A well-crafted resume isn’t only limited to stating your qualifications and experience. It requires using the proper resume optimization techniques to stand out from the crowd. Today we cover 2 different resume optimization strategies that are incredibly important.
There are two ways to optimize resumes to position yourself in the job market: one optimization is for the system – keyword optimization to get past Application Tracking Systems (ATS).
The other is an optimization for the person reading the resume – recruiters and hiring managers. ATS are basic programs and look for one thing on your resume: keyword matches. But the hiring decision maker reading the resume does so with a critical thinking scope: how will this candidate be the best fit for this role?
In this article, we will guide you through resume optimization strategies to address both ATS and human evaluations.
Different Resume Optimization Strategies for Both Evaluation Types
To get your resume the traction it deserves, here are some tried and tested tips by professional resume writers for both automated resume reviewing systems and human evaluations:
How to Create a Resume Profile Optimized for Human Evaluation
According to a report, the hiring manager spends almost 6 seconds scanning a resume. Your resume profile must include all required skills and attributes accurately to grab the reader’s attention at first sight.
Attributes such as your qualification, key skills, and industry specializations are the key points recruiters are looking for.
When writing your profile summary, take time to think about what drives you.
- What is your passion?
- What motivates you
Stating your passion for your field or advancing in it can go a long way in getting your resume viewed favorably. Creating a strong resume profile is the first step in landing an interview for your dream career.
How to Include Career Achievements on Your Resume
Another important strategy for the optimization of your resume is including the career achievements that reflect your qualities, leadership strengths, and passion for work. This includes highlighting your team’s successes under your leadership and any challenges you’ve been able to overcome.
When writing about your leadership style, focus on what makes you unique—talking about your leadership approach, whether action-oriented or more communication-based, will improve your credibility. The world’s biggest online retail company, Amazon, prefers hiring candidates with strong leadership principles.
It is a common practice of best resume writers to address around 5 skill set alignments while writing resumes. Here’s an example of using examples of different skill set alignments from different categories for a position on your personal resume.
1. Strategic System Integration
You can write about how you developed numerous critical processes and solutions necessary to maintain seamless operations. Or how you consistently execute planning tasks supporting short- and long-term business requirements. Both of these support strategic system integration on your resume.
2. Efficiency Champion
In your resume give an example of when you effectively identified gaps within internal processes and integrated automated processes to resolve performance issues resulting in improved customer satisfaction and staff productivity.
3. Executive Visionary
Demonstrate when you collaborated with executive team members, senior managers, partners, and other key company stakeholders to evaluate projects, systems, and activities while testing the alignment of day-to-day initiatives with organizational goals and vision.
4. Astute Relationship Management
Convey how you can identify and nurture critical relationships with clients, vendors, third-party contractors, and other stakeholders. While you work collaboratively to understand the needs and coordinate efforts to deliver win-win scenarios for the business stakeholders and clients.
Providing direct examples of your past experience under these categories will help demonstrate how your skills align with the hiring manager’s position requirements. Ideally, include 5 examples that fall under one of these categories.
What Experience to Include in Your Resume
Writing a well-crafted work experience section can help set you apart from other job seekers and show that you are qualified for the position. When writing your resume experience, keep these questions in mind. Do you lead with emotional intelligence? Have you come up with an innovative solution to a long-standing issue to resolve it or create more market opportunity for the company? How?
By including the answers to these questions, you can better communicate how you are the ideal candidate for the position. Hiring teams don’t just want your years of experience. They want a person who can solve company issues and prove a valuable addition.
According to NACE’s Job Outlook report, employers look the most for problem-solving abilities in new hires.
Following are some example points from our expert resume writers that you can use while writing your own resume experience section:
- Describe a time when you used your skills to resolve a challenging situation.
- Share an example of how you could quickly devise a solution to thwart an obstacle.
- Include a story about how you managed complex team dynamics or collaborated productively with others.
Moreover, you can talk about when you used your emotional intelligence under pressure while dealing with difficult people or situations. Such practical examples show your ability to identify problems immediately to assess the situation and respond effectively.
How to Use Keywords to Pass ATS Software Evaluation
While much of the above is geared toward the human evaluation of your resume, often you must first pass a resume screen software that filters our applicants. The way this software does this is relatively simple, it scans for relevant keywords. These keywords can be sprinkled in the above tips that we mentioned for human evaluations.
In a resume, your keywords are the particular terms related to your skills, abilities, or qualities that recruiters look for. Since ATS uses keywords to determine which resumes to review and rank, it’s vital that keywords are added throughout your resume appropriately.
The need for employees with specific qualifications changes from time to time, so try to target the most recent keywords related to your field. A simple Google search with land you at the most in-demand keywords of the year.
A word of caution: Too much focus on keyword optimization can hinder your candidacy by detracting from the quality of your resume content. Excessive use of keywords will dilute the impact of effective ones and could even get you rejected due to rank spamming. So, use keywords judiciously – just enough to give yourself a leg up in the competition.
By writing a resume optimized for human evaluation, you can then work to add the keywords that ATS software will scan for. The following resume result will sound natural, and be optimized for both strategies!
Need Resume Optimization Help from The Resume Writing Experts?
The job market is constantly changing, and so is how organizations seek employees. You need to keep up with the latest trends in resume optimization, regardless of your type of resume. Not sure what other optimization tips you need for your resume? Check out our blog on the 5 Easy Resume Optimization Tips for 2022.
These two different strategies we discussed above have proven to be incredibly effective when it comes to attracting employers by creatively showcasing your skills and experience. By understanding how each of these strategies works, you can make your way to land your dream job.
Unsure if you can craft a resume that is optimized using both strategies? Don’t worry, there’s help available! If you’re having trouble optimizing your resume, executive resume writer help might be a great option for you. Capstone Resume Services provides a professional resume writing service.
Don’t wait, request a free consultation on your resume today!
