Little To No Responses This Could Be Why

Little To No Responses This Could Be WhyLittle To No Responses This Could Be WhyQuick question why is your resume like that? Who told you functional welches a good idea? I ask because I am 101% certain that no recruiter or HR specialist advised you to take that dark, twisty path to nowzu siche.??When your job search repeatedly has you slamming into a brick wall, to the point that youre saying, Ive applied for 170 jobs and only got 2 phone interviews so far, Im going to suggest to you that the functional resume is a huge reason why.Recruiters and HR specialists overwhelmingly dislike (translation delete) functional resumes. Google percentage of recruiters who favor functional resumes, then do a search for percentage of recruiters who hate functional resumes.I felt like functional was a trend that reached its peak a few years ago, then went the way of polyester, velour, and shoulder pads. But apparently elend. Functional reared its ugly head not once, but twice for me in just this past week. One candidate, during his preliminary resume review with me, asked, Were going to take the dates off, right?ME No, Sir we absolutely are not. Dates are, quite literally, the 1st thing the recruiters and decision makers want and need to see. Lets not rub these folks the wrong way.Then, there was the resume I came across this week that presented name, contact info, objective (okay, Im not even going to go sideways talking about that right now), and then proceeded to scroll through the totality of 1 everlasting page with no less than 27 bullets of achievements.No dates.No employers.No job titles.Nothing to indicate that the candidate did anything other than wave her magic wand and breathe this list of random thoughts into existence for the rest of the world to somehow figure things out.So, yes, we need to revive this discussion about functional resumes.Just so were all super-clear about my professional position regarding this issue, Im going to come straight out and say it I nee d for you to get rid of your functional resume. Only .1% if you genuinely require a functional presentation, but right now Im not talking to you. Heres what I recommend virtually all job search candidates do insteadYou Want to Showcase your Skills? GreatJust make sure to showcase the ones the employer actually wants. I guarantee that communication and teamwork skills are not at the top of that list.What I want you to embrace is the reality that the ad for the job is your roadmap. Theres neither mystery nor guesswork here. The keywords the employer wants are in the job title, the 1st three points in which the ad indicates what the job requires the person to do, and in the preferred qualifications.Highlighting Your Achievements Is FineJust select the accomplishments that most strongly align with the job requirements. If the ad is for a Marketing Campaign Manager, then the 1st highlighted achievement you present needs to have something to do with that tremendous, high-impact campaign y ou led. And pretty please with a juicy cherry on top put some numbers into the story. If your campaign was that good, surely it led to some hard-dollar gains, a certain number of target audience members reached, or a specific percentage increase in social media engagement. No, I declare here and now, you are not saving your stories for the interview.While highlighting your achievements, make sure to tell the reader what they want to know. They dont need to see a list of 27 accomplishments with no indication of when you did them or what employer you worked for. No ones going to play connect the dots with your resume, flipping back and forth trying to figure out which accomplishment happened when and where. Context is key. State the accomplishment, then follow that up with the relevant job title and employer at the time.Dates Dont Look Good? Do This?There need to be dates on your resume.There need to be dates on your resume.There need to be dates on your resume.No, you cant just take the dates off your resume because you dont like them. This is not like ordering a cheeseburger but telling them to hold the onions.If youre experiencing long-term unemployment now, or have had 1 or more gaps in your timeline, the solution is not to delete the dates, but to reposition them. Your goal is to present the dates with less visual impact, so theyre not necessarily the 1st thing that catch the recruiters attention. Make sure your dates are not on the left or right margin of the page.Instead, present them parenthetically on the same line within the context of your scope of responsibility. Heres how that can look Software Engineer (2007 to 2010) Integrally contributed to development team that conceptualized, designed, and built a custom CRM solution toHaving a functional resume is not your fault. You were tying to do something different. You were trying to stand out. This is perfectly understandable. But let me tell you what you really do to stand out beyond writing your resum e correctly, make sure you get your resume in front of the right person, 100% of the time. You do know the days of clicking the apply and submit buttons on the job board are over, right? Right.When you make it your practice to connect with the relevant human being on every opportunity, it can cut your job search time in half. Thats what I go over in my free presentation, 5 Secret Job Search Hacks For The Age 50+ Job-Hunter. Register for that today so you just dont shoot resumes out there for the next 170 jobs, only to get 2 phone interviews. Lets change that success tarif so you land one in-person interview, after the next, after the next, so you can get an actual offer.If youre ready to invest in your job search success and would like to find out about the job search concierge 11 program Ill customize especially for you, simply head over to Job Search Concierge to apply, and well have a sales conversation about how this program can be of benefit. Only apply for the Concierge progra m if youre serious about investing in yourself today.