Welcome back to the Executive Leap podcast. This is Mike Sutterman, as you probably have figured out. Since episode 224, I’ve been talking about your new project called Landing Your New Job. I’ve been walking you through this project as if you’re building a new house. So far, we’ve covered blueprints, which happens to really be more about your job search strategy, and resumes, building a killer resume to land job interviews. Before I move into the next topic, which is about LinkedIn and attracting recruiters to your profile, I want to cover some frequently asked questions. Number one, how many pages should my resume be? The answer is one page for every 10 years of experience, not to exceed three pages. Second question, I applied online to multiple job postings and still don’t have request for interviews. What am I doing wrong? Well, know this, only 2% to 3% of people that apply online get interview requests, so you’re not alone with this concern. When applying online, the goal is to make sure your resume fits what the job post is looking for. So go to the job posting and look at the keywords in the job description and make sure those keywords are in your resume.
If they are not, you’re going to have a really tough time getting through the applicant tracking system barrier at all. So add as many keywords from the job posting into your resume as possible. Secondly, once you get through the barrier, your resume has to stand out in a positive way. And I’m not talking colors and graphics and all that stuff. Not that at all. What I’m talking about is your resume has to convey to the company why you’re a great fit for the position, what the ROI is going to be on you if you’re hired, and how you stand out against your competition. Bottom line, you have to penetrate the ATS barrier and you have to stand out. Now, a general rule of thumb is this. Don’t have a generic one-size-fits-all resume for all job postings. Ats algorithms nowadays are way too smart for that, so you have to customize each resume for each job posting. All right, question number three. When asked about my salary requirements. I told the interviewer that it might be premature to discuss at this time. I’ll be happy to discuss further down the road. Is this the right answer?
To be candid, no, it’s not. It’s a How’s the answer? Never put off the salary answer or the salary question. If you’re asked, politely respond with as ambiguous an answer as possible. Basically, don’t give them a a specific number or a number at all. But you have to answer the question. It’s not your place to decide when it’s appropriate or not for the interviewer to ask you about your salary requirements. Maybe they’re ready to make a hire. Maybe you are the last person they have interviewed and they’re ready to make a decision and they need to know where you fall in their salary range. On the flip side the coin, don’t bring up salary unless the interviewer asks. In my bulletproof interview strategies course, I teach a ton of tricks that you can deploy when it comes to salary, the salary question, how to best answer it, the interview process as a whole, timing of interviews, how you rank against your competition, and other great components with regards to interview strategies. All right, fourth and final question. Has What does it do with cover letters. Are they still required nowadays? They’re not necessarily required, but it is a great idea to use a cover letter because unlike your resume that’s going to get a 6-8 second glance, Most people are going to read a cover letter in its entirety, especially if you keep it to three short paragraphs with some bullet points.
You want to make sure that you convey how you learned about the position, why you’re interested interested in the role, and how you believe your background expertise would be a good fit for the position. Wrap up or close your cover letter with a statement that says something like this, I look forward to having a conversation to discuss my background and expertise in more detail for the insert title of position. So one more time. I look forward to having a conversation to discuss my background and expertise in more detail for the director of marketing position or whatever the title is. Now, these tips and others are discussed throughout my podcast. As I mentioned in previous episodes, if you want to accelerate landing interviews and job offers, send me an email to Mike at the executivelead. Com, and I’ll discuss with you my firm’s career transition system called Advantage Outplacement. As noted in previous episodes, my podcast is going to video. My team and I are delayed in launching, but I can promise you it’s coming soon. All right, that’s a wrap for today. Tune in tomorrow for our new topic, Attracting Recruiters to your LinkedIn Profile, Part One.
Thanks for listening to the Executive Lead podcast. Where you get executive search insider secrets to help you leap into or land your next great job. I’m Mike Sudermann. Thanks for listening.