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Tips for getting your resume noticed
The number of open jobs in the country has fallen below 9 million for the first time since 2021. But while unemployment rate remains low, FOX 26 Business Reporter Tom Zizka says the challenge of standing out to land one of these jobs remains high.
HOUSTON - The number of open jobs, in the country, has fallen below nine million for the first time since 2021. While the unemployment rate remains low, at 3.8%, the challenge of standing out to land one of those jobs, remains high.
First, some statistics. Across the board, on average, 118 people apply for a single job. Meantime, a corporate job opening attracts about 250 resumes, of which, four to six people get an interview and just one gets an offer. In the middle of all that, artificial intelligence is trying to sift through all those people.
Michelle Castrow of Workforce Solutions, says the agency gets about 500 new job openings each day, "The market is competitive because everyone wants the good jobs."
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As clients sift through the opportunities, most of them will have their resumes and applications filtered by artificial intelligence to find those who might fit. "These applicant tracking systems are meant to help speed up the process for the people who are looking at those resumes," says Castrow.
Some form of artificial intelligence tracking has been at work on job applications for years. As more people respond to openings and technology advances, the process is getting more sophisticated. "The systems aren't filtering people out, per se, but it's more (about) prioritizing people who are more likely to be relevant," says Jeremy Schiff of San Francisco-based RecruitBot.
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So, how does someone get noticed in the middle of all that data? It'll take some work.
Start by customizing, or tweaking, your resume for each application to make it match the job opening. Within that, look for keywords and phrases, from the original posting that you can use to describe your job experience. Also, use a standard format that avoids pictures, graphics and fonts that might confuse the AI.
Most of all, make sure you're able to do the job. "They don't want you just to able to get past the machine," says Castrow, "They need to be able to know that you have the capacity to do that job."
In addition to artificial intelligence sifting through resumes, it is also examining applicants' social media posts and online content it can find. Cleaning up your digital footprint can also help. To combat some of that, one of the new, more popular, services is using AI to build a resume that covers all those bases.
Welcome to the brave new world.