By
Tara Weiss, Forbes.com, October 31, 2006
Back
in the day, getting your job application noticed
used to mean drafting a crisp cover letter and
resume on 24-pound, watermarked linen paper.
But rising to the top of the pile is a bit different
for the Monster and HotJobs generation.
With
job applications now more likely to be filled
out online, it's trickier to get attention when
you're filling out a form on a Web site. To
stand out from the crowd, you'll have to get
into the mindset of a recruiter and work the
online system.
The
human resources department of a typical large
company may receive hundreds of applications
for each job it posts. To sort through them
all, companies search keywords and use filtering
software. To make sure you aren't filtered out,
adjust your resume to mimic the language in
the company's job listing. If the job description
uses the words "accounts payable," "accounts
receivable" and "general ledger," make sure
those phrases are tailored into your resume.
"The
employer's whole goal is to drill down to the
least amount of candidates possible," says Kathy
Sweeney, president of the National Resume Writer's
Association. "It's not an inclusion factor--it's
an exclusion factor that employers are going
after."
Jenny
Sullivan, a Careerbuilder.com spokeswoman, suggests
the following phrases: problem-solving and decision-making;
performance and productivity improvement; oral
and written communications; team-building; leadership;
project management; customer retention; Internet;
and strategic planning.
Monster
Worldwide (nasdaq: MNST - news - people ) also
provided Forbes.com with popular search terms
used by recruiters within five categories over
the past 90 days. Within advertising, recruiters
are looking for resumes that include: marketing
and advertising experience, public relations,
media planner, account executive and sales.
Within engineering: civil, mechanical, structural
and electrical engineers, as well as AutoCAD
and HVAC skills. Within consulting: SAP (nyse:
SAP - news - people ), J2EE (Java 2 Express
Edition), Essbase, Kronos, Oracle (nasdaq: ORCL
- news - people ), and Peoplesoft. Within accounting:
CPAs, staff accountants, accounts payable and
tax skills. Within journalism: creative, online,
broadcast, interactive and corporate journalism.
If
you're e-mailing or uploading your resume, keep
it simple. Online applications often call for
candidates to upload their resume to a company's
Web site, and ornate fonts and bullets get lost
in translation. Another tip: If you're cutting
and pasting your resume from a Microsoft (nasdaq:
MSFT - news - people ) Word document to an online
form, create it in Rich Text Format or with
.txt after the name. (Do that while "saving
as.") That will keep your formatting from being
garbled. However, if you're sending it as an
attachment, there's no need to save it differently.
Other
tips: Recruiters receive hundreds of resumes
per week, with many named "resume.doc." Make
it easy for them to find you by adding your
name to the resume file. Also, if you're e-mailing
your resume, paste it in body of the e-mail
in addition to attaching it. If you have technical
problems, don't give up. The job boards all
have customer service numbers that you should
contact. Call them even if they take you to
the actual company's Web site.
If
you've posted your resume on a board like Monster.com
or Yahoo! (nasdaq: YHOO - news - people ) Hot
Jobs, Sweeney recommends refreshing it every
90 days, since employers tend not to look at
resumes posted longer ago than that--they wonder
why the candidate hasn't been able to secure
a new job. There's no need to make drastic changes--just
tweak something and re-save it.
Of
course, one thing about resumes hasn't changed:
spelling errors. Don't make any.
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