So you have submitted your application to hundreds of jobs but haven’t gotten a callback. You start to wonder, “Is it me? Am I not worthy of any of the positions that I applied for”? Don’t be so hard on yourself; there may be a simple solution: Optimizing your resume and cover letter.
Think of your job application as writing a letter to a friend. You wouldn’t write the same letter to all of your friends, likewise, you wouldn’t use the same resume for every job that you apply for. The most important thing you can do to your resume and cover letter is to tailor them towards their audience, but how do we do this?
Print out the job description of the position you are applying for. With a pen go through all of the requirements for the position and highlight all of the requirements that you have experience in. It is important to remember to not regurgitate this information word for word or it is obvious that you copied the job description. Instead, think about where you did the requirements that you highlighted and integrate them into your resume explaining how you used the skill set. If a job requirement is AutoCAD and you have used AutoCAD, you may include a line similar to this: “Utilized AutoCAD software in the design and creation of tooling fixtures for CNC machinery.”
The days of using a blanket resume are over. Take a little extra time and pinpoint the job requirements in each resume that you submit. This is guaranteed to get you more call backs.
