5 Reasons Your Resume is Getting Overlooked by Potential Employers - Workology

5 Reasons Your Resume is Getting Overlooked by Potential Employers - Workology 5 Reasons Your Resume is Getting Overlooked by Potential Employers When hunting for a job, the repetitive rejection can be discouraging enough. But when you constantly fail to garner the interest from employers about jobs for which you know you are qualified, then it may be time to take another look at your application process. And the best place to start is your resume. 5 Reasons Your Resume is Getting Overlooked by Potential Employers Its quite possible that there could be a specific reason why your resume is not getting forwarded to a decision maker. Here are five possibilities. 1. It discusses what youve completed or finished, but not what youve accomplished. A laundry list of your previous job duties is much less impressive than highlighting what you have achieved. The employer knows what the position will entail; your job is to convince him or her that you are the best candidate for the job. For instance, Implemented several cost-saving initiatives may not turn heads, but Lowered departmental overhead expenses by 10% will get their attention. 2. It doesnt contain the magic words needed for the position. No, not please or thank you. The only thing worse than simply listing qualifications on a resume is not including them at all. The first step of the hiring process is weeding out applicants who are unqualified. And if the job involves sales but your resume doesnt allude to your sales experience even though it may discuss marketing, customer service, and other important skills then the employer will still put your resume aside in favor of someone who checks all the boxes. 3. It leaves too much to be assumed. Heres the cruel rule of resume examination: If the person viewing your resume doesnt see it, he or she will assume that you dont have it. So if you put down saved company money on supplies, employers will assume that the amount wasnt very much even if it was substantial because you didnt include a number. And if you outline the advanced programming languages you are well versed in but fail to include the more basic ones, then resume readers may assume that you dont know anything about the ones you left out. 4. It demonstrates inattention to detail. The most obvious examples are spelling and grammatical mistakes. But formatting errors, vague address lines (like Dear Sir or Madam), and font or type size inconsistencies may also toss up a red flag to potential employers. The conclusion theyll draw is this: If youre unwilling to pay attention to small details when applying for the job, how will this tendency affect your actual work if you are hired? 5. It isnt tailored to the company to which you are applying. Another cold, hard fact: Employers prefer to see resumes that are customized to their companies and positions. That may require you to tweak your boilerplate resume for practically every position you apply for. That means playing up your customer service experience when applying for a helpline job, and focusing on your marketing background for the resume that is sent to an advertising firm. You may even want to make a few changes depending on the company itself for example, a resume for a human resources position at a law firm might be different from one sent to a tech company. Theres an old saying: You cant win the game if you dont make it onto the playing field. This is perfectly appropriate when hunting for a job. Because you cant ace the interview or impress employers if you dont get the chance because your resume has gone into the trash. How does your resume measure up?