By Mark Swartz
Monster Senior Contributing WriterNot only do we offer our new
Precision Job Search to job seekers, but we now provide employers with our advanced Power Resume Search.
You should know how employers select resumes using this new tool. This way you can modify your own Monster.ca resume to your best advantage.
How Things Used To Work
Up till now, an employer looking for resumes on Monster.ca relied mainly on “key word” searches to find specific types of job seekers. An employer might enter the ideal location and job title of their preferred candidate. Then they would add a number of key words that describe the skills and experience being sought.
If, for example, the employer was looking for a job seeker with customer service experience, they might try to locate resumes with such terms as
customer service, CSR, communication, customer-centric, computers, call center, telephone skills, training and other related phrases.
Your chances of having your resume chosen depended on how closely your content matched the employer’s desired key words. Other variables that would influence the results include how recently your resume was updated, whether the job title you used was precisely the same as what the employer wanted, and total years of experience.
Power Resume Search – The Latest Technology
Monster has now introduced a more advanced tool for employers who are looking for job seekers. Power Resume Search is far easier and gives much more accurate results than any other system being used today.
Employers who access our resume database can find relevant applicants faster than ever. At its most basic, all an employer has to do is enter their preferences for a candidate’s location, work experience, education and skills.
Power Resume Search pretty much does the rest. It not only quickly finds the most appropriate resumes, but also…
- Assesses them in terms of how recently the desired skills and experience appear in your work history
- Gives heavier weighting to the most important key words
- Evaluates the length of time you have used selected skills or held each job
- Ranks resumes according to qualifications and compares candidates side by side
Adapting Your Monster.ca Resume Accordingly
Given how our new resume search technology works, here are some tips on how to have your resume show up more often in an employer’s results.
Start by making sure that the skills and experience an employer is asking for in their job posting show up sooner, rather than later, on your resume. Incorporate these key words within your actual work history. You’ll rank higher than if you just place a whole bunch of related key words in a separate Summary section.
Include language that your industry or profession uses. If you are
looking for a job in sales, use words like hunter, business development, closing skills, meets or exceeds quotas. The technology behind our system (called 6Sense) keeps current on these types of terms and will look for them in your resume. It can even handle abbreviations and acronyms.
Another hint: limit the total time period covered in your resume to no more than 10 – 15 years in total. Longer than that and the system may assume you are over-qualified for specific positions.
Update Your Resume Today
Keep in mind how employers look for candidates on our new Precision Job Search tool. Update your resume in the ways described above. Doing so will give you a better chance of appearing near the top of an employer’s ranked results when they’re searching for someone like you.