Professional resume writing | Career Connect's Blog

Is your Resume job portal friendly?

October 10, 2011

Is Your Resume Job Portal Friendly??

Have you ever wondered why you don’t get interview calls from prospective firms even after applying regularly?

Whether your resume is visible to the employers or not?

Whether your resume comes in their searching criteria or not?

Whether your resume gets shortlisted or not at initial screening?

Whether you have to make too many resume formats and do the hit and trial thing to get some interview calls?

Well, there could be numerous reasons why one does not get the suitable job offers besides having an improper resume.

And many such reasons can be sorted out if we try to understand how the resumes are searched in any database available to employers on the job portals.

The simple logic to it is that like any other website, the job portals are also programmed.

The customized softwares/ programs are made to carry on different resume searches on job portals.

So, it’s more of programming than the manual effort done by the recruiters.

I am providing some snapshots with examples to tell the job seekers that how does the resume search works. Perhaps many of us are not aware of the criteria involved in searching.

The process of online recruitment starts with the formats available on job portals for filling up the specifications so that one can get most relevant resumes.

Keywords:

Keywords play a very important role in accessing anyone’s resume.

Your resume will only appear in the search if it is having the keywords put by the recruiter.

Keywords can be put in resume title, your key skills and anywhere in entire resume.

Therefore, try to give most common keywords related to your profile, skills, and qualification.

For e.g an MBA HR fresher can give these keywords:

MBA HR, Human Resources, HR executive, recruiter, HR fresher, HR generalist, recruitment & selection, training, development, payroll, salary, industrial relations, admin, IR etc.

Snap Shot 1

As you can see in this snap shot, the recruiter has various formats available before him for resume search and he can include or exclude the keywords as per his requirement. Also he can look up for any particular word in your resume.

Snap Shot 2

The recruiter can look out for keywords in your entire resume, key skills, and title. So, you should aptly fill all details in these sections.

Snap shot 3

Experience

Your resume can only be accessed if it comes within the range of experience the recruiter is looking for. For example, if you have one year experience, you can check 0 to 2 years range for experience. The broader your details are the better are the chances of screening/ short listing.

Snap Shot 4

The choice of industry should be most suitable as per your profile. If required you can choose more than one industry by clicking ctrl key. Some people even leave this column if they want to shift to other industry as the recruiters don’t fill the complete resume access formats to widen their search.

Snap Shot 5

The probability of finding a job is majorly dependent on your location. As many recruiters seek only local job seekers. (See the snap shot). If you are residing near any state’s capital or near the metropolitan cities, better mark the prominent metro city or state’s capital as it increase the chances of short listing. If you are applying for a position based in some other location, mention somewhere in your resume or resume title that you are ready to relocate to that place.

Snap Shot 6

The category and roles are selected by recruiter to get the most suitable resumes, therefore always opt for the job category and role which is most widely known at the level at which your profile comes. You can opt for multiple options by clicking ctrl key.

Sometimes the recruiters seek candidates from well known companies, therefore it’s better not to hide your company’s name if you are looking for a change or you might be missed out.

Those who hide their company/ salary details obviously get fewer responses on their resumes but it’s the choice of candidates what to share and what not to share.

The qualification is an equally important criteria in short listing resume as the location, salary and key words are. So mark the options carefully.

Snap Shot 7

Most of recruiters search for resumes which are active/ uploaded/ refreshed within 1 month. But if the profile is scarcly available or very specific then they can go for resumes updated in last 3 months. Some job portals also provide the options to search within age group or for specific gender.

Its important to regulary login and keep your resume floating before the eyes of the recruiters as they go to seek resumes on the basis of:

Relevance

Freshness

Active date

Snap Shot 8

Snap Shot 9

As shown in this searching format, the recruiter is first supposed to type job title, key skills, location, experience etc. Therefore, its quite clear that what features of your resume are most important in screening.

The job portals also provide the recruiters with searching tips and customizing his search criteria as per his requirement. Have a look the next snap shot:

SnapShot 10