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Customer service
Resumes and cover letters are the
foundation of your job search.
Competition in the job market is fierce. A corporate job opening attracts 250 resumes on average and only four-to-six applicants will get called in for an interview.
A solid resume and cover letter will get you noticed. Here are the resume facts and statistics you need to know for 2020.
Customizing your resume is key to landing a great interview.
The majority of hiring managers (61%) consider a customized resume the No. 1 tactic for applicants trying to boost their chance of getting a job. The others include:
Source: Careerbuilder
After all, you don't have much time to impress.
Recruiters spend an average of seven seconds reviewing a resume.
Source: TheLadders
You don't want your submission to come off as "too generic," and give recruiters a reason to dismiss you.
You are more likely to be dismissed if your cover letter and resume have the following issues:
Source: CareerBuilder
Be careful. Recruiters have plenty of pet peeves.
They don’t want to see the following on your resume:
Source: New College of the Humanities
Plus, you'll need to get past the company's applicant tracking system (ATS).
About 98 percent of Fortune 500 companies use an ATS in their hiring process, which sorts through resumes before a human sees it.
Source: Jobscan
This is a big deal because ATS prevents about 75 percent of resumes from being seen by human eyes.
Source: Preptal
Don't lie, either. They'll catch you.
In 2017, 85 percent of HR professionals uncovered a lie or misrepresentation on a candidate’s resume or job application during the screening process – up from 66 percent 5 years prior.
Source: HireRight
And make sure to include both hard and soft skills on you resume
The description on a job opening contains an average of 21.8 skills, while resumes list only 13 skills on average.
Source: LiveCareer
Resumes fall short to roughly the same degree on both hard and soft skills, matching only 59 percent of hard skills and 62 percent of soft skills.
Source: LiveCareer
That’s not totally surprising: Only 47 percent of workers believe job descriptions reflect actual responsibilities.
Source: Jobvite
as well as a few terms from the 10 most
frequently cited skills in job ads
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Communication skills
3
Scheduling
4
Written communication
5
Organizational skills
6
Problem solving
7
Multitasking
8
Sales
9
Physical demand
10
Teamwork
Source: LiveCareer
Even when you do everything perfectly, some candidates of different ethnic backgrounds face implicit bias in the resume review process.
Studies have shown hiring managers respond more positively to resumes that lack ethnic details.
Source: Administrative Science Quarterly
And there are several implicit biases that could impact your ability to get the interview. People make assumptions based on:
Age
(e.g., your date of graduation or first job)Sexual Orientation
(e.g., volunteer activities or memberships)Gender
(e.g., your name or university)
but there's plenty you can control, including:
- Dropping the occasional industry buzzword to appeal to the ATS (but not too many).
- Using concrete numbers to demonstrate your value.
- Applying on Mondays, not on Fridays.
- Not overusing “team player” or other highly collaborative descriptors.
- Using leadership-oriented words (e.g., communicated, coordinated, leadership, managed, organization).
- Not using personal pronouns in the employment section.
- Including a Key Skills section of 15-20 words.
- Applying in the first four days after a job is posted.
- Applying between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m.
Source: TalentWorks
The job search stats above will put you on the path to landing your next interview.
As these job search stats bear out, the one-size-fits-all resume is a myth. You can set yourself up for success by:
Keeping in mind
who will be viewing your resume and then tailoring it to a specific job.
Making sure you avoid
recruiter and hiring manager pet peeves.
Focusing on the aspects
of the job search you can control while taking steps to cleverly minimize those beyond your control.
You can also keep reading our 2020 employment and job search stats series, including stories on:
- How to appeal to hiring managers and recruiters at every step in your job search. You’ll learn how to answer interview questions, where to look for jobs and which phrases get on a recruiter’s nerves.
- Why surveys finding decades’ high job satisfaction fail to tell the whole story. The truth is more complicated, with low worker engagement and nearly half of employees unhappy with their pay.
- The story behind the record-low unemployment numbers. Job seekers say it’s easier than ever to find good work-and they’re feeling so emboldened they’re even ghosting companies.
About the Author
About the Author
Don Sjoerdsma
Career Advice Expert
Don is a senior content writer for BOLD. He conducts in-depth research and writes special reports on trends and issues that impact job seekers. With a proven track record in building cross-platform content plans in diverse sectors, Don has written extensively on topics related to careers and employment, including interviewing, resumes, cover letters and the job search. His work has appeared on Oprah.com, HuffPost, Yahoo! and LiveCareer. He holds an M.S. in Journalism from Northwestern University, where he specialized in media innovation, and is a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW).
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