Your Dates of Employment Might Be Hiding Your Resume
Improper dates in your job descriptions could keep recruiters from finding your resume.
You’ve worked hard to establish a distinguished career. You worked hard to craft a resume to match. But all of the effort could be undone by something as seemingly insignificant as the dates on your resume.
Little noticed on the paper document, the dates on your resume — specifically the ones attached to your job descriptions — are vital to the electronic data gathering systems, called Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), that most large employers and online job boards use to store and sort your resume. If you don’t include dates of employment or render them exactly as the computer expects to find them, it may skip over your jobs altogether, and the recruiters using the software may never see your resume.
Fortunately, you don’t need to be a technical whiz to avoid these problems. The three most common mistakes that could keep your resume hidden from recruiters are also the easiest to fix.
I am the principal search architect at Ladders, where we have reviewed thousands of resumes and fixed hundreds of the very issues we describe below. I am sharing some of these simple “secrets” with you, the job seeker, so that you can ensure your information is out there and available to be searched. Read the three tips and real examples below to be sure your resume is in compliance before you post it anywhere or apply for another job. Remember, you can’t be a star if you can’t be seen!
1. Apply dates to every position…
First, look over each of your jobs at each company. Have you had more than one position at a single company and listed each separately? Then make sure you’ve associated dates with each. Without dates, the ATS will read them as a single job and won’t recognize the progression you made at the company.
It will also recognize only the one title attached to the original date. If the recruiter is asking the ATS to return resumes for applicants who held a specific title and you buried the title without a date, the recruiter will likely never know you exist.
For each position, even if you do not repeat the company name, you must add the dates for the job to be seen by the parser.
WRONG:
International Corporation, Spain & US 1995–1999
Director, U.S. Business Development — Reporting to the V.P. of International Expansion of B-kin Software to drive Business Plan for sales in the Direct Sales (Corporate Accounts & online to Home users) and Channel Sales (VARS, Distributors, Retail, System Integrators).
- Grew from a newcomer in the U.S. market to a #3 Ranking in PC Magazines ‘Product Round-Up’
- Closed Channel Sales Deals with Ingram Micro, D&M Distribution, and other partners
- Formulated Key Accounts with strategic corporations such as the Boeing Company
- Grew the company from 3 people in the U.S. to 30 (now there are close to 100)
Manager, International Marketing — Managed sales and support for franchises worldwide by providing guidance and driving our business plan with local adaptations. Targeted franchise candidates through international trade shows and other tactical marketing activities.
RIGHT:
International Corporation, Spain & US 1995–1999
Director, U.S. Business Development — Reporting to the V.P. of International Expansion of B-kin Software to drive Business Plan for sales in the Direct Sales (Corporate Accounts & online to Home users) and Channel Sales (VARS, Distributors, Retail, System Integrators).
- Grew from a newcomer in the U.S. market to a #3 Ranking in PC Magazines ‘Product Round-Up’
- Closed Channel Sales Deals with Ingram Micro, D&M Distribution, and other partners
- Formulated Key Accounts with strategic corporations such as the Boeing Company
- Grew the company from 3 people in the U.S. to 30 (now there are close to 100)
Manager, International Marketing 1994–1995
Managed sales and support for franchises worldwide by providing guidance and driving our business plan with local adaptations. Targeted franchise candidates through international trade shows and other tactical marketing activities.
2. Do not use dates to describe accomplishments or projects
Consultants often add dates to specific projects they note on their resume (“Storage system integration, 9/2008”), and salespeople love to showcase sales results by date (“Increased sales volume 33% from 6/2009 to 11/2009”). But doing so tells the ATS it’s a separate job entirely.
It is best never to use dates inside the description of a job. Often you will find those dates are not essential to communicating the achievement you wish to describe. If you feel you must, try to write around the dates or spell them out in text form without using numbers (“June two-thousand eight” or “second Quarter of two-thousand nine” ).
WRONG: World-Class Hotel, September 1992 — April 1994
HR and Training Manager — Reporting to General Manager
Four star hotel, comprising of 102 Bedrooms and 3 Food and Beverage outlets.
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- Your Dates of Employment Might Be Hiding Your Resume was originally published on Ladders, a publication dedicated to breaking news, opinion, analysis, and career advice at the cutting edge of our changing workplace. Sign up for our daily newsletter.
Originally published at www.theladders.com.
