To keep things simple, I am going to refer to anyone that is looking at resumes on a job board as a recruiter.  They could be a sourcing consultant (like me), a hiring manager, a HR person helping to fill jobs,  a staffing recruiter, or other possibilities.

Monster Employer Search

Dice Employer Search

 

 

Recruiters do not want to wade through pages and pages of search results.  It is similar to searching for something on Google. You do not want to go through a lot of pages to find what you are looking for.  Recruiters want to find the best candidates with the most current resumes in the shortest amount of clicks they can.  You want your resume to show up in the search results, and you want it to show up at the top of the results.

  

How do you get your resume to show up in the search results?  There are two main ways to influence your resume showing up in the search results.  The first way is to have matching keywords that the recruiter uses.  The recruiter takes words from the job description and attempts to find resumes with those words in the resume.  The more keywords you have in your resume, the higher your chances of your resume showing up in the search results will be.  I will be discussing keywords in more detail when I write about resume content. 

The second way is to have your submittal date or update date recent.  And, by recent, I mean it should be no more than a month old.  This date heavily influences your resume showing up even more so than the keywords.  The submittal date is the date you originally upload your resume to the job board.  Update date is the date you modify your resume. 

 It is critical that you get in the habit of keeping your update/modified date current on whatever job board you have your resume on.  I remember to update mine on the first of the month.  Pay the rent, update my resumes.  That’s easy for me to remember.  Even if you are not currently in the job market, you want your resume found by recruiters.  This tells you that you have marketable skills.   Knowing you have marketable skills makes you more valuable to current and future employers. 

Next, I will be showing the steps on how to change your update/modify resume date on Monster, Dice and CareerBuilder.

Feel free to send me your comments and suggestions.  I don’t know it all, and don’t pretend to, just trying to share what I do know.  You can comment on the blog or email me at terri at hireaustin.org.