Saturday, March 14, 2020

Is Your Resume Responsible -

Is Your Resume Responsible -After reviewing over 150 resumes in a three day time span I decided that there is a serious epidemic out there. A plague so harmful it is costing millions of people thousands of dollars every month. It is called the responsibility viral and it is infecting millions of resumes all across the nation. Think Im kidding? Take a look at your resume.Does your resume include any of the following statements?Responsible for XYZHeld responsibility for.Ability to.adept at. duties included.Well, does your resume have any of those phrases? If you answered yes Im sorry but youve been infected and it is costing you weeks in your job search and hundreds of dollars in salary while you are unemployed. If your resume does not include these phrases shout for joy youre immune. Just make sure you dont catch it anytime in the future. Protect your resume from these harmful phrases at all costsI have heard more hiring managers and recruiters then I can count say how much they loat he those words. **FLASHING LIGHTS AND SIRENS** avoid those choice words. All you are really doing is shooting yourself in the foot before you ever really get a perspektive to start. Using those phrases are harmful for several reasons.(1) They are boring. I dont know many people who leaped from there chair to make a call to a candidate who used the words responsible for or duties included on his resume.(2) They are inferred. When you are listing accomplishments and information on your resume if you did it, it is inferred that you were responsible for doing it or it is one of your job responsibilities. No need to state the obvious.(3) They lack power and the all important WOW factor. They even lack substance for that matter. There are more concise ways to say you did something. Here are a few other choice words you can tryPioneered, Spearheaded, Implemented, Launched, Championed, Marshaled, Initiated and Developed.These are just a few of the many colorful, powerful, and concise altern atives to catching the responsible virus on your resume. It is amazing how one small change can have a huge impact on your resume. Go through your resume and cover letterand look forall instances of the words responsible for, duties included, ability to, and adept at then replace them with appropriate strong action verb choices like those listed above. I think youll be surprised at the feedback youll receive.

Monday, March 9, 2020

Dont Make These ATS Formatting Mistakes - Jobscan Blog

Dont Make These ATS Formatting Mistakes - Jobscan BlogPosted on February 20, 2019June 14, 2019 by Paige Doepke To understand why resume formatting matters to applicant tracking systems, you first need to understand how resumes move through ATS. Heres how it works After you submit your resume through an online application, it automatically lands in the ATS. Many systems then scan your resume, parse or pull out information, and rearrange your resume into a digital candidate profile. From there, recruiters or hiring managers can search the ATS by keyword and get a list of resumes that best match their search.Learn moreTop 500 Resume Keywords to Boost Your Job SearchBut, ATS arent perfect (we already knew that) They are known for missing important information if the formatting isnt to their liking. At Jobscan, weve done scrupulous testing on top ATS to make our tools as effective as possible. Heres some of what weve learned.Abbreviations and Acronymsfruchtwein ATS (iCIMS, Bullhorn and Gr eenhouse included) arent programmed to recognize abbreviations like MBA, CPA and PMP if a recruiter searches for the long form of the keyword (e.g. Master of Business Administration, Certified Public Accountant, Project Management Professional). Dont fear This is an easy one to fix. Spell out the keyword then use the common acronym in parentheses to make sure your credentials dont get missed. Now youll come up as a search result no matter which version they search for.TablesSome ATS, including Jobvite, have a difficult time parsing information within tables. Sections in tables can get jumbled together or information can be lost entirely.While removing the lines can help (we found this to be true with iCIMS), its a good idea to skip tables if youre applying through an ATS. That way, you know they wont affect your chances of getting noticed by the hiring manager. I suggest opting for voreingestellt bullet points to best organize information.Non-Standard Bullet PointsI often have job s eekers ask if bullet points are okay for a resume being submitted through ATS. Yes In fact, standard bullet points are a great way to organize information on your ATS resume. However, the non-traditional bullet points like stars, diamonds, and check-boxes do not always get parsed correctly. The quick fix? Use the good ol black dot bullet points (like in the example below) to avoid issues.Standard bullet points like these are great for an ATS-optimized resume. (Source Application Careers)Unique FontOf course, you want your resume to stand out from the crowd, but using a unique font will just work against you.Through our testing, weve found Times New Roman and Arial to be the most reliable for getting past ATS. Cambria, Georgia, Calibri and Verdana are also appropriate. Font size doesnt matter quite as much, but we suggest sticking to 10 or 12 point font to make your resume look professional when it lands in the hands of the hiring manager. Check out the list of ATS-approved resume fo nts below.Learn More The Best Fonts to Make Your Resume ATS and Recruiter-FriendlyLet your killer experience platzset you apart instead of an attention-grabbing font, and use the interview to show off your personality.Incorrect Date FormattingSome of the major ATS, like Jobvite and Taleo, most accurately parse dates in the format of MM/YYYY. For example, 03/2011. Most ATS will also accept the format of March 2011. Always use both the month and year. Only using a year can cause confusion. For example, the ATS iCIMS automatically assigns a start date of January 1st to any work experience that only has a year.Extra Spacing Between WordsATS are picky about keywordsreally picky. A few of the top ATS, including Bullhorn and Greenhouse, will not even recognize multi-word keywords if the words are separated by extra spaces. For example, product absatzwirtschaft will be recognized as a complete skill but product marketing will not because there is an extra space hiding between the words. The solution is simple double and triple check your spacing, especially between multi-word keywords, before submitting.Unprofessional File NameJoeSmithGoogle.docx is a great file name, unless he accidentally sent it to Amazon. A few applicant tracking systems, like USAJobs and Greenhouse, include the file name in their portal, which means the hiring manager at Amazon will not be too pleased with Joe SmithWhile many ATS have stopped making file name visible to hiring managers, some still do. For professionalism sake, its good practice to save each file with your first and belastung name (e.g. joejobscan.docx). Test your resumes ATS formattingWant to find out how your resume stacks up to ATS? Upload your resume to Jobscan or paste it below to get customized formatting tips and more.Every ATS is differentAt Jobscan, we built our resume optimization tool based on the most common behaviors found across popular ATS. But every system works a little bit differently. Thats why we offer customiz ed ATS tips based on the company youre applying to. Learn more with this videoFacebook Commentswpdevar_comment_1 span,wpdevar_comment_1 iframewidth100% important