How to Get Your Resume Noticed

It can be downright disheartening to never get a reply for the resume you’ve worked so hard to write, but such is the arduous process of job hunting nowadays, especially with the level of competition available. If you’re getting frustrated with all the rejections you’re receiving, take heart in knowing that there are steps you can take to improve your situation. Here are eight tried-and-true tips from Resumeble on how to get your resume noticed by potential employers.

1. Research yourself

Some of the steps toward how to get your resume noticed must happen before you even begin to write your resume. To start with, you need to look yourself up on the Internet. Today’s employers make it a point to “Google” potential employees, so you have to do the same. You never know what might pop up on the search engine that could risk your application.

Think of your online presence as your personal branding. If you’re not managing and optimizing it, you could be unwittingly ruining your chances of getting hired. So make sure you Google your name as it appears on your resume to see what others may find. If it’s within your control to edit or delete, such as a personal Facebook post or unbecoming photos on Instagram, take care of them. If it has been posted by others, contact the person responsible to have it taken down, or report it to be flagged.

2. Develop your personal brand

Aside from getting rid of online content that could jeopardize your application, you also have to take steps to build so-called “proofs of your hireable personality.” This is called personal branding—another important way for how to get your resume noticed. Managing an online reputation isn’t just for celebrities anymore, and the better you develop your personal brand, the better your chances of getting hired will be.

To boost your personal branding, you need to build credibility with content. Think before you post, and post with intention. If it’s not engaging, then it’s not worth posting. Choose posts related to your industry and profession that will pique the interest of recruiters and hiring managers to entice them to learn more about you.

3. Research the job and company

Take the time to learn as much as you can about the employer and the job position. What are the responsibilities and day-to-day tasks of the job? What are the company’s values? What are the opportunities for professional development? Aside from equipping you with the knowledge that could benefit you during the job interview, researching the job and the company lets you know if you would be a good fit for the company and if you can have a fruitful career there.

Check the employer’s website as well as social media pages. Depending on how informative these channels are, you can glean plenty of useful information from these sources. It can also help to read employee reviews to understand the company’s work culture, branding, and policies.

4. Link your LinkedIn profile

As the preferred platform of career professionals, LinkedIn has grown inextricably connected to the job world, that it is now considered a huge mistake for job hunters to not add a LinkedIn profile link to their resume. In fact, not being on LinkedIn altogether conveys to recruiters the idea that you are so outdated, you do not know how the world works today.

Aside from showing that you are abreast with the times, providing a link to your LinkedIn profile in your application provides potential employers with a way to “get to know” you beyond the resume. Aside from your personal info, expect them to go over your posts to see if your personality makes you a good fit for the company. Likewise, they will also look for problematic content to see if you're involved in any concerns that may put their branding at risk. With this in mind, it’s best to keep things professional and avoid sharing iffy posts that could endanger your application.

5. Customize for each job applied for

All too often, applicants only have one version of their resume that they submit to multiple job postings. If you’re guilty of this, unfortunately for you, the applicant tracking systems (ATS) that many companies use today to screen applicants is unforgiving of the generic resume approach.

The way ATS work is that they search resumes for specific keywords. If your resume doesn’t contain them, then it will never reach the eyes of a recruiter or hiring manager. Suffice to say, how to get a resume noticed is out of the question if your resume can’t even pass an ATS screen.

To beat ATS, you need to custom-fit your resume to the job you’re applying for. This means important terms like job titles, skills, certifications, location, education, and other specific requirements must be found in your resume.

6. Make sure your resume is pitch-perfect

Your resume is your professional representation, so even if it contains all the right keywords, it’s still not going to pass muster in the eyes of recruiters and hiring managers if it contains errors, inconsistencies inaccuracies, and fluff such as vague employment dates, typos, irrelevant work experience, wrong formatting (e.g., placing education at the beginning), and stating accomplishments without measurable evidence. For your sake, review your resume multiple times before sending it out.

If you want to know if your resume has what it takes to attract the right kind of attention, Resumeble offers a free, no-obligation evaluation of your resume so you can identify its weak and strong points.

7. Present your achievements in measurable terms

Studies reveal that it usually takes recruiters only six seconds to decide if your resume is worth keeping or not. As such, it is imperative that you are able to convey your achievements clearly, and this can only happen if you know how to quantify your resume. For example, instead of saying, “I performed market research for many organizations,” You should mention something to the effect of: “Carried out market research for Getty Oil, BP, and Shell over a three-year period, resulting in 10 to 20 percent accurate feasibility studies for each company.”

Employers love seeing actual numbers on resumes because it lets them “measure” your success at your previously held job positions. Make sure your resume doesn’t disappoint by providing quantifiable results for your achievements.

8. Keep your resume lean and mean

Resumes should be kept one to two pages long. With such limited space, you are only allowed to include the most relevant details of your career. When it comes to how a resume should look, most employers really don’t care about information outside of your skills, work history, and important accomplishments, so avoid making your resume overly lengthy with unnecessary particulars such as religion, ethnicity, date of birth, etc. Remember that every inch of your resume is valuable real estate, so make sure every piece of information adds to the potential value you bring to a company.

How to quantify resume – get help from Resumeble

Need help with writing your resume? Resumeble will work with you to develop an application that will pass ATS screens and excite recruiters and hiring managers to schedule an interview with you. Stop worrying about questions like “how a resume should look,” “how to quantify a resume,” how to get my resume noticed,” “how to start a resume,” and so on. Let us take care of the answers for you with our high-quality resume writing services. Contact us today to learn more!