Ways to stand out in the Job Market during Covid-19

“Giving recruiters a reason to not forget you becomes your biggest reason to stand apart from the bunch of other applicants”

The emergence of unemployed people in the prospective list of job seekers means you’ll have to portray and shine a little brighter than what you used to do.

Irrespective of the fact that you’re the best fit for a particular job, recruiters and hiring managers will have a lot of other people fighting for their attention. Use lockdown in a productive way to enhance your skill which you think is missing in you. You need to get through them and make your way to your dream job.

  1. 1. Grabbing Attention up top

    You may get an opportunity to grab the attention of a hiring manager or recruiter by your resume through usage of industry specific catch-phrases or keywords and hard skills, which are required to meet up the job requirements.

    Keeping the career snapshot brief and quantifiable makes the recruiter want to read it through rather than mentioning a general career objective summary. Using bulleted points in your cover letter and resume makes the data look more precise, objective and attractive.

    The content mentioned should aim at delivering an impact on the reader by creating a value and not for the sake of filling pages.

  2. 2. Depict Resilience

    It's important for you to mention experiences or things that lead to a discussion over how capable you were to overcome the challenges or obstacles in your life during your personal interview round. You can achieve this by revolving your content around these three questions:

    • What challenges did you face during your tenure at the previous job?

    • How did you manage to deal with the obstacles and address the solutions to it during your entire work experience?

    • What happened to be the outcome of such a situation? To what extent were you successful? Was the outcome worthy enough to be mentioned as one of your achievements?

    3. Check out the video
    What will make your resume stand out? "Resume Hacks" | Interview Q&A | CV Owl
  3. 3. Involve Creativity with some parts

    It is recommended to prefer using “call outs” in your resume. They happen to be ‘keyword’ rich sections of the content with clear bifurcation to give each point its own space without becoming a hub of crammed information.

    Those sections could be positioned to the sides, titled “areas of expertise” or “hobbies” or “skills” or “accomplishments” or something similar that may list quantifiable content.

    These small yet informative areas can be highly beneficial if proper usage of catch-phrases or keywords is done, which would suffice to attract a person’s or applicant's tracking system’s attention.

    These call outs are visually attractive, objectified break up content which draws the attention of the reader on important points you want to make sure is readable/noticeable at first glance.

  4. 4. Tailor your Documents

    The impression you create in the eye of an employer is through your application form which is pertinent to your selection for the offered job profile. Industry specific catchphrases and keywords that portray your hard skills are used to grab the attention of the recruiter or hiring manager while going through your documents at first glance.

    Candidates need to understand the requirements of the recruiting managers or HRs and what things do they expect in a candidate. Then based on that understanding, applicants should customize their resume and cover letter to that specific job posting.

    This is an important step under normal circumstances but it is much more critical now, as the economic upheaval of the pandemic has increased competition for available jobs amongst the pool of both freshers and experienced employees.

    prep-doc

    It is of utmost importance to avoid being self-defeating by just copy pasting the same content into numerous job applications because this certainly is not the correct approach to follow while the job search.

    Applicants should prefer inculcating context pertaining to success achieved from execution of certain projects rather than simply listing down the skills in their resume. Stress should be laid on highlighting how their experience and actions have been able to deliver measurable outcomes.

    Tailoring your resume also aims to include keywords or catchphrases from the preferred job posting, since companies use software to screen through the initial barrage of applicants or through Applicant Tracking System.

  5. 5. Importance of Profile

    The professional networking platform is heavily trafficked by recruiters and hiring managers, making it crucial for job seekers and aspirants to put their best foot forward.

    There is a high probability of recruiters and hiring managers checking out your Linkedin profile post your application, so it is advisable for you to ask people within your network to share specific and impactful recommendations.

    While asking someone to recommend you, share with them exactly what you’re trying to have in hope of your address in the recommendation. Situations such as your capability to put across a task or your general corporate nature can be mentioned in their recommendations to make your profile stand apart for the recruiters and hiring managers.

    One of the most important and quickest ways to stand out is to increase your engagement with your connecting network over LinkedIn. This can be achieved through sharing updates relevant to your industry or area of expertise, connecting with hiring managers or recruiters at your target companies and not merely making your profile a rephrased carbon copy of your resume.

    Updating a LinkedIn profile with links to websites you’ve created, articles you’ve written or presentations you’ve given or any random industry specific news is the need of the hour.

    6. Come On.. Lets Discuss it one to one
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  6. 6. Virtual Networking

    The fact that social distancing hasn’t killed networking rather just made it virtual is the new normalcy now.

    Shifting the entire business operations online can make networking less intimidating for newbies. You can ease into building connections, absorbing information and building the confidence to eventually become a more active participant with efficient skills to compete with the outside world.

    Job seekers should try to make meaningful one-on-one connections on professional social media platforms. Not doing so will put them at a distinct disadvantage, since jobs are often filled via an employee referral and preference is given to experienced employees.



Written By :
om wadhwa
Career Expert at CV Owl

Your CV or resume is your first impression for any company. With the help of CV Owl, you can get a well-structured CV and your time will be saved. Everything on your CV should be written in a formal manner and in a precise way. You have only 20 seconds to impress your recruiter with your CV, make the best out of it. Visit our series “The HR Talk” where we help you know everything about your job interview from the recruiters.

Try CV Owl as we help you furnish a fully-formatted in a chronological order resume on our RESUME BUILDER or cover letter. You can also try our CV REVIEW SERVICE, through which you get a CV writing expert reviewing the insight of your CV and advising you so that you can make your CV stand out.

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