Your resume is the holy grail of relevance. It is often the first step in showing that you are the right fit for a job. I found it fascinating to learn that the Latin root of relevant is relevare which means “to lessen, lighten” or “to help, assist, comfort, console”. Your resume then becomes an important tool in presenting to the employer or recruiter that you are their best shot at relieving their discomfort.
It may feel daunting to have to achieve all that in no more than two pages. Others may feel like a resume could never accomplish that goal. However, if you don’t show your relevance, you are communicating to your audience that you are throwing resumes to the wind and don’t really care about an employer’s specific job. Even worse, your resume won’t be looked at because it will be spit out by the applicant tracking system.
Allow me to introduce five simple steps to develop a relevant resume.
Step 1: Read
Print job posting. I am all about saving a tree but this is a critical step as you will see in Step 3. Read the printed job posting in its entirety. Top to bottom.
Step 2: Highlight
Grab a highlighter. Read the job posting again, highlighting keywords, minimum job requirements, and repeated phrases.
Step 3: Relate
Take your master resume – the one that has everything in it, not the one you used to apply for a similar job last week – and save it as your new, job-specific resume. Take that new resume and do the following:
- Look for ways to incorporate the keywords, job requirements, and repeated phrases identified in Step 3.
- Move sections and experience bullets up or down to highlight more relevant information first. For example, if the first minimum requirement is a Bachelor of Science degree, then present your education before your experience.
Step 4: Review
Print your resume and review it in relation to the highlighted words on the job posting. Ask yourself these questions:
- Are the words you highlighted in the job posting presented in your resume?
- Have you translated your experience into language more meaningful to the employer? For example, would it be more impactful if you replaced “sales” with “business development” or “personnel management” with “team development”?
- Have you presented your experience, education, and skills in the order that it was asked for?
Step 5: Iterate
Make necessary changes to create a job-specific resume that hits home for the employer and communicates to them that you read their job posting and want the job!
For more information on how to develop a relevant resume, connect with me on LinkedIn or email me.