The key to developing a resume that is "applicant tracking friendly" is creating a resume that fits the role you're applying for. This is the most efficient way to ensure your resume gets seen as you are speaking the language of the hiring manager. This can result in several versions of your resume and is the most efficient way to successfully navigate your job search.
Instead of thinking of the job search from a job seeker's point of view, put yourself in the shoes of a recruiter or hiring manager. Job seekers' main goals are to increase their income, get promoted, or learn new skills through a new role. A hiring manager is focused on building a team that will help them increase productivity or revenue and meet their internal departmental goals. Drake said it best, "Business is business - it's strictly financial." Tailor your experience to SOLVE a problem versus just talking about unrelated accomplishments.
There are five components that a job advertisement must have: summary, duties/responsibilities, required qualifications, preferred qualifications, and working conditions. The sections you should be focused on are the summary, duties/responsibilities required qualifications, and preferred qualifications. Here is an example of a job description for a marketing manager:
The first section to pay attention to is the summary. The summary section will give clues as to why this job is being advertised or the overall problem this position will solve for the organization.
Here are a few takeaways from the summary:
Help grow our brand's locally
Increasing brand loyalty and awareness
Planning, implementing and monitoring our digital marketing campaigns
Experience in marketing, art direction, and social media management
Communication interpersonal and analytical skills
Based on these key takeaways, we can assume that the company is focused on growing and reaching their customers through various digital marketing strategies. The person who was to assume this role would be in charge of building and managing all functions of the marketing process. Keep this in mind while you're thinking of relevant accomplishments from previous roles and crafting your summary statement. What problems does the summary highlight that your experience can solve? This will determine the theme of your resume.
Next up, duties and responsibilities. I would argue that this is the most important part to pay attention to. The duties/responsibilities give an overview of the current roadblocks the company is facing and what immediate problems or tasks need to be handled within the first few months of the role.
The responsibilities listed here show that you need to highlight experience that emphasizes these skills or your ability to do the following:
Track and measure marketing campaigns and activities and effectively communicate them to stakeholders
Develop methods for attracting new customers and retaining current customers by studying their behaviors through market research; understand, analyze and present sales data; create and implement strategies to meet sales goals
Use data from benchmarking to position the company as an industry leader with relevant and competitive pricing
If you have relevant experience and you were applying for this role, it would be wise to not only mention the responsibilities but how these tasks contributed to the organization's revenue or organizational goals. Remember to highlight quantifiable results versus basic tasks.
After the duties/responsibilities section, you have the required qualifications section. These are the minimum qualifications you must have in order to qualify for candidacy for a particular role. It's important to pay attention to how the years of experience, education, and any major skills are phrased. For instance, it a job mentions a Master of Business Administration, try not to shorten it on your resume to "MBA" for ATS purposes.
This job requires at least a Bachelor's in Business, Marketing, or a related field like communications. It also has three years of experience listed as a requirement and the required skills. This will come in handy when developing the summary statement on your resume as well.
When referring to previous roles, mention your budgeting, social media, advertising, and analytical skills as these are the skills that the system/recruiter will search for to weed out unqualified candidates.
In cases where the job advertisement has a lot of candidates that meet the required qualifications, they might search for candidates who only fit the preferred qualifications to get a smaller pool of applicants. This may seem odd but when you have 200+ qualified applicants and only one role, it can be a good way to narrow down your options as a recruiter.
Although the role only requires three years' experience to successfully fulfill the duties, recruiters may search for candidates with five or more to get the number of candidates down to a reasonable number.
Another thing to highlight, if you have the experience, is the knowledge of a specific website analytics tool by name or Google Adwords experience. If a job advertisement mentions a software or platform you have experience with, ADD IT TO YOUR RESUME!
Note: It's always better to meet the preferred qualifications, if applicable. Due to COVID-19 layoffs, the job market is extremely saturated, and this is a great way to stand out.
Hopefully, this gives you a little more insight into how to create a targeted resume based on the job advertisement. Whether you're starting your job search or in the middle of one, always try to think like a hiring manager/recruiter. It allows you to objectively present your experience in ways that are relevant to the intended audience. We all are the heroes of our own stories and have a tendency to think that we are good enough communicators to win recruiters over with how we interpret and present our experience. However, this is rarely true. Being a good writer versus being a good resume writer are two separate things.
The key is to speak their language and seek help if needed! Resume writers are an important part of any job search. At Your HR Homegirl, we follow job market trends and have committed our professional lives to help qualified candidates get into positions they love! Book your resume revision today! Starting at only $40!
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