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#CareerAdvice : #ResumeTips – #Recruiters Nightmares: The Copy and Paste Resume

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“I was told to copy the job description online to ensure key words were in my resume …” is something I often hear from resume clients. Job seekers copy and paste ‘everything’ from the online announcement but can’t understand why they are ignored.  Copying and pasting a job description won’t help.

When recruiters see ‘copy & paste’ resumes, they recognize and reject the resume. Recruiters want to read applicant job accomplishments, task capabilities, and achievements … written uniquely to a job seeker’s specific background, skills, and experience.

Job seekers can analyze the important words from an open position announcement by scrutinizing the job requisition for general and specific requirements sections.  Ignore the benefits and company description.  Target the ‘must have’ qualifications for clues to key words recruiters are seeking.  For example, the job requisition “Budget Analyst” (posted on usajobs.gov) notes:

  • Assist in work to be accomplished; communicate assignments, problems to be solved, issues, and deadlines.
  • Coach team in selection and application of appropriate problem solving methods and techniques; resolve employees complaints.
  • Maintain program and administrative reference materials, project files / relevant documents; prepare reports; maintain records of accomplishments / administrative information.
  • Represent the team for the purpose of obtaining resources; securing needed information or decisions from the supervisor on major work problems / issues.
  • Represent team findings and recommendations in meetings; deal with issues that have an impact on the team’s objectives, work products and/or tasks.
  • Research a wide range of qualitative and quantitative methods to identify, assess, analyze and improve team effectiveness, efficiency and work products.

This description is in the generalized job section.  “Assisted in work” could equate to a team member assigned specific workload assignments to research, analyze, identify, and implement solutions to problems, methods, and technical issues. “Represent the team” can be interpreted as presenting reports on specific topics to a group.  “Maintain program and administrative reference materials” could equate to a document-database librarian or database maintenance tech with software skills, and alphabetical- and numeric-filing capabilities, and ability to recognize documents ‘classes.’ “Prepare reports and maintain records” of work accomplishments equates to filing documents in a manual or in digital format (e.g., create electronic files on a server or SharePoint website in a logical organized manner.

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What Skill Sets do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

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“Research qualitative and quantitative” equates to an ability to ask questions, perform statistical analysis, and possibly conduct Lean Six Sigma studies or process improvements to work tasking, production (lowered man-hours), recommending automation processes for work-task processing, and improving customer service timing and services.  “Resolve simple complaints” could equate to ‘being a people person’ (please don’t use that cliché’ term!) able to provide diplomatic work-place resolutions fair to all parties.

What is missing in this ‘general’ job description? Anything related to financials, accounts receivables or accounts payables, budget oversight, monetary or financial analysis.  Now review the ‘must have’ job description details:

“Knowledge of budget concepts, process, financial coding structure and the interrelationships among appropriations; interpret budgetary aspects of laws, regulations, policies, procedures and provide guidance; interpret / apply budget instructions, administrative memoranda, and regulatory guidelines from procedural, technical standpoint; analyze and relate financial data to work plans, business plans, Strategic Plans, and organizational accomplishments” notes specific key words the job applicant must ensure is describing past and current experience in their resume to catch the eye of the recruiter.

Target the mandated job skill requirements and write about tasks accomplished related directly to that experience using the key words.  “Knowledge of budget concepts, process, financial coding structure and the interrelationships among appropriations” means describe the accounting system (name brand software) and the line item coding, accounts receivables / accounts payable, budget appropriations (funding) and funding designations (to / from business units) and obtaining approvals for expenditures.

The section noting: “interpret budgetary aspects of laws, regulations, policies, procedures, and provide guidance” means detailing knowledge of Generally Accepted Accounting Practices (GAAP), and experience as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) on Internal Revenue Service (IRS) law, regulatory compliance (including Sarbanes-Oxley; SOX), and internal company policies and procedures related to taxes, budgeting, finances, and accounting to advise peers and management.  The ability to “analyze and relate financial data to work plans, business plans, Strategic Plans …” means data research, analysis, auditing, and compiling reports to share in group presentations.

The remainder of the job description is more ‘generic’ capabilities. The ability to “communicate orally and in writing; make presentations clearly; manage time, balance priorities, and work under tight timeframes and conditions; use of computer for word processing, spreadsheets, graphics, and communications programs; use of analytical and problem-solving techniques; use of automated financial systems” can easily be interpreted as strong work capabilities that are discussed in the same bullets explaining specific skill requirements.

Copying and pasted the original job description won’t help job seekers.  Describe ‘how’ a specific task or responsibility matches the job description’s mandatory experience requirements to showcase an ability to interpret, analyze, and write to satisfy the recruiter’s need for documented capabilities.  Recruiters can read between the lines for skills, experience, and education via those key words describing experience.

Guest Author of the FSC Career Blog: Dawn Boyer, Ph.D., owner of D. Boyer Consulting – provides resume writing, and editing / publishing / print-on-demand consulting. Reach her at: Dawn.Boyer@me.com or visit her website at www.dboyerconsulting.com. 

 

FSC Career Blog | July 30, 2019 

 

 

Number of words, including title and POC info:  ~871

Sent to: Inside Business, Virginian Pilot, Ron Crow via ron.crow@insidebiz.com

 

SEO Key Words for web post:

 

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Key Word Hash-Tags (#):

 

ability, #accomplished, #accomplishments, #achievements, #analysis, #capabilities, #CopyandPasteResume, #experience, #improvements, #interpret, #Jobdescription, #jobrequisition, #keywords, #positionannouncement, #processes, #qualifications, #recruiter, #requirements, #resources, #resume, #skills, #solutions, #SubjectMatterExpert(SME), #tasks

 

Bio: Dawn D. Boyer, Ph.D., has been an entrepreneur and business owner 20+ years, with a successful business in Richmond, and in her own consulting firm (CEO) in Virginia Beach, VA.  Her background experience is 24+ years in the Human Resources field, of which 12+ years are within the Federal & Defense Contracting industry. She is the author of 750+ books on the topics of business, human resources research, career search practice, women and gender

#CareerAdvice : #JobChange – How to #SwitchCareers in Six Months or Less…Use these Steps to Learn How to Gather the #Skills, Resources, and Connections to Make a Meaningful #CareerMove within Months

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While the popular adage is true, sometimes the time spend and money send can get in the way of truly following a new path.
With technology, making a career change (within reason) has never been easier. Using tools like LinkedIn, Udemy, and, yes even YouTube, you can learn the skills of a trade and connect with the masters within it.
Use these steps to learn how to gather the skills, resources, and connections to make a meaningful career move within months (without incurring another wave of student debt!)

ASSESS YOUR CURRENT JOB AND YOUR SKILLS

Maybe you hate your current job. Maybe you’re simply nonplussed with the day to day work and you want something more. Maybe you actually like the function of your job, but dislike your current company. Whatever it is, make sure to identify the why of your desired career move before you take action.
From there, asses your best skills along with your passions. Perhaps you’ve been drafting press releases or doing ad-hoc social media work for your current company. Maybe you’ve done a little graphic work as needed outside of your otherwise administrative roles. Assess your interests and relative experience in order to determine your desired career direction.

Like this Article ?  Share It !    You now can easily enjoy/follow/share Today our Award Winning Articles/Blogs with Now Over 2.5 Million Growing  Participates Worldwide in our various Social Media formats below:

FSC LinkedIn Network:   www.linkedin.com/in/fscnetwork

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Google+:  https://plus.google.com/115673713231115398101/posts?hl=en

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Question: Want the ‘the best/current articles/blogs on the web’ on Job Search, Resume, Advancing/Changing your Career, or simply Managing People?

Answer: Simply go to our FSC Career Blog below & type(#career, #leadership, #life) in Blog Search:  https://www.firstsun.com/fsc-career-blog/

What Skill Sets do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

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ACTIVATE YOUR CONNECTIONS

So you want to be a graphic designer? Awesome! You know those LinkedIn connections you made in college; the friend of a friend of a former coworker?
Rifle through these connections. You might be surprised what you find hiding in your own LinkedIn connections of Facebook friends. Speaking of friends, speak to them too. More often than not, someone will know someone who is open to talk to you.
Reach out to see if they’d be willing to meet with you. While they might not have a job hot and ready, it’s a perfect opportunity to ask a few questions over a coffee.

TAKE A CLASS

Unless you’re looking to become an anesthesiologist or a trial attorney, you can likely build your skill set without applying to graduate school.
There are boundless opportunities to learn things on the internet (we rounded a ton of them up here). Resources like Udemy, Coursera, and Alison offer hundreds of free classes—you can learn anything from project management to web design.
Even if you’re not looking to change your career (why are you reading this?) you should take advantage of these free classes. Heck, we all should learn about Probabilistic Graphical Models because, why not?

SEND SOME COLD EMAILS

This is my personal favorite thing to do, so approach with wary pessimism if you must.
Once you have a clear idea of the position you want and type of company you’d like to work for, considering reaching out the employees there. A personalized, well-researched cold email can be the perfect way to garner a new relationship.
You don’t have to come in too hot, revealing that you went 80 weeks deep into a CEO’s Instagram, but you can express a knowledgeable, thoughtful sentence or two. In addition, lay out your interest in the company and inquire as to whether they will be hiring for *your role* in the near future. If you see a gap in the team roster, you might even suggest the need for *your role* and why.
Consider sending out a few cold emails to your dream companies that might hold your dream future job. You can even reach out to employees at your dream company using LinkedIn! At best, you will manifest a miraculous job opening in your field. At worst, you will receive no reply.

MOVE WITHIN YOUR COMPANY OR INDUSTRY

If you love the company you are currently with, you might consider this option. Speak to your HR manager about the moves you’re thinking of making.
Before reaching out to HR or your manager, have a good case ready. If you’re looking to move from Sales to Graphic Design, have a good plan in place. Does the graphic design department have an opening? Is there a particular project that you can participate in on a trial basis? Would you be willing to train your replacement? Is there a possibility of a hybrid role?
If your current company is not responsive to your ideas, then consider making the move within your industry. Having a working knowledge of the business landscape within your particular industry is key. When applying to this new position in a new company, make sure to explain your career transition. Use your working knowledge of the industry as a tool to set you apart from the other candidate.
It’s never too late to make a career change. However, it is important to weigh your expectations when doing so. Typically, when making a complete change in your career, you will in effect “lose” some of your experience. This can translate to a lower salary than you’re used to receiving. So before making any huge moves, make sure to reevaluate your salary expectations.
Ultimately, we want you to feel fulfilled in your career. And if you know that it’s time for a transition, we support you in that. These tips will help you to begin your pursuit of a new industry, position, or company—whatever you decide your next move is.
Careercontessa.com | BY CAILEEN KEHAYAS   | August 13, 2018