You’ve submitted your resume to every job you’re qualified to do (and maybe some you aren’t), but all you get in reply is the sound of crickets, perhaps an automated email thanking you for your submission. It feels like every time you hit that submit button, your resume lands in some mysterious dark hole — leaving you to wonder what, exactly, you’re doing wrong.
You know somebody got the job. How did that person get her resume to rise to the top?
In my 20 years of recruiting, both in-house and as a consultant, there are a number of common mistakes I’ve identified for candidates across the board. So, whether you’re new to the workforce or a VP looking for your next gig, here are a few of my top tips to employ and mistakes to avoid in order to make your resume submission stronger and more likely to get a closer look.
Leverage your network
Before you begin submitting your resume to job postings, use your network to get warm introductions and employee referrals for jobs you’re interested in. Candidates referred through an employee are twice as likely to get an interview and as much as 40 to 66 percent more likely to land an offer. In some companies, every employee referral gets an automatic interview.
So before considering the odds of a blind submission, see if you can cut the line to the yes pile through someone you know. LinkedIn was made for this, so if you haven’t been active on the site, now is the time to start.
Apply for jobs you’re qualified to do
Have you read a job description that got you so excited, so hopeful, that you thought, “Eh, what the heck! They want 15 years of experience and I only have 4, but I’ll just submit my resume and see what happens”? I have. It’s like a job hunting lottery; maybe I’ll get lucky. Maybe whatever human on the other side of this submission process had a really good day or went to my university or likes the font on my resume and gives me a chance.
But hold up. There is nothing that screams “no attention to detail” more than applying to a job for which you are completely unqualified.
While it’s incredibly easy to spam the internet with the click of a button, take the time to ensure you’re submitting your resume to the right job, in the right way. This is truly your first test as a potential candidate. Plus, with today’s applicant tracking systems we can SEE if you spammed every single recruiter in the company. And while there may be a handful of recruiters who interpret that behavior as eagerness and passion, most of us consider it sloppy and thoughtless.
FACE The dreaded cover letter
There are many schools of thought on this one. Cover letter or no cover letter? I personally don’t bother to read a candidate’s cover letter unless I liked the resume. I never start with the cover letter. And if you wrote a novella, forget it, I’m moving on.
Some companies require a cover letter or, worse, give you the ambiguous option of submitting one, leaving you to fret over whether you should. If given the choice you should err on the side of caution and include one, but follow these tips.
A cover letter should be brief and to the point — and additive to the resume, not redundant. For example, if you’re applying for an out-of-state position, the cover letter is a great place to indicate your willingness to relocate. That’s a data point that, having fallen in love with your background and noted your geographic location on the resume, I’ll be interested to know. Telling me you were most recently the project manager at XYZ company isn’t telling me anything I couldn’t get from your resume.
Most important, if you’re going to include a cover letter, personalize it, and get the salutation correct! If you don’t have a specific person to address the letter to, use the good old “to whom it may concern.” I can’t tell you how often I get what is clearly a form cover letter with the wrong name in the salutation. If you are this sloppy when it comes to finding a job, how buttoned up are you going to be after you’re hired? I’m going to assume not at all and move on.
Use resume real estate wisely
How to write a resume is really a whole other topic. But it’s worth hitting a couple of highlights that can make your resume stand out in a crowd. The first is to make sure you use searchable terms in your resume. Wondering what searchable terms are for your line of work? Study job descriptions and pick out key terms that are used frequently. These are often tactical in nature: programming languages, software knowledge and industry-specific skill sets, for example. Your title is often a key word, too. Recruiters search by key words in their database of resumes, and sometimes that single word is the difference between a call back and the black hole.
Another way to make sure your resume is read (or at least skimmed) is to list your experiences in bullet, not paragraph, format. Bite-sized tidbits are the key here. You want specific data points and accomplishments to stand out, not get buried in text.
The single most important piece of resume advice I can give is this: Your resume should detail your accomplishments and impact; it should not double as a job description. Hiring managers are interested in whether or not you were successful in the position, not a laundry list of responsibilities. Using supportive data to illustrate your success will give your resume a significant lift as well.
Consider a third-party recruiter
I’ll be the first to admit there are a lot of hack recruiters out there. But we aren’t all bad. Those of us who have strong relationships with our clients might be able to get your resume considered in situations where it normally wouldn’t be. Businesses hire me for my expertise and trust my judgement when I make a candidate recommendation, allowing me to advocate for qualified candidates who might not look like an obvious fit on paper.
Developing a professional relationship with a recruiter or two will broaden your options. It might take a few tries to find a trustworthy recruiter, but it’s a relationship that could benefit you throughout your career. Good recruiters take time to get to know you as well as their clients and can introduce you to opportunities you might not have considered otherwise — or that aren’t posted anywhere.
Ultimately there’s no single winning formula for landing in the yes pile, but by focusing on these five points you can thoughtfully differentiate yourself and beat the odds.