Straight Talk from a Recruiter: 2 easy techniques to increase your chances of being hired

By Cori Swidorsky

Job seekers tell me all the time that there is nothing easy about job searching. Job searching is a lot of work and at first, very time consuming. Some people just don't want to take the time and others don't know how to conduct a job search. I have two simple job search techniques that will change your knowledge of how to conduct a search. Whether you put the time into doing it or not is up to you.

Although the 2 techniques I'm going to share are very simple, doing the work within each technique determines the success.

Technique #1 - The resume must reflect the job opening

The first thing people think about is that they have to completely change their resume for each position they apply to. That's not the case at all, in fact it's a very simple change and extremely effective! A job opening is a company "need" that you are trying to fill. Your resume, which is usually the first representation of you and your experience, must show that you can fill their need. If the resume doesn't reflect anything they are looking for, there will be no next step in the process. Even if you are trying to send your resume to a recruiter or HR person, a hiring manager. The resume should show why you can fill this role or "delete" it is.

One very easy way of doing that is to include a section towards the top of the resume, using it as relevant experience or profile of experience. The rest of your resume is going to be your work history, education and training, computer skills, the standard information that's on resumes. The only section that you need to change is the relevant experience and all of the information listed in that section will be from the job description you are applying to.

With the keywords you are going to include, because you are pulling the information from the actual job description, your resume is more likely to come up when they search the internal database for people who applied for that role. It is very simple.

Now, I want to make sure that we are clear on something. The only information you should include on your resume is true experience and education. If there is nothing on the job description that you can list on your resume because you don't have the experience, then you shouldn't be applying for the job.

For more information on this simple technique and other easy resume writing strategies, for under $5.00, you can download my eBook: Straight Talk from a Recruiter: Resume Writing Strategies and Easy To Follow Techniques (Kindle Edition) and even get sample resumes to help you with how to reformat your resume to get the best results. It's also available in other eReaders:

• Nook
• Sony ebook store

Technique #2 - Following up

This simple step will change your job search activity. For some reason, when we apply to a job, we think, "okay now I'm going to just sit back and wait for all of these companies to start calling me, because they are all looking at my resume and can't wait to call me." Just relying on applying online is a dead end. Companies get hundreds of people applying for jobs online, and most of the time they aren't qualified people. If you know the company, go directly to their website and apply from there. Once you do that, you want to follow up within a few days, on receipt of your resume.

Here's where the work comes in. You can go on LinkedIn and search that company and see who you can find as a contact. The hiring manager, someone in human resources, a recruiter. The first step is to get someone on the phone to confirm they received the resume. This forces someone to look at your experience.

When I was recruiting for Honeywell and Siemens, I was looking at many resumes coming in from their job postings. I loved when someone called me to confirm I received their resume for the specific job opening. It made me look at their experience and a lot of times, they were good for the position and I would present them to a hiring manager. I might not have seen their resume if they didn't follow up. If I had 30 people apply and that candidate was #11 and I stopped looking at # 10, because I found people who were qualified already, #11 misses out.

Reaching out to someone and following up is huge, especially in today's job search market. Anything to stand out from your competition is a plus. I like the idea of following up with a hiring manager first for several reasons:

One, it's easier to start at the top and then be referred to the next step.

Two, I know hiring managers don't see all of the resumes that come in.

Remember I mentioned having 30 people apply but I stopped at 10. The hiring manager was getting the candidates I was sending, they weren't seeing all 30 people who applied. Internal HR is suppose to screen candidates for the hiring managers. So it's great if you can get yourself in front of a hiring manager, because they may never see you if you don't make the call yourself.

In 2014, dedicate some time and effort to your job search and use these 2 simple techniques to help you create your career destiny.

 

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