Here is what they won't tell you, and only the smallest percentage of society knows this.  Many people know this information, but because they're lazy they'll just keep throwing resumes out there with the "throw enough shit at the wall, surely some of it will stick" theory.  There's a lot of problems with that method, but the one (again) most people don't know about is the Candidate Rating System(s) which any employer of 50+ people likely uses, but there's only a half dozen of them nationwide, and 99% of them share (and sell) the results with all the other ones. 

If you're out there clicking "quick apply" for every job you see on Indeed, you're absolutely on the lazy list, and assigned a rating.  Typically, the lower your score is, the better, but I haven't seen every system.  By the way, there is no way off of the lazy list.  The only way is to improve your score by landing a job somehow.  If you think changing your name, such as William becomes Bill on the next resume will work; well, sometimes it does, but then if it does associate you via address, phone number, past employer(s), dates, locations, you will get blacklisted.  Once you're blacklisted you might as well not even apply, because your resume won't even make it to them.  You're going to need to apply in-person, and most likely need a referral.

People must stop mass applying immediately!  You have to think about applying for a job or clicking that quick apply button the same way as your credit, even if it sucks.  No more than (3) three applications in any 18-month period of time.  It's a hard concept to grasp, and an even harder one to practice, because all of these systems online have made it super easy to just quick apply everywhere.  Listen and listen closely.  You are doing it wrong!  There is NO NEED to send 100 resumes out there.  If you do your homework properly, you might need to send one.

So, let's get into it, and I'm not going to go over all the obvious things such as spelling, action words, matching number of bullet points per job, etc. You can learn that on your own time. I'm typing this up fast, sending it out fast. I mean, damn I just started this paragraph with -- So,

  1. In the job market = YOU ARE NOT SPECIAL.  You are not one-of-a-kind.  That is, unless you know how to be both.
  2. Doesn't matter what position you're applying for, do you want to send one resume, or send 100+, and hope for a call?  Remember what you read above.  Less is MORE!
  3. Never use Indeed, Monster, Snag-a-Job, or ANY of those listing services ~ unless you absolutely have to.  Even then, if you know the name of the company, see if you can speak with someone to get the original job posting sent to you, but obviously do it in such a way that they won't know you were the one asking for it.  You don't have to do this, but it does make a difference, and you'll read why below.
  4. Your resume must match the job you're applying for; yes, but there's a bit more you need to know. You should have a resume for every single position you are applying for, and it doesn't matter if all the positions are Customer Service per say; they must be different. ---- read on you'll understand ----
  5. Nearly every job posting you find is online, which means you also apply online.  Remember, DO NOT use a job listing service unless there is no other way, and never double up.  Meaning, you never apply through a posting through Google, and then go directly to that company and apply again.  There’s multiple reasons I’m not going to get into, but it causes confusion over who gets the contract, or pay, or bonus, etc.  Just don’t do it.  You need to know what they are looking for in every possible way, and not just in the Job Description. You need to know what "key words" they're looking for in your resume, and then you need to make everything perfect for that one job listing. It's quite in-depth, but not that difficult once you do it.
  6. Always background the company.  Look at every possible recent review an employee has left on Glassdoor, Indeed, Google, Yelp, everywhere; the good and the bad, but mostly the bad ones.  Why, you might ask?  Obviously to make sure you want to work there still, but if you know you want to, then you find ways to overcome the objections of others, and that needs to be in your cover letter and/or resume.  If they work long hours, and lots of people complain about that, well, then you need to mention somewhere that you are fine working long hours.  The recruiting staff will see that, and they will see it because they’re going to get your resume first.
  7. Quick tips: Don’t use tables, italics, bold, underlined text, and definitely do not use any colored text in your resume.  Black only, not dark gray, or dark blue; but, BLACK. Furthermore, it literally doesn’t matter what your resume looks like.  It only matters what information is in your resume, and the order in which it is seen by the algorithm that you need to impress.  It used to be that you had to get past the Secretary in-person to speak to a decision maker.  Now that secretary is a computer algorithm, and it has ZERO emotions.  You are a number, and if you’re not the right number, no one will ever know you existed.
  8. Let's say you want a job with a technology company for Inside Sales, and the job posting is on their website.  You need to read the listing thoroughly and highlight the action and keywords.  I find it easier to print it out and then use an actual highlighter.  Now put the keywords and action words in a text document to be used later, and separate each word with commas, like this: invested, month-to-month, consistency, goal-driven, excited, tracking, motivated, increased production, enabled, implemented, fast-paced environment, positive, results, accountability
  9. Don’t keyword stuff your resume, but use as many action and keywords as you can at the very beginning of every single line. Like this:
    • Invested in goal-driven, fast-paced environments to produce positive results.
    • Enabled daily accountability tracking mechanisms for consistency.
    • Increased month-to-month performances by 20%.
  1. You see the above three bullet points started with action words, Invested, Enabled, Increased. Now you have to do that to every single position with the same number of points.  It’s literally on the edge of keyword stuffing just so you know.

INTERMISSION – I’m tired, so I’ll finish this tomorrow.  You might be thinking that you know all of this, and do all of this already, but I can all but guarantee you don’t know the rest of the information I’m going to share, and depending upon if this goes viral or flies off into Never Seen Again Land; the potential for a LOT of pissed off employment professionals is very high.

11.  Quick point because I might forget.  If the job posting has misspelled words, and you see the same misspelled words in other job listings, then absolutely and intentionally misspell the same words if they are action or keywords.  Remember, the computer is compatibility matching upon what was entered by a human, and humans make errors, even with spell check.  Your goal is to impress the computer so you can make it to speak with a human.