Many articles focus job seekers in on specific aspects of their resume such as spelling, punctuation and keywords. While these three elements are important, if they become the central focus, your resume efforts could be derailed.
Of course, a misspelled or improperly punctuated word, or a typo, can look bad, and can possibly eliminate you from the running. Several such errors likely will send your resume to the circular file. But there are other errors that create an equally sloppy, inattentive career portrait.
1. Research Should Trump Keywords
The most impactful of those errors is lack of research when writing your resume. Researching a company’s needs, understanding as best as you possibly can what they are looking for in a candidate, and then responding to those requirements, is at the core of a resume that resonates. Beyond that, it is also researching and understanding the needs of the person to whom you will be reporting to in your new job.
The problem is that many candidates will research a company a little bit, identify keywords and phrases that jump out, weave those into the resume, and then beef up the content around those keywords with a few superlatives and metrics that make them feel good about their achievements.
If this is what you are doing, you only are touching the tip of the research iceberg. The issue with this method of matching your resume to keywords is you inevitably become more focused on tactics than strategy. The heartbeat of a resume is fed by more complex arteries and capillaries than whether you use the keywords, “People Skills” or “Process Management” the correct number of times.
Please follow this link for the rest of the post and to read more ways to build a strategic resume: 3 Reasons Why the Resume Is Passe.
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