How to Optimize Your Resume For Job Boards

When you are looking for a job, a job board is an incredibly useful tool. It helps you look for thousands of job offers and get headhunted once you’ve uploaded your resume. However, there is a big difference between applying directly through the career page of the company or through a job board. You won’t include the same information in your resume depending on which one you chose. So that your get the most out of a job board, here is how to optimize you resume.

Keywords

The first thing you need to be careful of when writing your curriculum vitae (or CV) for a job board is keywords. Keywords are what recruiters are going to be looking for when selecting which CVs to read and which ones to ignore. When companies start looking for new employees, they go through a CV database to identify the best candidates for their job openings. When technology wasn’t as developed as it is now, recruiters didn’t rely as much on very specific keywords because they had to read CVs more carefully. In the 21st century though, computers and AI software sort the resumes based on a list of words, so be sure to use the right ones for your CV to be noticed.

For example, if you want to work as a marketing manager, “digital marketing” is an essential keyword, and so are “marketing manager”, “PPC” or “email marketing” since those are the words the recruiters are most likely to search. By inserting those keywords, you will be found much faster by headhunters.

Moreover, when applying for a marketing position, the use of those keywords will make it much easier for the recruiter to look through your resume. If the recruiter sees the keywords easily, he won’t have to read between the lines to find the relevant information on your profile.

Prove your skills and experience

Now that you have caught the recruiter’s attention with the right keywords, you need to prove your skills and experience. To make sure you stand out in the crowd of applicants with similar experience, include as much data (statistics and numbers for example) as possible to show that you have put your skills to the test. In other words, you need to state clearly what you did for your previous company(ies) and what you brought to the table. You could, for example, give percentages of targets you achieved, or the number of people who were under your management. By doing this, not only will you look more professional but more reliable too. Your recruiter will appreciate the attention to detail with all those facts and figures.

Do not write it all

It goes without saying that you need to be as clear as possible in your resume, but some information is unnecessary. Keeping it relevant is the key! If you going into too much detail, the recruiter will lose interest. For example, your marital status, date of birth and place of birth are not relevant necessarily when it comes to your ability to work. That said, there are instances where personal information could play in your favour. You probably don’t need to put your address to the format “Coutry, Town” since that is already present within the job board.

To respond correctly to a job offer, be sure to respond to the precise criteria recruiters are asking for. Be sure to put in your resume that you have all the qualities the job advert mentions explicitly and don’t bother including skills that will not make a significant difference.

The Format Matters

Make sure your CV is easy to read for the recruiter. It should be broken down into clear sections and the font must be easy to read. It is better if it fits an A4 format for printing reasons but it isn’t complusory. Even if it is tempting to go for a more “creative” design in the hopes of standing out, sometimes it’s better to go for the safer option by sticking to something more traditional.

Be sure everything is perfect before hitting send

When applying through a job board, sometimes it seems so easy to use: you find an interesting job offer, your CV is already in the database and you just have to hit the “apply” button. However, it’s really worth double checking and proof reading your already-uploaded resume. Maybe you need to add a new experience or maybe change it a little bit in order for it to fit the job description. Changing two or three words to replace them with those present in the job advert can make a huge difference in some cases (which brings us back to our keywords). Some job boards even let you save several different CVs in the database, to make it easier to choose a customised CV. Check out the JBF opinions in the job board profiles on the Jobboard Finder to find out which ones.

Also, it might seem silly, but be sure that your contact information is up to date. It would be a shame to miss a job opportunity just because you changed your phone number. Above all else, remember to be yourself and don’t stretch the truth in an attempt to get a position that probably isn’t right for you. Recruiters will be able to tell whether or not the information is accurate when they interview you and you lose credibility.

We hope our article has helped jobseekers write better CVs. If you have any suggestions for our blog, please let us know in the comment section.