How to get your resume game on this year
“98% of job seekers are eliminated at the initial resume screening and only the “Top 2%” of candidates make it to the interview”, says Robert Meier, President of Job Market Experts.
Have you ever heard the saying, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression? ” Well, that couldn’t be truer for Cvs. While this technique of screening is becoming outdated and is being phased out, that will take some time so we might as well get our resume game on!
Think of a resume as a representative you send to a meeting on your behalf to make the introductions about your proposal. A cv gets you the interview, which means the hiring team has seen something in your cv that has piqued their interest and they would like to get to know you more. The interview is then what gets you the job.
Because we come across thousands of CVs every year, it’s hard to declare a standard format for CVS. The most critical thing to remember here is that what matters most is the information you have put in your resume. Is it clear, concise, and consistent?
Some common mistakes applicants make include:
i. Formatting- Nothing puts off a recruiter as fast as a formatting issue. Things like spelling mistakes, grammar issues, poor punctuation, inconsistent spacing, and paragraphing. One tool that can help with this is Grammarly. It also helps to have several of your friends or family proofread your CV beforehand. Formatting mistakes just insinuate that you didn’t value the job enough to take time with your application. If you can’t also correct simple mistakes, how will you prove you can carry out the job tasks effectively?
ii. Inconsistent work history- Reports suggest that many applicants lie on their resumes. Be ready to defend any red marks such as long work gaps or for millennials, short work periods. Remember also, that some companies will do a reference check at this stage. So don’t hide any skeletons in your closet.
iii. Sharing private information- DO NOT share any personal information on your CV unless the one required by the employer. Apart from your professional experience, just state your full name, location(just county or country), not a specific local address, and contact details including your phone number & email address. If there’s any info that the employer will require, they will ask you for it. This includes certificates, National ID numbers, postal address, driving licences,social security number etc.
iii. Sharing irrelevant information- Same as above, DO NOT share any information that is not DIRECTLY relevant to the job. This includes marriage status, age, ethnicity, gender, tribe, sometimes languages, religion etc. Cvs and interviews are being phased out because studies by Linkedin and Google have shown tremendous levels of conscious and unconscious bias. Do not give someone a reason to be biased against you if you can stop it.
iv. Ideally, your cv should be about a page or two. There are creative ways you can use to squeeze the most important information into a page or two as shown below.
Divide the word editor into two columns. Only emphasize the key duties or accomplishments from your work experiences. It doesn’t hurt to showcase your hobbies and interests. This shows that you’re more than the job title and can also be a point of similarity between you and the company if you share interests. Keep it simple stupid.
It’s always better to emphasize your skills or competencies over your actual job duties. Remember to specify your competency level and not just state Java but rather Java- Intermediate Proficiency.
If reports are anything to go by, CVS will be phased out because they don’t align with the new 2018 recruiting trends;
- Diversity hiring. Diversity hiring is the most embraced trend with 78 % of talent leaders responding that they are tackling hiring diverse talent, head on. Why? Well, 78% of companies indicated they are prioritizing diversity to improve culture, and 62% are doing so to boost financial performance.
- Reinventing the interview. New interview techniques are gaining favor, such as assessing candidate soft skills (63%), understanding candidate weaknesses (57%), and interviewer bias (42%).
- Data. This new era of talent intelligence is a big step forward as it allows talent leaders to use data to influence future hiring. The top three ways companies noted they are using data is to increase retention (56%), evaluate skills gaps (50%), and build better offers (50%).
- Artificial intelligence. Recruiters and hiring managers, globally, shared that AI is a bold disrupter, and is helping them save time (67%), remove human bias (43%), and deliver the best candidate matches (31%). Respondents also said that AI is most helpful when sourcing candidates (58%), screening (56%), and nurturing candidates (55%).
Screening is moving more towards skills-based hiring versus experience as recruiters continue to look for tools that help predict future job performance. This is what Jobonics is also built on. This trend is also picking up because 50% of the workforce now is millennials and this number is going to rise to 75% in the next 20 years as Gen Z start working. The new Gen brings with it new expectations from recruitment processes. They also possess multiple skills and don’t follow a single linear career path anymore. Many candidates might be terrible at CV writing or presenting themselves to an interview panel, yet they can prove to be the best fit for the job once it’s handed to them.
Cvs also contain information that is hard to prove and often requires validation. It also contains information that is prone to bias including education, gender, age or marital status. This is eventually what leads to poor diversity & inclusion numbers in most companies.
The number of applicants for any given job has also quadrupled since 2005, meaning recruiters are very overwhelmed by all the applications coming in. Over 70% of candidates have even admitted that they don’t think a human being went through their CV. (Career Arc) While Jobonics works on solving these issues and others, keep working on your resume until the industry is ready to shift from this old tool. All the best.
Still looking for more? Check out https://medium.com/jobonics/what-every-candidate-should-consider-when-writing-their-cv-dc2cb2973a4
