Jobs @ Career Consulting Limited

Return to career-consulting-limited.com
Managing
People
Managing Your Career
CV Examples
Coaching
Cover Letter Examples
Pre-Employment Tests


Job Search - Understand Employers


Think like an employer

To be successful in your job search campaign you must think like an employer or a recruiter. If you are going to do this right, you need to appreciate the ways that employers sift through the flood of resumes. We call the most common process the screening.

Faced with a pile of hundreds of job applications that recruiters typically receive, a screener would be more then human to give such in-depth attention to every one. In the real world, skim reading of resumes is very much a reality and it is easy to miss crucial information.

Do you know what their objective is?

We can tell you what it is not.

Screeners are nor there to find the best candidate for the job!

What they are looking for is a way to weed out every resume possible. The goal is to present whoever is making the hiring decision with a manageable shortlist of potential candidates - maybe 5 or 10 out of all applications they received. It's a matter of numbers!

What screeners look for?

Well, it depends on how stringent they are. Many will chuck your resume right away if they find any of the following errors:

  • An anonymous address such as "Dear Sir/Madam", "To whom it may concern" or "Dear Recruiter" etc.,
  • Incorrect title, name or company of the person to whom you are writing,
  • Forgetting to include a real person's name,
  • A single, visible spelling or typographical mistake,
  • Any stain or dirt on the document.

How these folks can do this?

You might be wondering how these folks can do this, after you spent so much time putting your job application package together.

The answer is plain and simple - they can afford to because it is a buyer's market.

Employers ask themselves if your skills and work achievements match exactly what they are looking for. They check if your cover letter is concise and targeted to the reader. If you have sent a form letter, you can probably kiss the job good bye. The list of reasons to disqualify you goes on and on.

The new screening technology

If you think the process is bad now, just wait. It is going to get better we think (or worse, depending on your point of view). This new technology could be very helpful to you. It could help you find your next job. We call it an "electronic applicant screening & tracking technology". Most human resources in small, medium and large businesses and organizations are using it.

By using the latest in document imaging technology, they scan your resume into a computer system and keep it "active" for years. The computer can search for just about anything in your resume. You could be qualified and considered for jobs of which you never thought. The computer can make it easier for you to be considered for more jobs and keeps your resume on file, so updating your information is quicker.

Here is how it works

They scan your resume into the computer as an image. Then OCR (optical character recognition) software looks at the image to distinguish every letter and number (characters) and creates a text file (in ASCII format). Then artificial intelligence "reads" the text and extracts important information about you, such as your name, an address, phone number, work history, skills, degrees, achievements, years of experience, education, etc. in the form of key words.

Key words refer to those words and phrases that are used to search of resumes for hits.

A hit is when one of your skills matches a computer search key word.

Why is it important for you to know this?

You have to, because if you want to find a job you need to prepare a resume for the computer to read. You want it to be a "scannable resume". So, the computer system can scan resumes into database and rank them according to the number of resulting hits.

A scannable resume should be clean so the scanner can get a clean image. The scannable resume has standard fonts and crisp, black type (such as a laser printer or typewriter with a new ribbon would produce), so the OCR can recognize every character. In addition, a scannable resume has plenty of key words for the artificial intelligence to extract. More skills and facts (key words) you provide, the more opportunities (hits) you will match or generate.

We are recommending preparing a Key Word Resume especially developed for the above requirements.

Stefan is a writer, webmaster and project engineer at JobEra.com. This site contains helpful information on job search and resumes distribution to job recruiters. For more information on international jobs, resumes and cover letters, please visit JobEra.com


MORE RESOURCES:







Careers  Schnucks


Careers  University of Northern Colorado

Compensation & Benefits  Lowe's Careers

Careers  US Forest Service (.gov)


Careers | Career Opportunities  West Virginia University

Careers  City of Phoenix (.gov)

So, Why’d You Leave That Job?  The New York Times



Careers  City of Ontario, California (.gov)


Employment at WKU  Western Kentucky University

Careers at J&J  Johnson & Johnson Careers

Technology  Lowe's Careers



Careers | Home  USDA (.gov)

Careers and Jobs at CRS  Catholic Relief Services

Careers  UC Santa Cruz


Careers - MDOT  Maryland.gov

Careers  Baxter

Careers  Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center

Working for ICE  ice.gov


Careers at USCIS  USCIS (.gov)

Employment Opportunities | Game Commission  Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (.gov)

Careers  Johnson & Johnson

Store Hourly Job Areas  Target Corporation

Corporate Career Job Areas  Target Corporation

Careers at TWU  Texas Woman's University

Work for Us (U.S. National Park Service)  National Park Service (.gov)

Work at Butler  Butler University



Explore Store Careers  Target Corporation

Work With Us  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (.gov)


Job Openings and Apply Online  Idaho Department of Health and Welfare (.gov)

Water Services Careers  City of Phoenix (.gov)

Reservists (On-Call)  FEMA (.gov)

Careers at Willamette  Willamette University


Career Opportunities  Gilead Sciences

IOM career gateways  International Organization for Migration


Careers  BASF

Careers  Washington State University

Jobs at Liberty University  Liberty University



The Future of Jobs Report 2025  The World Economic Forum


Careers and Employment  Willamette University


NASA Careers: Pathways  NASA (.gov)

Student internships at J&J  Johnson & Johnson Careers



Our Hiring Process  Target Corporation


Careers  The Ocean Cleanup

Careers with the City of Palo Alto  City of Palo Alto (.gov)


UF Health Careers  UF Health Careers


KPMG Careers  KPMG

Career Opportunities  Advantage Solutions

Careers  West Virginia Department of Education

Careers at Union  Union College


Work for the City of St. Louis  City of St. Louis, MO (.gov)


Events  Target Corporation

Interview Guide and Tips  Target Corporation

Job Opportunities  Bellevue School District

Current opportunities  Turner & Townsend

Job Seekers  Illinois Human Resources







Explore BCG locations around the world  Boston Consulting Group

WORK AT LVMH  LVMH

Careers at Sinai Health  Sinai Health

Work with us  JPMorganChase

Students and graduates  JPMorganChase


Employment Opportunities  Unity Health Toronto

Need More Information?
Site Home | Site Map | Links | Contact Us | Privacy Policy
© Career Consulting Limited.com 2011

tumblr visit counter