The first level of resume customization is L1 Functional
Roles Standardization. Often in our career, we are exposed to different tasks
or job roles, in fact hardly do our roles stay the same over the years. For
example, as a Career Coach, 5 years ago, my tasks were mainly profiling
assessments, interventions, events organization and programmes coordination.
Fast forward to my current roles, I am still doing some of those but with new
expanded tasks such as workshop facilitation, courseware writing and curriculum
development and so on. So for the purpose of L1 functional roles
standardization, I could customize & write several resumes, each for
different roles eg. Trainer, Case Officers (a term used in social work similar
to Social Worker), Education and Career Guidance Officers (similar to Career
Coach but in academic institutes such as schools, ITEs, Polytechnics),
Recruiters, Events or Programmes Coordinators...
For each of these roles, I would need to re-write a resume that highlights relevant skills corresponding to each role. Eg. for role of Trainer, my work experiences should elaborate on workshops facilitated, curriculum and course wares written, public speaking, promotion and marketing for launches of new workshops, satisfaction surveys from workshop attendees etc.
Bear in mind, this "trainer resume" is meant to be sent for Trainer similar jobs, thus all the other non-relevant aspects such as coaching, counselling, psychometric tools and intake assessment should be reduced or deleted entirely. The goal is to give that first impression that "this candidate is the trainer profile that we are looking for!"
The second level of resume customization is defined as L2 Key Words Match (ATS). ATS stands for Applicants Tracking System, which is a matching tool traditionally used by recruiters to filter and sort applicants' resumes by using program to "read" the words in job description versus applicants' resumes; after which those resumes with the highest number of matching key words would then be "scored" and displayed on top. This way, it would ease the work of HR or recruiters from sifting through hundreds of resumes and simply focus on those that are most matching. When it comes to shortlisting candidate, recruiters only need to shortlist enough candidates for hiring managers to interview; this means that those candidates whose resumes are saved in "unreadable" pdf format or have little relevant key words would be skipped over entirely.
Fortunately, we now have the same ATS capability available
for job seekers; websites such as CareerHero.asia and Jobscan.co, allows one to
run a direct match to see the missing keywords, thereby allowing applicants to
do a quick basic customizing edit to their resumes before they send to
employers through portals or direct emails. Some websites such as JobKred and
MyCareersFuture.sg also have a database of various professions for you to
research and browse each occupation's relevant skills and competencies, some
even direct you to suitable training for your career transition planning and
skills expansion.
Lastly, the most tedious level of resume customization is
the L3 Total Revamp Customization. It involves rewriting the entire resume to
try to match each point of the job you are applying. It typically takes an
average of 30 to 90minutes or more during the initial attempts, just to draft
one fully customized resume to apply for 1 job. However if done correctly, the
end results or impression that the receiver gets would be "this candidate
is has all the requirements that we are looking for!".
In the next article, I will touch on how to do a L3 total
revamp customizing of your resume to the job you desired.
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