Six Essential Tips to Achieve Results with Your Online Job Search

1. Hire a professional

One of the important steps to attracting recruiters and HR teams is to have a resume online. This may sound easy for some; however, if you go in with that thought process your resume will be thrown to the wayside. My suggestion is to hire a professional resume builder. Many online freelancers provide this service for a fee (check out Groupon.com).

Two friends of mine worked at their respected jobs for over 20 years when, unfortunately, their employment abruptly ended. With no intentions to leave their jobs, they never felt the need to have a resume; to them, it simply wasn’t necessary. With their need to get back into the job market, I offered to create the resumes for them (although it was not professionally done, it was intended to get the ball rolling). I later suggested that they submit their resumes to a professional to receive modified versions providing detailed feedback regarding grammar, layout, searchability, and more.

Once you submit your resume to a professional, I highly suggest that you carefully look it over, ensure you are satisfied and that you understand the changes. The feedback they provided is useful for your future updates. Before agreeing to the modification, review one more thing – integrity. Provide a professional with an honest and accurate work history. Don’t claim to know SQL, but your experience is no greater than basic Excel and Access queries. If you’ve listed this gibberish, by all means, remove it! Remember, if you are selected for an interview for a position that is not relative, to your experience, you may be challenged with questions (skepticism). Surely this will lead to an embarrassing and unexpectedly ended meeting. Be transparent with what you can bring to the table. If you are inspired to learn those skills, then you can bring it up in the conversation. Just don’t put it on paper until you have acquired it.

My friends agreed with the modifications and their resumes were returned meeting their absolute satisfaction. Immediately, they stored soft copies and printed out hard copies to keep available for potential interviews. Update, they both now have new jobs from companies that found their resume online.