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Does Customizing a Resume Pay Off?
Oct 11 2007
Can candidates achieve better results by building their resume around an employer's particular "competitive market landscape"?
In a Guest Comment on eFC today, recruiter Alan Geller of financial services technology search firm AG Barrington urges candidates to "Load your resume for bear," by incorporating employer-specific and role-specific wording that:
- Precisely defines the prospective employer's competitive challenge that would be addressed by hiring you.
- Details your accomplishments using "hard" or tangible criteria such as sales or profit numbers, expertise in one or more well-defined, relevant areas, or relationships with buyers.
- Illustrates the possible return on investment the employer can expect from hiring you.
What do you think? Do you feel you're not getting as many interviews or offers as your background and skill-set would justify? If not, might your resume be part of the problem? Leave your comments below, and Alan will come in and respond to the more interesting posts.
5% is a pretty good response rate, career experts tell me. If you're sending in a resume cold, or answering posted ads, even Ivy League education won't lead to appreciably higher response rates than that. The best way to improve your hit rate is to combine applying with networking. Whenever you find a position that seems like a fit for you, approach people you know who have some connection with that employer (or actually work there), and ask if they're willing to forward your resume to the decision-maker. Do this ALONG WITH (i.e. not instead of) applying through regular channels - you don't want to make HR think you're bypassing them. Any resume that arrives via someone the recipient knows, has at least 10 times greater chance of getting looked at. This holds true regardless of the job, company, or industry. (And most higher-level jobs never get posted anywhere, so getting referred in is the only way to get seen, period.) -- Jon Jacobs, eFinancialCareers staff
Jon Jacobs 17 Apr 2008
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