TROY, Mich (WXYZ) — With in-person networking at a lull, and job fairs going virtual, job seekers are navigating an unprecedented challenge securing interviews and that means your resume could be more important than ever before.
With so many people hit by unemployment, we wanted to know, how you address being laid off in a resume and still leave room to impress a hiring manager along the way.
"Making connections while you can't meet people is really difficult," said job hunter Sophia Fishkin.
Sophia Fishkin is a little worried about landing a new job.
"How do they get to know me, how do they figure out who I am if what they've got is a couple of documents about what I've done," said Fishkin.
According to Glassdoor.com, 3/10 United States job openings have disappeared since the beginning of March. This is making the job market competitive and your resume all the more important!
We talked to Ciara Van De Velde of professional resume writing service, Employment BOOST about how to make it stand out.
"What are the desired skills and traits, or qualifications that they're looking for in this ideal candidate," said Van De Velde.
Focus on tailoring your resume to the job.
"Making sure, that those skills are included within your resume," said Van De Velde.
Having those critical keywords could mean the difference between getting read by a human or getting tossed out by a computer.
"When it goes through that applicant tracking system, it's going to scan your resume to show you have that experience," said Van De Velde.
When it comes to those bullet points, highlight what you’ve accomplished, versus what you’ve been responsible for at the job. Hiring managers like to see metrics & results.
How do you address being laid off in your resume? Van De Velde says you don’t!
"When it comes to the interview, that's where we can say, I did receive a layoff, unfortunately, as a result of COVID-19, changes were made, the organization was restructured," she added.
As for job gaps? Minimize attention by eliminating exact dates.
"If we just put the years, they have no idea which month you were laid off," said Van De Velde.
As for how long your resume should be?
Most hiring managers don’t have time to digest a document that’s more than two pages long.
The rule of thumb is if you have more than ten years experience, two pages is fine.
Otherwise, make it your goal to pare it down to one page, and make that one page...shine!
HERE’S THE REBOUND RUNDOWN:
- TAILOR YOUR RESUME WITH THE CRITICAL SKILLS YOU HAVE FOR THAT A POSITION
- USE THE BULLET POINTS TO BE SPECIFIC ABOUT WHAT YOU’VE ACHIEVED AND HOW
- AND DON’T ADDRESS YOUR LAYOFF IN THE RESUME ITSELF: INSTEAD LEAVE IT FOR THE INTERVIEW
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