Meet Jennifer Cruz – First Capital’s Talent Acquisition Specialist.
Making that critical first impression while looking for employment all starts with one simple thing: your resume. No pressure, right? Taking that extra time to make sure it looks professional, functions the way you want it, and highlights your previous work experience are just some of the things to take into consideration. It only takes an average of 6-10 seconds for Recruiters to review a CV and determine if you have the experience they are looking for. Standing out as a top candidate isn’t always easy, so taking extra time to make these tweaks may help to give you a boost in this competitive job market.
Customize, Customize, Customize
As a Recruiter, we gravitate right to your relevant experience. The easier we can get to it, the easier it will be for the Recruiter to digest. Essentially, the goal for Recruiters and Hiring Managers is to match candidates’ skills and motivators to specific roles, so a generic resume may cause you to be unsuccessful in your job search. Ensure you are highlighting or rewording certain responsibilities to match the job description.
Adjust for ATS scanning
Just like us, most companies are now utilizing an ATS (Applicant Tracking System) to scan and filter through resumes. PDF’s (though not the best format), Word documents, and even plain text files can be scanned by the system much easier. Additionally, if you are using keywords from the job posting, you are more likely to come up at the top of the search.
Formatting
Choosing the best format to highlight your skills and experience sounds easy right? Well, that’s not always the case. Super flashy resumes might put off some recruiters (depending on the role), and even the wrong font size can really put you at a disadvantage. Choose the format that best represents you but is also easy to navigate through. Keep it simple and tasteful.
Adding Social Media
Everyone is on social media these days and your online presence is a common way of representing “your brand”. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and especially LinkedIn, are great resources to help promote yourself. Hiring managers and recruiters often look beyond your resume to get a glimpse of who you are, so be strategic about what you post publicly.
Length
o The saying goes, “Less is more”, and this definitely applies when it comes to your resume. If it starts getting too long, it is time to cut back. As a guideline and depending on the role you are applying for, if you have 1-3 years of experience your resume should be one page, and 5+ years of experience can be two.
Common Mistakes
Spell Check? Adding extra periods? Grammatical errors are common, and this can cause the recruiter to move onto the next resume – especially if the role requires attention to detail!
Going that extra mile and taking these simple things into consideration will only set you up for success and hopefully allow you to land your dream job.
Looking to join First Capital’s dynamic and diverse team? Head to our careers page for all job availabilities and sign up for our recruitment newsletter here.