take pride in yourself. That is who employers want to know and hire. And last but not the least, remember that keywords can be copied and pasted whereas YOU, can never be.
P. S: Do share what are the job search challenges you face. I will offer you tips.
Best wishes for your job search
Sarabjeet Sachar
Founder & CEO, Aspiration,
Experienced Career Coach