You need to create an all encompassing resume. Every job, every title and every Attaboy you ever had. Salesman of the year is an attaboy. “Thanks, I couldn’t have done this without you” is also an Attaboy. Don’t feel bad if this is 5 or more pages, no one is ever going to see it. Mine is eight pages.
You need to customizing your resume for each Job posting you apply to. AKA How to guarantee a human being sees your resume and if you are rejected it will be done by a human being, not a machine.
It has been said that most HR department have gone to great lengths to avoid human contact, especially in the employment process. Current Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) are super automated and actually scan your resume for submission. Needless to say, they are looking for specific keywords or phrases. For most, this is the first screen. Screened by a machine. This is where your all encompassing resume comes in.
Next, read the duties and qualifications of the job. This is your cheat sheet to success, This is what they want and will screen for. Make sure that all of these are in your resume. Eliminate all other non relevant info. If you were really great doing something they are not asking for, get rid of it. Keep positions, companies and very brief accomplishments. Understand, if the specs call for SAP, your skills with Oracle just waste space. Your resume should now be 2-3 pages.
Now, take the advertised duties and qualifications and strip it down to the keywords. At the very end of your resume, type in Keywords and cut and paste what the company wants.
