IT Hire Wire

Have you recently entered the job market?  If so, I’m sure you’ve done your due diligence by posting your resume on various job boards such as Monster and CareerBuilder.  If you wonder why you aren’t getting any calls, or as many as you would like, you may not have “optimized” your resume for online database searches.  Doing so can be a key strategy in landing your next position.

When it comes to posting your resume, what you don’t know might be hurting you. To best market your resume, you must first understand how recruiters like me find you in the first place on these job boards.

Here are five tips to ensure that I find you when I’m searching for my next great candidate for one of my job openings.

1. Spell out your job titles - To find resumes, I perform Boolean searches using keywords such as, “Project Manager.”  If you insist on shortening your title down to “Project Mgr,” guess what, your resume will not be matched to my search query.  Therefore, you might be missing out on potential positions.  
2. Use keywords strategically - After performing a resume search, the resulting resumes are returned to me in a prioritized manner based on keyword relevance. So candidates whose resumes contain the higher frequency of my keywords, such as “Java or J2EE,” will be at the top of the list.  Include those “buzz words” in your resume!  Just don’t go overboard and list “Java” 500 times because your resume will look ridiculous.  Check out this great blog entry on Resume Search Optimization for how to do this well.
3. Update your resume profile often (at least once or twice a month) - I often search resumes based on its posted date.  If it has been 5 weeks since you last updated your resume or profile and I am searching for active candidates within the last month, your resume/profile will not even be returned in my search results.
4. Say what you really want in a job - If you are only interested in hearing about “Permanent Positions”, don’t select “Contract/Temporary” or vice versa when completing your candidate profile.  Why do you want to get calls for contract jobs if you are not interested in direct employment?
5. Keep your employment situation up to date - Don’t put “To Present” if you are not still working there!  If I need a candidate to start tomorrow, often times I do not even call candidates that are currently working.

While participating in professional networks or applying to job ads are good ways to get your next job, placing your resume in an online database can be an excellent way to get some opportunities cooking fast. You just need to do the right things so that I can find you!

photo by moriza

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