How do you know if your resume targeting works?

There are two phases: 1. Long term - Follow the recruiters hiring for roles and industries that are similar to yours. It can be on LinkedIn or any other platform. In order to get better candidates and improve the recruitment process, they often communicate about their requirements, needs, updates, trends, etc. It even helps a candidate to get prepared by even upskilling too. 2. Second part is short-term; properly refer to the Job Description, the company website, to get an idea about their products/services, culture etc. A recruiter will be ultimately comparing the resumes with the JD and not with each other - which means, they need someone who will be a perfect fit for the vacant role and they are not trying to select the best profile.

Speaking from my career coaching experience, tailoring your resume to mirror job specifications and align with a prospective employer's needs is crucial. Here are my 5 points 1.Keywords are crucial: They are the 'filter' for recruiters and align your profile with job requirements. 2.Comprehensive approach: Job titles, skills, software tools, achievements, or industry terms - all these are potential keyword sources. 3.Job description analysis: It's a treasure trove of relevant keywords. Always explore it. 4.Understand the company culture: Company's ethos often holds keyword clues. Understand and incorporate them. 5.Your resume is your story: It's more than just a document - it's your personal brand statement. Make it count!

This can seem overwhelming at first, but it’s actually quite easy once you get the hang of it. I recommend starting with your headline summary and skills section of your resume. Those are the core areas you want to plug keywords into. Start by identifying 5 to 10 keywords in a job description, and then taking them back to your resume. Once you get the hang of it, it should only take you 5 to 10 minutes for each application.

Check the job description and mark the keyword you see there. It can be some skills/qualifications/certifications/software /languages etc. If you don't have any of them, let it be. Rest of the marked keywords; make sure you see those words a couple of times on your resume when you read it. Those are the triggers or hooks to the eyes of a recruiter.

I recommend using traditional structure, in a modern format. Headline Summary Skills Experience Education/Certifications Avoid using columns, as rows usually work best with parsers and are more visually appealing to the reader. One more thing — It’s totally fine to have a resume that’s 2 pages long!

Simple formats work the best. Avoid templates that include visual elements, pictures, graphs, and/or columns that span the length of the page. Whether it's a company's ATS or a job board, the important thing is that it needs to be in a format that a computer can read and accurately parse. If the software can't read your resume, you're not showing up in search results. Keep it simple.

The resume is no longer a biodata; it is your brochure - your marketing tool. You are marketing and selling yourself when you apply for a job and attend the interview. The mindset should be changed. The content should be appealing. The recruiter should think that this is the person I am looking for. How you are unique, how do you stand out from your peer / from other candidates, what are your achievements or what results did you make rather than what all things you did etc are important. Market and sell yoursel!

There are various online tools that check resumes and give suggestions and scores. Do not just blindly follow what they say. Check for the reasons and validate if it makes sense. For example, a US-English-based tool will reduce the scores of a resume because the resume was written in UK English!