For jobseekers whose resumes aren't getting selected, this article talks about some of the basic reasons why this happens, and what to do about it.
The last point about networking is critical whether or not you're searching for a job.
From the article- "AI is still looking for keywords but if you overuse keywords, many AI programs will flag the resume as suspicious. You can no longer trick the system by using ten keywords over and over again in your resume".
This is an extremely critical article for all jobseekers.
You should keep this in mind when thinking about leaving a job that you have recently joined.
Here's the article.
My personal thoughts:
1) I have done my best to meet all candidates if their resume matched the job criteria. This has included those candidates who have left jobs frequently - within 3 months to one year of joining and those with career gaps.
2) With candidates who have switched many organizations within a short timeframe, I do my best to understand their reasons. If the switch is due to compensation reasons only and the candidate is being adequately compensated as per market standards, doesn't show anything more than average performance, then I consider such candidate to be motivated by greed first, other factors would be lower down the list. Such candidates are not shortlisted for further interviews. The other candidates are what I call Diamonds among Gems (see my article about this here).
3) A job-hopper who has less that 12-15 months of tenure with an organization will have a challenge in demonstrating how they can contribute to the growth of the organization. It does take time to learn the organization's systems, products, processes and culture, not to mention fitting within the team, and then delivering above average performance. If the external environment wasn't so fast-paced as it has been over the past two decades, then it might be possible to show superlative performance.
4) The points mentioned in the article are definitely on the mind of every recruiter who gets the resume, particularly the one about achieving learning, but no depth of knowledge. Job hoppers may get interview calls if they have niche and high demand skills.
If you have a record as a job-hopper there is hope for you.- if you are able to show how your strengths have delivered value to your previous employers, and can do the same for your current employers too.
Write to me on ryanbbarretto@hotmail.com to know how to do this.
Cover letters are mostly ignored by recruiters, mainly because they're templates and don't tell you anything interesting or useful about the candidate. It takes about 5 seconds to recognize a template, in my experience.
This is also the reason why recruiters scan through resumes. You can scan (but not discern much from) a templated resume in 10 seconds, but you can't read and discern much from a customized resume or cover letter, without reading it attentively. Templates resumes and cover letters don't tell you much about the candidate, other than they know (hopefully) how to copy and paste.
The main benefit of a covering letter is that you can link your strengths to the job vacancy. The resume can't do this well enough, because, hey, we have done a lot of different stuff in our career and we want to showcase our all our versatility. Unfortunately this makes it difficult for the recruiter to decide. This is where a well thought-out cover letter helps. When the recruiter scans the cover letter and realizes that it is not a template, he /she tends to pay more attention and will likely read the resume in more focus.
If the cover letter is well written and draws relevance to the vacancy, then the recruiter is sufficiently interested to read about other areas of the candidate mentioned in the resume. If that is also interesting and bears relevance to the vacancy, there are great chances of the candidate receiving a call for the interview.
Among other services, I also help my clients write their cover letters, resumes and prepare for interviews, based on their strengths. This allows them to showcase their uniqueness from other candidates who use templates, as well as stand a better chance of landing an offer for a job that will satisfy and engage them, while benefiting their employer.
Watch my video "Why you need a Strengths-based Resume" here.
Write to me on ryanbbarretto@hotmail.com if you want to prepare for your next job like this.
