Aim Higher
News, tips, and updates from RedRocketResume.5 Steps to a World-Class Resume in 2019
Our goal at RedRocketResume isn’t to deliver resumes that look good. Our goal is to create resumes that work. That means resumes that give hiring managers the information they need to identify you as the person best qualified to solve their problems and make their businesses run better. One of the ways I keep RedRocketResume up to date with current hiring practices is partnering with recruiters and career coaches. This helps us align our deliverables with what works in the real-world job...
Why You Shouldn’t Use Your Professionally Written Resume to Apply for a Job
You’ve paid good money for a professionally written resume. It’s modern, clean, readable, and accomplishments-driven. It’s perfectly error-free, and it represents your unique professional brand. You’re ready to shoot that resume to the next good-fit job opening you see, right? Wrong. No matter how well-crafted your resume, it isn’t yet ready for prime time. The reason is simple: ATS. Head here for a quick refresher on what ATS is and how companies use it in the hiring process. In short, you...
How to Use LinkedIn to Connect with a Real Person When Applying for a Job
Most people know how to find jobs online and apply for the jobs they find. But one of the biggest frustrations I hear from job seekers is the difficulty of making sure your application reaches a real, live human being—and that that person will actually give your application some real consideration. Fortunately, you have a powerful weapon in connecting directly and personally with the hiring manager of your target position. LinkedIn is a huge resource for companies posting jobs and recruiters...
Why (and How) to Tweak Your Resume (It’s not as hard as you might think!)
Have you heard the advice that you should customize your resume each and every time you send it out? This is great advice in theory. But in the real world, spending hours re-constructing your resume for each job application isn’t practical. And what exactly should you be tweaking anyway? Here are some targeted tips on why and how to tweak your resume. The good news is that a few minor changes can have a big impact on the effectiveness of your resume. Tweak Your Headline and Summary Section...
Open Sesame! How to Use Keywords to Get Your Resume Past ATS
One of the resume questions I get most often is regarding keywords. People hear stories about a mysterious computer system that screens resumes and discards those that don’t have the magic words! The stories are true. Many companies, particularly large companies doing high-volume hiring, use Applicant Tracking Systems (known as ATS) to streamline the hiring process. An ATS scans incoming resumes to measure how well the resume matches the job posting—simply by comparing how many keywords from...
