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as a recruiter and a career coach I look
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at a lot of résumés and I do a lot of
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resumé reviews and one thing is
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perfectly clear some of y'all need some
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help and in this video I'm going to
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share some resumé writing tips that will
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help your resume not
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[Music]
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suck hey everybody it's Brian from Life
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After layoff and today I want to share
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with you some resume writing tips so
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that you can put your best foot forward
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and hopefully start Landing more job
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interviews now I want to preface this by
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stating that there's no singular right
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way to write a resume there's lots of
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different approaches and a lot of them
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are very valid and the litmus test here
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is is your resume getting the results
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that you want if it is then stick with
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what works best for you my Approach
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comes from a corporate recruiter
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perspective how I screen and look at
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resumés very quickly we usually give you
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a 5-second glance but also how hiring
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managers have given me feedback on how
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they screen resumes themselves and so
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the feedback and the tips that I teach
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are from that perspective but I'm not
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saying that my way is the only way that
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you can approach it however I do want to
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give you some tips that can help you
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improve your presentation because
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ultimately you have a very short amount
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of time to capture the attention of the
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person who is screening the resume and
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making sure ours is the one that gets
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called for that first round interview
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and I also want to point out that the
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tips that I'm sharing today come
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directly from my resume Rocket Field
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course which teaches you exactly how to
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write a resume from a recruiter's
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perspective so if you need a little bit
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more assistance in developing and
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crafting the right resume for you you
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may want to consider that option so the
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first thing we want to do is stop using
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outdated templates designed by graphic
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designers I see these templates very
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frequently on places like canva.com but
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also a lot of these Big Industry resumé
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hubs where you can go in pay some money
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to download a resume that has a bunch of
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Graphics charts a bunch of cute
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presentation and those are generally a
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bad idea because they end up distracting
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from the initial purpose which is for us
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to find what it is that we're looking
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for in a very quick and concise manner
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so honestly I just recommend going on to
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Microsoft Word downloading a very simple
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template and working with that if you
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want a battle tested recruiter approved
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resumé template I also provide one with
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ré Rocket Fuel and I've also made it
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available as a standalone so you can
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find that on my website when you're
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choosing a template go with one that has
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one column avoid any of the bright and
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flashy colors and Graphics make sure
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that the fonts are very clean and easy
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to read I would think the basic colors
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maybe blue blacks dark green Etc but
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wouldn't go very flashy here for most of
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us a resume should be relatively boring
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in that regard The Only Exception here
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is if you're a graphic designer or
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somebody in a creative field where you
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might want to opt for a more creative
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approach to your resume because that's
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probably expected in that role but if
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you're a graphic designer you probably
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don't want to be using a template design
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by another graphic designer it's
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probably not the best look for you and
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the reason why templates designed by
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graphic designers often aren't very
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effective is because they're designed by
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people who don't know how app applicant
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tracking systems work and how they parse
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resumés to that end here's another tip
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stop making your contact information
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horizontal you want to make it vertical
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because the ATS systems typically do not
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read horizontal and parse it very well
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you want to go vertical because it finds
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the information more cleanly and puts it
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into the right fields and here's a
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little litmus test there if you find
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when you're applying for jobs that the
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applicant tracking system is not parsing
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your name your phone number your address
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things like that and clean and concise
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way and you have to do a lot of manual
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data entry you probably don't have an
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ATS compliant resume now your contact
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information isn't the reason why you
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aren't going to get contacted in most
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cases but it's just a little quality of
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life hack if you want to speed up your
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applications the next thing I would
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implore you to do is to stop writing
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your resume as a summary of everything
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that you've ever accomplished in your
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career start thinking about profiling
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and I know that we look at profiling
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with a negative context but the idea of
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profiling here is that in instead of
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summarizing and hoping that the employer
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see something that they like that we're
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profiling for a specific role and we're
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delivering exactly what the employer is
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looking for it's a much more effective
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approach to writing resumés so stop
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focusing on all the stuff that you've
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accomplished in your career that
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probably isn't relevant to the hiring
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teams and start focusing on what it is
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that they actually care about the next
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thing is is going to be something that's
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going to trigger some people but it's to
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stop being so lazy about your
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customization C customization of your
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resume is a very crucially important
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step especially in today's job market
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and in particular those coveted remote
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roles because you may be looking for
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them but so is everybody else and the
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competition is fierce so you have to do
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something to stand out and customizing
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while it might seem uncomfortable is
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something that you will have to get in
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the habit of doing you can't keep on
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approaching your job search like it's
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2018 the market is completely different
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today and listen because everybody else
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is going going to be lazy and not
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customize a resume this is your
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opportunity to use that as a competitive
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advantage and get that edge to get the
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phone call while they're all waiting and
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wondering why they're getting rejected
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and while you're at it stop being so
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damn wordy with your resumés some of the
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resumés that I see are blocks of text
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that are so long that your eyes just
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start to glaze over as you're trying to
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scan through it think of when you go
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onto a forum or a Facebook post or
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something and people leave a huge block
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of text in a comment how how many of you
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actually get through it and read it
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whereas when people format it and make
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it look nice and concise and short it's
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much more easy to scan recruiters and
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hiring managers are probably going to
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skip over your resume if you hit them
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with a massive block of text so try to
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be more concise try to be very selective
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with the words that you choose and how
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it lays out on the page and one way you
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can get rid of some of these extra words
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is to stop using proprietary language
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that the only people who know what it is
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are you and maybe your boss and your
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current
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co-workers often times we feel the need
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to put in all this proprietary
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information titles project names
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division names product types Etc that
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are only unique and only known by the
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company that you work for everybody else
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in the open market has no clue what they
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are and you're spending all this time
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trying to basically word salad your way
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into I don't know if it's to try to
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impress us or what it is but you want to
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try to be concise here so I always
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recommend to try to boil down the
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concepts that you're trying to convey in
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as clear a language and as common a
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language as possible for the industry
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that you're applying to another thing
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that you can do to try to declutter your
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resume is to remove the generic fluffy
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terminology this stuff makes just about
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every recruiter and hiring manager roll
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their eyes when you say things like I'm
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a team player or I have great
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organizational skills because listen if
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that's a really important competency to
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the hiring teams we're going to assess
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that in an interview anyway your resume
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is probably not going to show it in a
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way that we would need to to assess your
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fit instead I would focus on more
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actionable terms and Concepts in your
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resum as they relate to the job that
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you're doing because again the goal here
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is not to have the most words on your
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resume or try to impress people with an
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elaborate vocabulary it's to convey a
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clear and concise fit for the job that
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you're applying to with again the end
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goal of trying to get your name called
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so that you can get into the interview
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process and the final tip that I'd like
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to convey in this video is to stop being
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so stubborn if if your resume isn't
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working redo it but as the say goes
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doing the same thing over and over again
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and expecting a different result is the
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definition of insanity but if you're
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getting frustrated in your job search
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and you're getting rejected repeatedly
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at the application Level something tells
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me that your resume is not working for
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you and this is especially true if
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you're somebody that has a very clear
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fit for the job that you're applying to
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and I would be remiss without saying
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that we probably need to be realistic
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here about our fit for the jobs that
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we're applying to while we may feel
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we're a good fit we have to take a very
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close look at the job posting and say do
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I truly stack up because when they have
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a thousand other candidates they
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probably are so make sure that your
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resume is clearly conveying the fit so
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that you can give yourself the best
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chance of getting into that interview
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process anyway hopefully you found these
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tips to be helpful the next time you're
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writing a resume and remember plan do
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check and adjust if your resume is not
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getting you the results that you want
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make some changes mix it up a little bit
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try a different version if you're still
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having some struggles I highly encourage
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you tock check out resume Rocket Fuel
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anyway happy job hunting appreciate you
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watching we'll see you on the next one