Resume Tips To Bounce Back From Job Loss Post Lockdown

If you are one of those who are waiting for the lockdown to end to start your job search, then you are not alone. There are a million others who have been laid off or in for a pay-cut or unemployed and waiting for the end of the lockdown to start their job search. With this being the scenario, if you are going to still believe that your present resume is going to be as effective as it was, then you are wrong. In a market where jobs are limited and the applicants are in abundance, the only way to stand out and get selected for that interview is to have a resume that is effective.

Through this article, we bring in our expertise as one of the global players in the area of professional resume writing, helping executives like you find the right interview through our resumes. The role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in recruitment:

To a lot of us, the first thought that comes to our minds when we talk about AI could be Siri or Alexa or the Google Assistant. However, you must note that each of these applications exists to make the users’ life easier. This being the case, over the last few years, organizations and hiring managers found that using AI in recruiting would make their process easier and efficient as well. However, a lot of clients whom we interact with each day are surprised at the fact that AI is used in recruiting. The most common application of AI in recruiting is the Applicant Tracking System (ATS). These applications scan millions of resumes each day to identify applicants who match the predefined criteria.

Most organizations use one among the top 10 applicant tracking systems available in the market, whereas some use customized ones. The most used ones are ATS applications like Taleo, Zoho Recruit, Hirecraft, among others. Irrespective of the application they use, the way the ATS applications work is very similar. The resumes received by the organizations are fed into the ATS and the recruiters or hiring managers use keywords that are predefined for a particular position, the ATS scans through the resumes and filter out resumes that contain these keywords and rank the resumes and returns the results. By doing so, the number of hours that goes into screening each of these resumes manually is saved and thus easing the work of the recruiter and the hiring manager. Now let’s look at the prevalence of ATS in the hiring market:

• There are over 100 different ATS applications in use today.
• Over 97% of the Fortune 500 organizations use ATS for hiring.
• Among the recruiters and hiring managers, over 80% take the help of the ATS to screen resumes.

This is where most of the resumes get stuck. If you are not sure how to optimize your resume for the AI or the ATS, your resume may never go forward to the next stages and get to the hiring manager’s table. So here are some ways by which you can optimize your resume and make it rank higher:

Plan Your CV:

Before we get into the part which talks about making the resume ATS compatible, the most important aspect is planning on what should actually go into the resume. Most of us tend to miss out on the most important aspect of the resume – communicating clearly the value that you bring to the employer. This has nothing to do with the ATS, but this is your USP, your answer to “why should I hire you?” Many executives glance over this step and focus on filling the resume with keywords and that becomes the primary reason why they don’t hear back from the recruiters after their resume has gone through the initial level of screening. They don’t hear back because the hiring managers are unable to find a value proposition on your profile. Therefore, it is essential that you prove your value on the resume by bridging the gap between your experience and the company’s need to hire you.

It makes a lot of sense to provide numbers and percentages to validate the claims that you make on your resume, not only does it give the reader the confidence but it also makes their life easier when they have to weigh your resume against multiple other resumes. With the present market conditions, you are going to have tough competition and this could help you in getting you the interview. Adding concrete numbers to support your performance at the previous organizations builds trust in the readers’ mind because you’ve already proven that you can do it. You could add numbers or percentages for performance indicators like:

• Revenue Generated
• Customers Acquired
• Time / Cost Saved
• Customer Satisfaction / Repeat Business
• Process Improvement

Value Addition:

Look back at your career timeline and see what are the most prominent accomplishments that you have over the years. Make a list of your accomplishments and then identify the most important ones. Then look at these accomplishments and relate it to the previous employers’ problem that you have solved. This will give you an idea of the value that you can bring to the next employer. Once you have identified the value, you have to put this down on paper. You can either put them as CAR (Challenge, Action, Results) or SAR (Situation, Action, Results) statements. Make it sound like a storyline which makes it an interesting read. Split these into succinct bullets because going by the average, the recruiters and hiring managers are only going to glance through your resume in 5 – 7 seconds.

Tell A Story:

A lot of clients whom we come across on a daily basis have difficulty in spinning a story around their career, they find it difficult to showcase their value through a story. It is acceptable because, among the several accomplishments that they have across their career timeline, they tend to forget that storytelling is one among them. It isn’t difficult because you do not have to come up with stories of fiction to showcase your value, the basis of the story is how you performed a particular activity / initiative, the process, and the outcome. Most importantly, the skills and experience you have gained through that and how you can effectively utilize that in the new profile. These answers will form the skeleton of your story and you just have to make it sound good.

Stay In The Present:

Resumes have come a long way from just the regular formatting and structure. A huge number of top executives have moved on to visual and branding resumes where subtle artwork is used to represent data. By doing so, it makes the life of the recruiter and hiring manager easier because you are showing them exactly what they want to see. By staying away from the ordinary, you are creating a brand for yourself and it is appreciated in the market. Numbers and statistics can be showcased visually, if you have a steady career timeline, it looks amazing on a visual career timeline and employers get the message by just looking at it. You can convey a lot of positive vibes using a visual resume. So, move out of the basics of resume writing and get creative if you wish to stand out from the competition.

Do get in touch with us if you would like to have your resume reviewed, you may mail it across to d@visualcvs.com or get a visual or a branding CV created here.

Visual CVs - AAA Certified Resume Writer by IHRA