Hey Reader,
A few weeks ago, someone reached out to me with a desperate message:
“I know you don’t normally do resumes, but would you mind looking at mine? I’ve applied for countless jobs and I’m not getting any interviews.”
When I opened their resume, I hit a wall.
They were in a field that I knew nothing about.
I wasn’t familiar with the industry jargon, the role expectations, or the keywords that would make sense to a recruiter or applicant tracking system (ATS).
And that’s when I brought in my AI assistant.
I asked my AI tool to scour the internet for job postings in this person’s field and come back with a list of the most common skills and requirements.
The results were clear: hiring managers were consistently looking for a defined set of skills and experiences.
From there, we went line by line through the list. Did my client have the skills? The requirements? The experience? The answer was yes—almost across the board.
The issue wasn’t that they were unqualified. The issue was that their resume wasn’t speaking the right language.
The Power of Keywords:
Resumes don’t just need to highlight your accomplishments.
They also need to mirror the exact words and phrases employers are using in their job postings.
Applicant tracking systems are designed to scan for these keywords before a human ever sees your resume.
If you miss the language, you miss the opportunity.
Together, we recrafted their resume. We aligned their real-world experience to the industry’s most in-demand keywords.
The results?
Within a week of submitting the updated version, they had three interviews scheduled.
What This Means for You
If you’re sending out dozens of resumes with no response, it might not be your skills holding you back. It might be your wording that's causing an ATS to deprioritize your resume when sharing it with the recruiter.
Here’s how you can start turning the tide:
- Collect Job Descriptions: Pull five to ten postings for the role you want.
- Highlight Repetition: Look for the skills, qualifications, and experiences that keep showing up.
- Match Your Resume: Where you have the experience, use the same language the employer uses.
- Stay Honest: Never add skills you don’t have, but don’t undersell what you do have.
The right words can be the bridge between your experience and your next opportunity. Just like my client, you may already have what it takes. You just need to make sure your resume tells the story in a way the hiring systems and recruiters can actually hear.
Try this prompt and let me know how it goes...
Search the internet for 15 recent job openings for [insert your role, e.g., Marketing Manager]. Summarize the top skills, qualifications, and requirements that appear most often across those postings. Then provide the top 10 keywords and phrases that applicant tracking systems are most likely to scan for, and explain why each one is important.
If you want to work on your resume and interview preparation, reach out, let's chat!
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A Little Bit About Regina
I'm Regina Taute (say Howdy Taute and you've pronounced it right) a seasoned talent leader with experience in leadership and organizational development. I started Collective Growth Coaching and Consulting to partner with organizations to develop wildly practical and effective talent strategies. As a credentialed coach and certified in MBTI and Hogan assessments, my passion lies in unlocking potential and driving sustainable growth by helping individuals and teams thrive in today’s evolving business world.
It would be my honor to join you for a complimentary 30-minute coaching session to help solve a current challenge with wildly practical solutions or to meet with you one-on-one to chat and get to know you.
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