One of the most common mistakes almost 100% of job seekers make is not to customise their Resume for each job and in turn lose out opportunities to receive interview calls. We have all heard of the saying – “One size does not fit all” and when ignored, it impacts your job search results. With my over 3 decades of experience in sales, recruitment & career transition coaching I have seen that when your resume is fine tuned and customised as per the job, your response rate from the recruiters will dramatically multiply and the job opportunities increase. And who wouldn’t desire that? Then why don’t job seekers customise? It is primarily because most do not know how to go about doing it methodically. And resume writing is an art.
Let me offer you 5 areas to work upon to customise your resume which makes it powerfully engaging so that recruiters respond to your application positively.
1] Do in-depth research:
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail”- Benjamin Franklin
- Loads of research needs to be done on the company and the business pain points of the job before you start customising. Study the job description in detail and make a note of the domain as well as transferable skills Network through LinkedIn with professionals in the targeted industry or company to understand what kind of skills and experience are critical for success.
- Make a list of all the skills and areas of expertise required by the industry and the specific job. Once you are ready with the list, you can move on to the next step.
2] Work on the headline:
- The headline is an important part of your resume. It is like the title of a book. Only if the title is attractive, will you pick up the book to skim through it and then decide whether to go ahead with the purchase or not. Similar behaviour from the recruiter is prompted with an effective headline. Remember that a recruiter spends an average of 7 seconds to decide whether to read the resume further or not (source: glass door). So do give a lot of importance to your headline which needs to hook the reader.
- Depending upon the industry and domain that you are targeting, you need to mention your core area of expertise. For example if you are a B TO B sales professional with 20 years experience in the banking industry and are targeting jobs within the banking industry itself then a headline like B to B sales head, Banking can be considered. If you are aiming to switch industry within the services segment, then it can be B to B sales head, Services or B TO B Sales head, Banking/ IT services
3] Redo your career synopsis or professional profile:
- Understand the nuances that are required for the targeted job. What does your research throw up? For example if it is the a B to B sales head or a Business head role in the banking industry you are gunning for and you come from the telecom (services) industry background, you may find that the size of the sales order may be an important criteria. You will need to include that in your career synopsis and present yourself as an achiever on that front by showcasing large size orders that you bagged.
- What if you have not handled the kind of scale required? Then focus on your transferable skills like adaptability, learning combined with your system and process orientation when you successfully applied these to different kinds of responsibilities and projects that you handled and delivered results.
4] Tweak your core skills:
- Include from the job description the core skills that are required in the targeted job and/or industry. Include transferable skills as well as domain skills. Read about the company and gain inputs about the work culture and include some important traits that will improve your suitability.
- Again referring to the example of the B to B Sales head example in the banking industry, if the business division is on a growth spree and you have experience in scaling up of businesses, include skills related to that aspect.By way of attitude, the company will need fast paced go getters. If it applies to you, then mention that. If not, then search for other suitable skills which you can back up by demonstrating.
5] Focus only on relevant achievements:
- Focus on key achievements which are relevant to the job’s requirement. Include and highlight those experiences and achievements with measurable results under each tenure.
- Cut down on responsibilities, non relevant achievements and focus instead on achievements that strike the chord with the reader. For example for a sales role, if high ticket size orders is a key requirement, then mention that and delete the others which will not help in performing the job.
Here you are. By working on the above 5 areas you would have covered up the major part of customising your resume which will draw recruiters to your profile.
In case you have learnt something new from my article and feel you are better prepared than before for your job search then do share my blog so that others can benefit too.
It may also interest you to read my related article 5 Key Things That Attract Recruiters To Your LinkedIn Profile.
P.S :–
1) In case you have learnt something new from my article and feel you are better prepared than before for your job search then do share my blog so that others can benefit too Aspiration.
2) If you are interested in availing our professional resume writing services or LinkedIn profile writing services where our experienced writers will carve out a powerful resume after speaking to you and understanding your candidature, please send me a DM on my LinkedIn profile (35,000 + followers), Instagram (69,000 followers), Facebook (1,77,000 followers).
Happy job hunting!!
Sarabjeet Sachar
Founder & CEO, Aspiration,
Experienced Career Coach