It never ceases to surprise me how a person’s resume barely reflects their current job and especially their Linked In profile.  Furthermore, people are surprised when it is pointed out to them. “I hear you want to be an Accounting Manager, and you have relevant experience, but it’s not reflected in your resume.”

As part of your ongoing career management, treat your resume and Linked In profile as living documents. Each time you have an accomplishment at the office, open your  Word doc, and happily add your new achievement. If you have not had one lately, take the initiative and take a course so you can offer more to your job and team at the office. (www.Udemy.com is a great place to start with affordable courses.)

It will make you more confident too.

Treat your Linked In profile the same way as your resume, i.e., Let’s say you streamlined a process at the office? Add it to your profile. You were awarded a certification, add it to your profile.

Lastly, companies use Linked In to check for consistency. It is a good idea to have a professional picture and include a link to your Linked In profile on your resume. Plus a good Linked In profile will attract recruiters to you.

Now that you have reconciled what you really do to what is in your resume, here are a few tips when applying for jobs.

Do not use header and footers or PDF’s. Depending on the ATS (Applicant Tracking System, otherwise known as the black hole when applying for jobs) used by companies, these cannot see all the information and an old one might just kick you out.

As an example, sometimes someone’s resume comes across with no name or contact information and manually must be reviewed. You can bet companies are not looking at individual resumes to find your contact information.

Speaking of formatting, leave it out! Make your resume easy to read,

For example, Bold your employers and dates, use spell check, and have a friend look at it, spell check does not always know the proper use of here vs. hear. 

Getting back to accomplishments, be specific when listing these vs. just a generic “list of things you do each day.”

We all spend countless hours at the office. Take an inventory of your day-to-day tasks and hopefully, a list of accomplishments. If your column of achievements is in the negative, ask your supervisor what you can do to add more value.

Mary Ann Markowitz is Past President for The Dallas Fort Worth Area Chapter, she assists with speakers and is owner of Mary Ann Markowitz & Associates Recruiting and Career/Life Coaching. www.mamrecruiting.com www.maryannmarkowitz.com