As if crafting a résumé and searching for jobs isn’t enough of a headache, these days you have to think about how to get your résumé in front of a job recruiter — a sort of marketing strategy, if you will. So, what’s the best way to make sure your résumé isn’t overlooked by a prospective employer? These five tips will help you stand out and be seen in the job market.
Tailor your job experience
Oftentimes, résumés are overloaded with work experience that’s not relevant to the job being applied for. Make sure to trim down your résumé to include only relevant work experience that pertains to the available position. And try to keep it to one page to make it easier for hiring managers to read and scan.
Research prospective employers
You can’t stand out in a crowd of applicants if you aren’t familiar with the company, its history and any specific hiring practices it has. By researching a prospective employer beforehand, you’ll be able to tailor your cover letter, résumé and any additional material to match the tone and address specific aspects of the company and the position.
Follow directions
Many hiring managers put very specific directions into job postings to quickly and easily weed out people who don’t pay attention to detail. These instructions could range from putting a specific phrase in the subject line of your e-mail to attaching work samples in PDF format. Make sure to double and triple check what, if any, directions are required and follow them to a tee.
Reach out to alumni networks
Alumni networks are great resources for finding positions that are about to become available but haven’t been publicly posted yet. Reach out to the head of your university’s alumni network to submit your résumé, and find out what positions may be opening up soon. Your alumni network is also a great place to continually stay in touch with your peers. Attend networking events, and connect with people who work in the companies that you’re interested in.
Post your résumé to job sites
Unless you’re spending 10 hours a day scanning job sites, it’s inevitable that you’ll miss some job postings. To try and mitigate that risk, upload your résumé to general job-search sites, like Indeed.com, as well as other more niche sites that cater to a specific industry or type of work, like Idealist.org.
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