Staff Source posts their jobs on a variety of job boards. Within those posts are specific qualifications and requirements about the position at hand. We appreciate receiving hundreds of resumes from the job posting HOWEVER the major downfall is that only 1 or 2 out of every 20 people that apply are actually qualified for the job. Applying for the position you are qualified for not only saves time for the recruiter, but it also helps to get you employed faster. The pre-screening process moves quickly if everything is illustrated on your resume and when we send it out to our client they can also see all of the skills they are looking for making their decision easier.
What exactly does “qualified” mean? It means your skills match the qualifications and requirements of the job description. If the job description says the position requires 1 year of recent forklift experience we like to see on your resume that your last job (within the last 6 months) included operating a forklift and that you were there for a least a year. If you were not at your last job for a year, your total forklift experience should equal at least 1 year altogether.
Staff Source attends a number of job fairs and open houses. Again, sometimes we are focused on certain positions for the open houses and if a job seeker is applying for a forklift position but their resume does not have any forklift experience at all on it we are confused. In some cases the candidate will say “I have done forklift before but it’s not on there.” Our question is always WHY NOT?
We strongly suggest that in this case or any case you are applying for a specific job make sure the skills for the job at hand are on there! We like to see ALL of your skills however we understand that some candidates have a multitude of experiences (industrial, customer service, retail, hospitality, etc.) so depending on which job is available you can present different skills. Some people have 2 or 3 different resumes which is fine, just make sure you focus on the right things on the right one!
Some additional tips to help tailor your resume to a specific job:
- Print the job description and compare it to your resume
- Highlight your skills that match the job description and expand on them
- Check the employer’s website for additional info and corporate values
- Review the requirements of the job so during your interview you can incorporate how you can do those things/have done those things in your past experiences