Hey everyone and happy holidays! I LOVE this time of the year – one, because I get to cozy up with fuzzy socks and some hot tea and two, because I get to tell job seekers the truth about job searching over the holiday season ?

Don’t Slack Off

Whether it is because they think recruiters don’t care, business is slowing down, they are with family, or they decide to just wait until the new year to triumph over all of their goals, so many people decide to slack off on their job search near Christmas time… and their lack of success is what shows it! The fact is, business is still running as per usual (except for a few days) throughout December – they are still posting jobs, interviewing candidates, and filling their open positions. If you don’t take advantage of this time, you may just miss out on the job of your dreams.

That being said, you need to make sure that you have everything lined up and optimized for your applications. First and foremost, your resume needs to be in tip-top shape to ensure successful passage through ATS. If your resume can’t make it past ATS, it has a much higher chance of ending up right in the trash can before any human eyes can read it. Your resume really needs to be able to wow recruiters so that they want to know more about you and how you would make the perfect addition to their company – being able to read your resume would help ?

8 Tips To Help You This Holiday Season

1. Ditch the objective!Objectives are old school and don’t really say anything about you – instead, use an executive summary – they are much meatier and more useful on your resume. Write it in a way that brings out your skills and accomplishments that will really WOW recruiters and hiring managers.
2. Stay away from personal pronouns! Never use words like I, me, my, our, your, etc. in your resume – they are great in cover letters as you are directly speaking to recruiters, but resumes are supposed to be about your professional background (you’re not speaking to anyone directly.)
3. Keep it short! Recruiters have an insane amount of resumes to look through everyday… they are not going to read a full resume that is 7 pages long!! Keep your resume between 1–3 pages. You have about 6 seconds to WOW a recruiter with your resume – make sure you use your space wisely.
4. Keep it simple! SO MANY people come to me for resume reviews with vibrant colors or charts or pictures on their resumes – there is no need for that! Although the colors will make it stand out, the likelihood of those charts and colored fonts being read by ATS and actually getting any relevant information through is not very high. Grab recruiters’ attention with your words, background, and accomplishments, not colors.
5. Use bullet points!To be completely honest, NO ONE (and I mean no one!!) is going to read your three paragraph long job descriptions. Bullet points break up the information and make it much easier to read – make sure they’re complete sentences too!
6. Only include relevant information! Recruiters don’t want to waste their time by reading about the fast food job you had in high school (with exceptions, of course) – save them time and only include recent, relevant information.
7. Use keywords! Every career field has keywords and phrases that recruiters and ATS specifically look for when going through and scanning resumes. Make sure you include the ones from your field, but don’t just create a minefield of keywords – recruiters and hiring managers will see right through it! Quick tip: take a look at each job description and requirements for every company you plan on applying to and use the exact same phrases that they use – that way you’ll hit most (if not all) of them!
8. Proofread, Proofread, Proofread! Any punctuation, spelling, or grammatical errors in your resume are totally unprofessional – some recruiters will even turn you away just for that!! If you don’t have great grammar skills, have a friend or relative check it before you submit it anywhere – you may even want to hire a resume writing service to do it for you! Trust me, the few minutes it takes to proofread are SO worth it.

First Impressions Matter

Remember, your resume is the first thing a recruiter sees from you! Take your time with it, make sure it’s professional as well as personal so that you can give them the best view of who you are and what you bring to the table.

Don’t let the holidays keep you from landing a new position. Keep pushing and love the process every step of the way – that’s how you get results ?