Into my third week of unemployment; it doesn’t seem like it has been that long. It seems like each day is over before I know it. Progress seems to be slow, while the time is flying by.
With the advent of job searching on the internet the number of resumes that are received for a job has jumped significantly. Companies are faced with handling vast numbers of resumes for each and every position. In order to contain the cost and to find still find the best candidates for the positions, companies have had resorted to automated text processing of resumes.
The process seems easy in concept. In the process of writing the job requisition you create a word description of what you are looking for in the perfect candidate. The computer then compares the words that you use in your resume against the words in the job requisition. The more hits or alignments that you have, then the more score that you get. The top scoring resumes are then evaluated for a human like the hiring manager, in order to pick the best from this now reduced list of high scoring resumes. I may be oversimplifying it but I think that is the process in a nutshell.
This last step, the human evaluation, is important, otherwise you could just create a resume that make no sense at all but contains a great list of words so it almost always scores high by the computer.
Everyone has heard that they should design their resume with this idea in mind. And I have also heard that I should tailor my resume and cover letter for the particular job creating alignment better the requisition and your resume. This has seemed like a daunting task.
I have been thinking about how to do this, not just from the standpoint of submitting the application, but even before this step, at the step of search for the job. The better your search criteria represents what’s on your resume the better you will be at matching.
I have found a tool that is helping in both these areas. And one that gave me a new perspective on my resume; eventually, this may lead to another rewrite of my resume and a revamping of how I apply for jobs.
The tool is a simple to use tool called Textalyser that takes text data and spits out reports about the writing. You cut and past your text into the tool and the tool will then output a very detailed report about the text. Not of the sections of the report are useful but many are interesting.
The reports looks at the used words in rank order and tells you how many times they are used. It also generates phrase usage starting with 7 word phrases (again in rank order of number of occurrences), then 6 word phrases, then 5, 4, 3, and 2 word phrases. The last report is every word that you use in the text.
Just running my resume through this and looking at the results was revealing to me. The phrase pieces are important, because often a single word is not very powerful, but if you look at a combination of words then powerful concepts emerge. So seeing what I’m emphasizing put a new dimension on my resume.
How I use this tool in the job application is also powerful. Running the job requisition through the analyzer and looking what is popping out is step one. Step two is to compare this to my resume report. Now I can start looking for the hits. I can start seeing how my resume is aligning to the job requisition.
With this information, I can use the cover letter a a sort of bridge to help fill in areas where my resume is weak. I can also look at changing my resume in specific ways to create alignment. Like rewriting my object to match the position verbiage. I can also adjust the bullets in the resume to better align, bringing out or emphasizing certain points and choosing specific words that are being looked for.
Each company has its own company culture within this culture is embedded a language. This language is unique for that company and even for the geographic location of the company office that you are applying. Differ words are used in Boeing Mesa Arizona then at Boeing Philadelphia. It is the responsibility of the job seeker to adjust their verbiage to meet the companies verbiage, not the other way around.
My resume in no way approaches the complexities of the skills and experience that I have to offer as an employee. Tailoring is not about making something up, it is about bring into play my particular skill set that is best fitted for the position I am applying for in the words that is used by that company.
I’m still working on the nightmare of configuration control, but the easiest answer is that each application will have unique cover letter and resume. And I will have to track each one of these until the application closes.
This takes a little time, but I think it is time well spent. I am early on in this journey of using this method. And I’m still trying to understand how best to use the information. It has not produced a interview yet, but I’m hoping that it is increasing my score and giving me a slight edge.
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