A recent job fair experience highlighted an issue that confronts many of today’s job seekers. Recruiters are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of resumes they receive, so it is essential to make their work easier. If you want to be selected for an interview, you must at the very least provide a clear indication of the type and level of work you expect to do, the value you will add or the problems you expect to solve for an employer. Many of the applicants whose resumes I reviewed were still using an objective, typically: A challenging position that utilizes my skills and education. No overworked recruiter is going to take the time to decipher that. With the advent of automated applicant tracking systems, recruiters use keywords to select candidates from resume databases. You can be sure that at least one of the keywords will be the position title or some variation of it.
Ellie Vargo, MRW, CCMC
ev@noteworthyresume.com