Career Coaching and what does it mean to be Recruiter Ready?
The rules of job seeking have changed! Career coaching ensures you’ll have a resume that recruiters and hiring managers love, LinkedIn profile that attracts views, job search tactics that will save you hours of time and grief, and interview coaching to ace the face-to-face. Using a Search Engine Optimized (SEO) and language focused approach can get your resume past the Applicant Tracking System robots and into the hands of a human being. You’ll want a LinkedIn presence that speaks directly to professional recruiters and genuinely improves traffic to your profile, and the preparation to address questions in a behavior-based interview setting.
Robots Are Reading Your Resume, Too (before a human does)
Maybe you have read that within the last two to three years humans stopped reading your resume. Advances in technology have allowed computers to effectively scan your resume and calculate the likelihood you are a good candidate. These computers can only compute your keyword density and are unable to impute your potential contribution. So we know robots are screening your resume for keywords and your contact information to get it into a manageable data format and are likely simplifying your resume down to straightforward text for a recruiter to review.
Since this is the truth of the matter, it is essential to create a resume that speaks to keyword filtering and can also be read and reviewed by a Recruiter or Hiring Manager. The graphically pleasing resume that was impressive to a Recruiter in 2018 is simply confusing to an Applicant Tracking System. To get the interview you’ll need a whole new way of going about job search.
Enter Recruiter Ready Career Coaching
After helping hundreds of people get new roles as a career coach and consultant, I have developed an approach that has helped every single one of my clients work with the tools and techniques modern recruiters are using so they can get to human and move to the interviewing stage.
To get your resume to a decision-maker, you will need the right tools. In the free seminar I was offering before the Covid-19 pandemic, The Keys to Unlocking a Job in Tech in 2020, I was sharing what you need to know to win at modern job seeking.
Just want to watch a video about it? Check out this full resume optimization webinar video.
Here are the crucial takeaways:
- Avoid ATS Limbo
- Get Seen By a Human
- Develop Sourcer, Screener, Recruiter, and Hiring Manager Relationships
- Have Great Stories and Know How To Share Them
- Know Your Worth
- Negotiate As Needed
- And ultimately, GET THE JOB!
In this article, we’ll talk about escaping Applicant Tracking System Limbo.
Applicant Tracking System Limbo
Job seekers are overwhelming Recruiters. The Recruiter’s role is to find the right people for the right job and offer those candidates to hiring managers (who might say no). They are adopting tools to become hyper-efficient and keep their jobs.
Recruiters rely on an Applicant Tracking System, or ATS. These systems are collecting applicant information such as data from web forms, resume, LinkedIn profile information, and interview notes. This data is all recorded – including whether or not a decision was made to hire, and whether to reach out again in the future (hot take about that – they aren’t reaching out to you later).
These systems simplify the process for finding viable candidates from the Recruiter’s point of view. To get seen by a human, we first have to understand their robot gatekeepers.
The Old-Fashioned Job Search
What ever happened to having humans look at resumes? I’ll share a real-life story of a client who used the “spray and pray” or “the shotgun method” from back in 2017. This client had a resume and without making any changes sent it out to 1000 job postings across the U.S., from that effort he got six callbacks, two interview loops and one job offer. That offer required he relocate more than 2200 miles to his new job. That took months, was very stressful, and was very inefficient. His effort-to-offer success rate was .001%. For most job seekers, this approach would yield ZERO results and be very frustrating.
Recruiters are inundated with resumes from job seekers using this approach. They can’t meet their goals if they look at every single one of these relatively generic resumes. To get a job, we have to work in harmony with the systems Recruiters use and make their jobs easier by giving them more information than the average candidate.
We need to learn to “talk to computer” <- I like saying this in an Arnold Schwarzenegger impression, it makes it more fun.
Modern Resumes Using Jobscan
I recommend Jobscan (https://jobscan.co/) to all my clients who want to break out of ATS limbo. Jobscan is a constantly evolving tool that compares the requirements in a job listing with the language in your resume. Robots can’t say “close enough,” so it’s crucial that the language in your resume be customized for every job you are applying to. If that sounds like a lot of work, it really isn’t, because many of the changes you will make will be minor (and essential) changes and then you will have a very useful resume for the type of job your are targeting.
When I work with clients on their resume, we are aiming to have a design that is easy to scan by both robots and humans, and easy to modify for each possible job role. Using Jobscan is very helpful. Here are the key things to know about using that tool.
- Jobscan only has a limited number of free scans. It’s worth paying for Jobscan while on a serious job hunt. Note: I am not affiliated with Jobscan – the product is useful and I get no compensation from them.
- The tool says to aim for an 80% match rate. I think that can be crazy-making. Recruiters are contacting job seekers when a resume hits the much more realistic 55% match rate.
- Focus on matching the Hard Skills requirements of the job. If you have the skill requested, get that in your resume. I have specific sections that are modifiable to make this a bit easier.
A resume optimized to at least 55% through Jobscan has improved my clients interview opportunities immensely. I can’t offer you hard stats, but I stand with my heuristic evidence and my clients’ 99.9+% job landing rates.
Hiring An Expert Career Coach
Are you interested in finding a new role? I work with clients as they navigate a career transition, planned or unplanned. Schedule a complimentary 20-minute call to discuss your current situation and where you might find coaching or job search consulting helpful.
Schedule with me using this link: https://calendly.com/coachtechgroup/20-min-intro-by-phone