Only 3% of resumes get interviews; here's how to be one of them.

Welcome to My Newsletter!

Spending hours tweaking your resume and applying online only to hear...absolutely nothing.

You have awesome experience, and you know you can do the job if someone gives you a chance, but it seems like these companies just toss your resume into a black hole without even looking at it!

It's even more frustrating when you look for help, and everyone tells you the same thing, "it's a numbers game. You just have to keep applying until something sticks."

Gee, thanks for the groundbreaking advice.

If you feel like you have zero control over this process, like you're shooting in the dark, you're not alone. According to Glassdoor's data, your chances of landing an interview when you apply online are less than 3%:

Here's why:

Most companies need more time to sift through 250+ resumes for every role they post. Instead, they use software called an Applicant Tracking System (ATS), which scans your resume for specific keywords, phrases, experience, and criteria.

If your resume matches what the ATS robot is looking for, you're in! If not, you'll be sent to the black hole of doom with 97% of the other applicants.

Is that incredibly dumb? You bet.

Is it unfair? It is.

Is it a reality we must accept and deal with if we want to land that next job? Yup!

If you want to be part of the 3% who score the interview, you must learn how to play the game. The good news is that you're in the right place! I'm about to walk you through the exact steps you can take to boost your chances of scoring a job interview with your resume:

Step #1 - Give The Robots What They Want

These days, 75% of companies use some sort of resume scanning robot to help them score candidates. The situation gets even worse as the caliber of companies increases, with 98% of Fortune 500 companies leveraging some sort of ATS.

If you want to get past the robots and into the hands of a human, you need to understand how ATS systems work and what they're looking for.

If you want the quick and dirty version, here's how it works:

1. The recruiter signs into their ATS system and tells it what to look for when scanning resumes for specific positions. In most cases, the recruiter simply copies and pastes the job description while highlighting specific levels of experience, skills, etc.

2. When a candidate presses "Submit" on their application, the ATS system scans their resume and compares it to the criteria that the recruiter submitted. The system gives the applicant a score based on how well their resume matches up with the information the recruiter gave the system.

3. The system gets rid of anyone who doesn't come close to matching the criteria and pushes the "best" candidates (according to their algorithm) to the top

Moral of the story? If you want to be in the top 3% you need to make sure that your resume includes the keywords, experience, and criteria that the ATS systems are looking for.

The good news for us is that most of this info is buried in the job description. We just need to use a few strategies to identify which parts to include and where to include them.

Step #2: Identify The Keywords & Phrases You Need To Include

If you want to win more job interviews, you need to know what keywords, experience, and skills the Applicant Tracking System (and the recruiters reading your resume) are looking for.

I created a free tool called ResyMatch.io to help you do exactly that! It's super easy to use, here's how:

First, upload your resume and paste in the job title and job description for your target role:

Next, you'll hit scan, and?ResyMatch?will give your resume a score based on how well it matches?your target job description. The Match Score aggregates scores from four areas - hard skills, soft skills, ATS best practices, and best practices for "selling" your value:

ResyMatch?will give you a breakdown of each section if you scroll down. It will show you how to optimize your formatting, it will encourage you to focus on illustrating value, and it will tell you the exact keywords and experience you need to include:

You can make updates based on the tool's recommendations! If you want to try ResyMatch, click here to start scanning for free.

Step #3: Adding Keywords To Your Resume (The Right Way)

Now that you have a solid handle of what you need to add to your resume, it's time to make the updates.

Head back to our?resume builder tool?where you saved your resume (you did save it, right?).. Our main focus is on the Objective and Experience sections.

First, most ATS systems look for a job title match (meaning they want to see the job title you're applying for in your resume). The easiest way to make that happen is by adding the prospective title into your resume objective. For example, if you're applying for a Partner Manager role you could change your title to read Partner Manager Summary:

Next, you want to weave each keyword into the bullets in your Objective and Experience sections. Please don't create a "Skills" section and just dump everything in there—that's not helping anyone because it provides zero context and value.

You want to be thoughtful about how you weave your keyword into your bullet while illustrating what you did and the results you got. There's a very specific way to maximize your results, and tomorrow, I will teach you exactly how to do it.

Stay tuned for a little hack to help you write insanely effective resume bullets that stand out from the competition.

Be well,

Oluwafemi