Make your online job application count!

Ever wonder how other people are making big splashes in the candidate pool?


I've interviewed many HR recruiters at a variety of employers (including Microsoft, Apple, GE, Starbucks, Goldman Sachs) for their advice on how to make an online application stand out from the pile. Here are few great tips they recommend:


- Read and follow directions carefully! It's alarming how many people don't bother reading what's on a posting. If the posting is asking for key info, and your application is the only one that doesn't answer it, you can be sure that you won't get a callback.

- Use a spell checker and have someone proof read your application prior to submission! Over 90% of applications have typographical, punctuation or grammatical errors besides having inconsistent writing styles. This can easily be avoided if you use a spell checker tool in your word processor. This is especially important if the language of your job application is not your mother tongue. You can easily have a professional HR recruiter review your resume for a nominal fee (i.e. under 50$).

-Tailor your application information to the position! If you try to save time by simply copy/pasting text from your catch-all resume, you probably won't be hitting any keywords specific to that one job posting.

- Talk the talk! Use jargon, keywords, buzz and other wording that is commonly used in that industry, especially terms that are in the job posting advertisement.

- KISS your resume! (for those of you who aren't familiar, Keep It Simple, Stupid!) Don't overdress your resume with funky font types, sizes, bold/italics or other distractions. Firstly, they may not print out the way you think they should. Secondly, it just makes it irritating to read.

- Call back the recruiter! Within 3 days of your job application, you should be calling back the recruiter to see if you've made the cut towards interviewing.