Westhill
Consulting Career & Employment Australia is an information based website
for expats who wish to work in Southeast Asia and the world. We are hoping the
following information is useful.
Make
the most of any opportunity by using these tips and tricks to be sure your
resume goes to the top of the list, whether you are looking for a job locally
or you want to work abroad like countries such as KL Malaysia, Beijing China, Jakarta
Indonesia and many more.
Applying
for a job online can be a lot like a guessing game. Plus there are many
warnings of scams and other fraudulent stuff online.
For
all the effort you put into marketing your experience and qualifications, the
deciding factor that gets your resume into the hands of an actual person often
comes down to using the right keywords.
Most
companies rely on computer software programs to review thousands of resumes and
select the ones with particular keywords — not necessarily impressive
accomplishments — so they can then be reviewed by a recruiter and, eventually,
a hiring manager.
Unfortunately
for job seekers, these all-powerful keywords aren’t revealed in the job
description — at least not overtly.
Abby
Kohut, a former human resources executive and founder of www.absoluteabby.com,
said the best way to crack the code of these applicant tracking systems (ATS)
is to put yourself in the mind of the recruiter and take your best guess at
what phrases they would use to search for the best applicants for the position.
“You
look at the job description, read it word by word and say ‘would the recruiter
use it to search for resumes?’ ” said Kohut, who recruited for 16 years at
companies in a variety of industries including pharmaceuticals, health care,
publishing and education. Now, she helps job seekers and is launching a
nationwide tour to teach the tricks of the modern job search.
One
of the many challenges that she says her clients face is conquering these
robotic searches.
“When
it comes to the automated systems, the problem you have is that the only way a
recruiter is going to actually find you is if you have keywords in your resume
that they have in their brain at the time,” Kohut said. “The person who shoots
to the top is the person who has more than one keyword.”
But
the journey to the human recruiter doesn’t stop there. Once the keywords are
identified, Kohut says they need to be used early and often within the resume,
possibly in multiple forms.
For
example, she said if an aspiring accountant is applying for a job that cites
“deep knowledge of Sarbanes-Oxley” in the job description, the phrases
“Sarbanes-Oxley” and its common acronym “SOX” should each be referenced in that
resume several times so it will be noticed and given priority by the ATS.
Of
course, you don’t want to repeat the same sentence either, so Kohut recommends
changing the context each time.
If
a job description stresses a “high proficiency with Microsoft PowerPoint,” for
example, she said that can be reflected in three parts: having made PowerPoint
presentations, having taken PowerPoint classes, and having edited PowerPoint
presentations of senior executives. It won’t win you any literary awards, but
at least the strategy will get your resume in front of some eyeballs.
“It’s
really just a big game now,” Kohut said. “You have to get the computer to find
you instead of getting a human to find you.”
Experts
have taken to calling this the “recruiting black hole” because so many resumes
— good resumes — fall in, seemingly never to be seen again. But keeping in mind
these tips on getting your resume through applicant tracking systems and the rules
about e-mailing your resume to a recruiter will help you optimize your chances
for getting noticed and moving on to the next step, snaring an interview.
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