Initials Resume Collection Made Easy

Initials resume collection

struggling with your job search no worries I'm here to help today we're going to be focused on updating your resume to be able to get past all of the applicant tracking systems and electronic gates that exist in the job seeking world today we will walk through a format that I highly recommend and show you how it can help you come up in more searches done by recruiters and companies let me start by saying though that everyone is gonna have an opinion on your resume why should you listen to me as a human resources professional with over 25 years of experience and a business owner of a recruiting firm I'm going to not only tell you what to do from my experience but also give you the background as to why it should be done that way don't forget to subscribe to our channel CGL recruiting and ring the bell for notifications I'd also greatly appreciate it if you feel that this video is helpful to you if you would give me a thumbs up as it really helps out our channel alright let's get started now before we take a look at my preferred resume format let's review the sections you should have every resume should have contact data a summary statement a bulleted key skill list something that is absolutely critical you have nowadays a listing of your professional experience your education and certifications or memberships throughout this video I will highlight common mistakes that you should avoid for each section and how to position yourself best the whole time I want to think of your resume as a tool to help you get to an interview where you can sell yourself to a potential company it is a means to an end now let's take a look at my preferred resume format let's start at the top discussing contact data your contact data should have your name the second part of your address your phone number email address and a link to your LinkedIn profile a common mistake made on the contact data portion of a resume is putting the information in the header of the document do not do this some of the older applicant tracking systems do not read the information contained in the header if you include your contact information in the header of the document you run the risk of getting your resume loaded into a company's system without that information that means even if the company is interested in you as a candidate they won't have a way to contact you the next section of the resume should be your summary statement consider this section to be a mini cover letter it is an opportunity to highlight some of your key accomplishments and experience that you bring to the table I do recommend that the beginning of this section have a part that classifies you as to what type of professional you are for example on this resume this person is a human resources professional why should you do this a recruiter may be looking at hundreds of resumes a day there are so many people on the market today and so many of them are applying for jobs they are not even remotely qualified for recruiters and companies are constantly having to get through all of that noise to get to the candidates that have the desired qualifications for a specific position by having a section at the top of your resume that classifies what type of professional you are if you're applying for roles that match your given profession you will move into the yes group faster the next section of your resume one of the ones I believe to be the most critical is a section where you can put a bulleted list of your key skills why is this so important this is a space where you can highlight skills that directly relate to the specific position you are applying for I'm a firm believer that you should adjust your resume for every single position you apply for who has the time to adjust all the parts of your resume every time the great news is if you have a bulleted section at the top of your resume all you need to do is adjust these which is very easy let's say this person was applying for a Human Resources position that was heavily focused on labor relations while this person has this skill it is not highlighted towards the top it is very easy to go in and adjust this bullet before applying for the role just like this on this section try to stay with hard skills not soft competencies like good listener or good communication skills while those are great soft competencies to have most searches are done using hard skills as opposed to soft competencies soft competencies are something companies like to judge during an interview process you should still find a way to include these soft competencies in the other parts of your resume let's move on to the professional experience section of your resume this section should be in reverse chronological order what that means is your most recent experience should show at the top this is a standard for resumes nowadays and if you try to do it reverse of this you are requiring the recruiter or hiring manager to figure out and focus on the format of your resume as opposed to your skills and experience with the amazing amount of people on the market there is a phenomena of recruiter fatigue if your resume is too difficult to understand because you have chosen an abnormal format there is a great risk that they will just set you aside rather than try to figure out how your information flows together when you are entering your professional experience an important thing to do which many people miss is to place a sentence or two below the company name giving some information about the company this helps you get more strong keywords on your resume and allows the hiring manager and recruiters to put your information in context of the company you worked for for the dates on your resume you have two options you can either list them with month and year as this person did or you can choose to list only years never ever lie about the dates on your resume or any other information contained within your resume as an HR person I have seen way too many people get terminated from great positions or not get offered roles they were great candidates for because they chose to lie about something on their resume never ever falsify data you're experienced under each position should be broken up into bullets that are no more than one or at most two sentences long recruiters and hiring managers are not going to read your resume word-for-word they are initially going to skim down through your experience by having shorter bullets you avoid reader fatigue and help them digest all of your experience faster you should structure the bullets to have at a minimum one what you did in the case of this bullet partnered with the executive leadership and to why you did it in the case of this bullet to align cross divisional goals if possible you should go even further to explain the results of your actions like this bullet which explains one the what designing a compensation structure to the why to align employees better towards correct goals and three what it resulted in in this case an additional 25% attainment of sales objectives let's move on now to a part of this resume where the person had more than one job working for the same company you can see under the general corporation this person held two different roles one is a Human Resources Development Manager and one is a Human Resources generalist when you are organizing this data on the resume you should put the dates up by the company not down by each role why you don't want to appear as a job hopper keep the time together to better highlight your tenure with that employer let's move down to the next section education education is a very common search filter or gate used in recruiting processes while some positions may be open to having either a degree or experience others will require a certain educational obtainment that decision is up to the hiring company if you have attended any schooling past high school you should absolutely listed on your resume whether you obtained a degree or not when listing a degree don't simply say bachelor's degree or master's degree make sure you also lift the specialization for that degree if you graduated with honors or had a GPA of 3.5 or higher you should also consider lifting this on your resume the last section on your resume should cover key things like certifications you have earned or important organizations you are a member of that relate to your profession some people prefer to group the certifications up with the education portion of a resume and that is totally acceptable do what feels right for you remember the space on your resume is precious real estate so don't waste it on information that does not apply to your profession or that will not help you obtain a position things like I like to read or I enjoy walks in the park this last section is also an area where you can place other key things like patents publications or awards you may have earned now you can include personal information if it's somehow enhances your candidacy for example let's say you took a leadership role in a personal organization like a school board or you obtained a personal achievement like an Eagle Scout rank if it is something that highlights your soft competencies like leadership skills or the ability to manage projects it may be something you want to consider including in this section now let's talk about resume length if you have five years of experience or less you probably can get away with a one-page resume if you have more than five years of experience you're most likely going to need a two-page resume to fully explain your skills and experience now to fit all of your information if you have to go to three pages is that okay absolutely yes in all my years as an HR person and in running a recruiting firm I have never had a hiring manager or a company say no to a candidate because their resume was three pages the problem for you today is a job seeker is that you have two masters you have to satisfy with your resume one is all of the electronic systems that are keyword-driven and use gates to rule you in or out for a position and the second is the actual people that will look at your resume the system reviewing your resume does not care how pages it is they read all of the data in microseconds all they care about is that you have the right keywords and how many times those keywords show in many cases can actually have you come up as a stronger match in search results meanwhile the people reviewing your resume are in the beginning most likely scanning not reading word-for-word not at least until you become a candidate further in the process having a three-page resume can be okay but you have to be realistic that the further they go into your resume the less chance that they are reviewing the data in detail I have one last bit of information for our jobseekers I know that this has been a lot of information but each section of your resume is so important I just want to be sure you all know that you're not alone the job search process is not an easy one it requires tenacity and the ability to stay focused even when you don't want to please check out our other videos for more great tips to help you land that perfect position you got this