If you have read through parts 1 and 2, you would understand by now that the strategy I recommend is to target-sell your resume, not mass/spam-sell.
Be selective of the places you apply to and channel your energies confidently, knowing full well that your chances of being shortlisted is going to be pretty high.
Sell yourself as the right and best fit as far as possible without lying or inflating your experiences. A seasoned recruiter or hiring manager can easily discern dishonesty.
Having said that, I often find the reverse happening in the Asian context. Candidates would unwittingly deflate themselves through poor choice of words in their resumes.
This could be a case of pure ignorance or to avoid being seen as bragging.
Remember, your resume will succeed only if you give due credit to your accomplishments.
The steps
Step 1 - Research
Ask yourself: Did you study the job advertisement well?
What is the % match between your range of skills vs. what is required?
Some advertisements are written in a way that helps you understand and differentiate the “must-have” from the “nice-to-have” requirements. This provides really valuable insight on the skills priorities expected of the incumbent. How many of each do you already possess?
Circle out keywords that you think are the key competencies employer is looking for.
Rank the job description bullet points from first to last, from the most critical to least.
Are there any words or abbreviations found on the job advertisement that you do not understand? Research to find out more, and if nothing comes up, note it down as a question to be asked during the interview when shortlisted.
Step 2 - Repeat
Mirror aka “repeat” the same language and words used in the job advertisement and make sure they appear in your resume sentences when describing work experiences.
This does not mean copy and paste whole-sail! It simply means being able to narrate your employment story using the same keywords found on the job advertisements.
This helps the recruiter screen your resume positively as a good match within a quick glance because of the familiar keywords used.
Nowadays, big corporates have started investing in artificial intelligence (AI) and automated recruiter bots that does the elementary screening before it even gets into the human recruiter's mailbox.
You will want to avoid having the machine screening you out at such an early phase because of a lack of recognisable, common keywords in your resume.
Always use keywords!
Step 3: Review, remove and replace
Assuming you have an existing copy of your resume, review it and remove all weak words such as “provided”, “assisted”, “helped” and the likes of it. They simply do not add enough power or punch to your employment story.
Instead, replace with power words such as “drive”, “lead”, “spearhead”, “supported”, “partnered”, “executed”, “roll-out”, “implement”, “exercised”, and etc. These words convey much more action and energy.
If you need more inspiration, just google for synonyms.
Step 4: Reformat
If you are using essay-styled end to end alignment format, drop it. It does not catch the reader’s focus and is an immediate turn-off.
Always align your job history bullet pointed contents to the left.
Always write in bullet points. The idea is to be as concise as possible in your choice of words. DO NOT attempt to write an essay.
Font style and size must be easily readable.
Keep your resume to a maximum of 4 pages.
Is cover letter required? It depends. No harm having one, but just FYI that as a recruiter I usually gloss over or completely ignore them.
Step 5: Reorganise
Once you have the main meat carved out, it’s time to reorganise sections of your resume content to make it an even more attractive story to the hiring manager as a whole.
I suggest the following format flow from top to bottom, but there are no hard and fast rules around this.
1st section: Your full name, Linkedin profile URL, phone and email address should be at the top of page 1.
If you’re a designer, you should also indicate your portfolio URL in this top section too.
Note: Details that can unnecessarily skew the hiring manager’s judgment because of hiring bias should be left out. Details such as home address, photo, gender, religion, race, date of birth, marital status should not be included.
2nd section: Professional profile section. Treat this as your personal manifesto.
An example from an old version of my resume:
"Partnering successfully with key decision makers - business leaders, hiring
managers and HR business partners in highly matrix environments toward
talent acquisition and business goals.
Dedicated Talent Acquisition professional with X years experience driving
end to end APAC recruitment delivery for volume hiring, technical,
professional and management hirings across various industries: Life and
material science, Consulting, FMCG and functions: IT, Finance, Supply
Chain, Sales & Marketing, Commercial, Management, Technical.
From a local staffing firm to now a seasoned recruiter with XXX company, I aspire to become a full fledge in-house Talent Acquisition professional."
You probably have realised my attempt at squeezing in as many keywords as I can within 3 relatively succinct paragraphs.
Knowing that these are the exact keywords the hiring manager is looking for, I have successfully captured the recruiter's attention to read on.
3rd section: Key competencies. This section is a list-down of the most critical AND relevant skillsets that you possess. It must be what the role is looking for.
If you’re very well versed in a specific skill but it’s not relevant to the job, remove it and don’t waste precious real estate on your resume.
List down as such:
Stakeholder management
Candidate management (Internals + Externals)
Process management
Talent sourcing & pipelining
Market mapping
Competency based interviewing
Recruitment advertising
Offer & negotiation management
Pro-tip: If the list gets too long downwards, create 1 or 2 more side by side columns to save space. Don't forget that every inch of your resume is precious real estate!
4th section: Experience + achievements/recognitions. Were there any awards, recognition or achievements you’ve attained? Slot them in as a sub-section under each employment history content section.
Example:
Talent Acquisition Business Partner, APAC
Company XXX - 2016 till present
Fully dedicated on-site and partnering closely with HRBPs and key decision makers throughout the recruitment process, while keeping candidates in loop at every stage
Drive effective and efficient end to end recruitment process from intake brief, source, screen, submit, interview, reference checks, offer proposal, to offer acceptance using ATS (Talentlink)
Ensure right candidate fit through structured and competency-based interviewing
Achievements within 1st year RPO delivery:
• Improved time to hire by 23%
• Reduced agency usage to 10% from 30%
• >90% candidate satisfactory survey ratings
• Received verbal commendations by the VP (HR for Asia), hiring
managers and HRBPs on delivery capabilities
Pro-tip: Always seek to quantify your experiences and achievements. Meaningful numbers and data helps bring a sense of credibility and clarity to back your claims of a certain skillset.
5th section: Education. This is the section to indicate your highest qualification and any other relevant certifications or courses to the role you're applying for.
Do not waste precious space on your resume by indicating primary, secondary or JC/polytechnic school information. Employers usually do not care which schools you come from, unless you are applying to the education sector.
Likewise, GPA scores are seldom meaningful and should be removed unless you are applying to academia or the government sector.
Example:
PGDip. HR and Organizational Development & Change (2014)
Singapore Human Resources Institute
BSc. in Project & Facilities Management (2010)
National University of Singapore
Here, my Bachelor's degree is not related to Human Resources at all, hence I would indicate information about my post-graduate Diploma in HR to increase my relevancy as a potential candidate from an academic standpoint.
6th section: Skills. This section can indicate any relevant skills from your language abilities to systems experience as well as the good old Microsoft Office suite.
Example:
English & Mandarin/Chinese proficient, both written and spoken
Recruitment ATS: Taleo, Talentlink, Workday, Talent Suite
Linkedin Recruiter
Montage (Video interviewing)
MS Office 365, Sharepoint, Excel, Word, Powerpoint, Outlook
Pro-tip: If the role applied requires heavy technical and systemic usage, it would be excellent if you can rate your proficiency (e.g. MS Excel - VBA and Macros, 9/10). This would help the recruiter have a better gauge of your proficiency from the get-go.
7th section: References. This would be a simple sentence such as "references are available upon request".
My recommendation is NOT to indicate referee details directly on your resume. This will better protect their data privacy and ensure that you only release the information when a request arises from your prospective employer.
Conclusion
If you've made it this far, congratulations! I must commend you for your tenacity and determination. I believe your reward will be a marked improvement in your resume quality by several leaps and bounds.
コメント