Are you applying to hundreds of jobs and only getting a handful of interviews?

In this video, we break down how job seekers can improve their resume format, align resume content to the job description, validate their fit before applying, and use smart outreach after submitting an application to increase their chances of getting interviews. Transcript below:

Are you completing hundreds of applications and only getting a handful of interviews?  Hi, I'm CJ, the founder of The Job Search Network, and let me show you how The Job Search Network can help you beat the bots.  So there are four things that every job seeker have within their control to help them move from application to the interview process. Those four things, format of your resume, content of what goes into your resume, the validation exercise to see how qualified you are for a job, and then ultimately, the outreach of what you do after you complete an application.  So first, format. Every applicant that puts their resume in goes through an ATS, or what is an applicant tracking system, that has very common software that is artificial intelligence or bot-driven to rank resumes, judge resumes, review resumes, before it even reaches human eyes.  And there are very simple structure in terms of what the ATS looks for and these bots look for in terms of deeming a candidate to be qualified. A lot of that goes into the format of what a resume has.  So single columns. You need to have a very straightforward and simplified resume for an ATS to be able to identify the content and read it properly. Standard headlines. Do not have complicated headlines. You need things like summary, experience credentials and education projects if you're going into a project-based business. Because the ATS needs to go and identify where to find the content, what section that is in, to be able to validate you as a highly qualified candidate. Consistency of the content within your resume, whether that's gonna be dates, titles, ranges, the acronyms in terms of what you put in your resume needs to be consistently throughout the document in a way that the ATS and the bots can understand. Document type. So this is one of the simplest things of what you can do. Do not save it as a PDF because when you save it as a PDF, it can read as an image instead of actual validating content. So save it as a Word doc, apply as a Word doc. You can always have a PDF document that you can send to a human later on in the process, but for the application purpose and being able to be screened and read and judged and ranked by a bot or an ATS, keep it as a Word doc during the application part of the process  So content. Content is extremely important because you need to make sure that your resume captures the validated experience of what the employer is looking for within the job description.  So you need to make sure that when you go through the job description, you are capturing the relevant experience that you factually have and capturing it within your resume. Even if the years don't align, you are capturing the keywords and the important content and the important experience that is within the job description and placing it within your resume.  The top part of your resume is gonna be the most critical part of it. Make sure that it is not on page three or page two. Make sure that you put a lot of information that is validating information in the top one-third of your resume.   One of those ways that I like to do it is actually having a target headline or a target experience of what you're looking for that matches the headline and the title in terms of what the job description is posted as.  If it says senior systems engineer, say target title is senior systems engineer within your resume. So even if it is not exactly your previous title, you have the content that is aligned that the bot can see, that aligns with the title of what they're looking for somebody with that experience.  Mirroring the language of what's in the job description and how it aligns with the bullets in your resume is extremely important. Even the bullet points within your resume must not only contain the content, but the structure of the content to align with the job description.   If you see bullet one, two, three in that order on the job description, have that appear as bullet one, two, three within your experience of what you're applying for.  One of the best advice I got in life was edit out. If something is in your resume and is not relevant, edit it out. The bot is going to be judging all of your content, all of your information equally, and if you have things that are not relevant, do not confuse the bot by leaving something in there that is completely irrelevant to the job of what you're applying for.  And ultimately, simple is better when it comes to the bots and the ATS. Do not overcomplicate a bullet. Do not overexplain within your bullets.  Have it be very straightforward in terms of the structure and the content of your bullet to tell the bot exactly what it is you did, exactly the experience of what you have, and exactly what the outcome was so the bot can best judge the validation experience of what you're putting in your resume  Exercises. So here are a couple of things that you can do before you click submit on the application for the job of what you're applying for. And these things are very simple to make sure that your resume is optimized to give you the best chance of converting to the next step.  Now, open up a Word doc, a blank Word doc with nothing in it. Copy and paste your entire resume into that. If it shows up as scrambled, that means the bot is going to have a really hard time to read it. You need to go back and focus on your formatting. Go make sure that everything is set up to be clean and clear for the bot to be able to read.   And if you are seeing some challenges in terms of when you copy paste that and it being scrambled,   we cover this in major detail within the Job Search Network between our guides and our playbooks that are optimized for resume writing. So we can actually coach you through that if you join our community. ​  Now, we start using AI to compete with AI. So whatever your favorite AI bot is, whether it's ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, whatever it is, you can start using that to your advantage of finding out if you really are as qualified as possible for the job you're about to apply for.  Take your resume, take the link to the job description of what you see online, put them both in a chat, and ask the chat, "Am I qualified for this position?" It'll walk through, and then you can actually ask it questions. What do I need to improve? What do I need to enhance? Where am I missing? What are my gaps? And it will give you a play-by-play of the specific things or what within your resume or what isn't in your resume that would make you more optimized to be able to convert to the next step. So once you feel comfortable in terms of saying, "Hey, I've now aligned my resume with the job description," ask it, "If you were an ATS scoring my resume, what would my score be?" This simulates an actual ATS and a best practice of what the artificial intelligence will pull, and you'll get a little bit closer of an idea of what the ATS and what the bot would actually screen you as compared to other candidates and other applicants.  So this is a great exercise after you've completed, "Hey, I feel very confident that I balanced my experience with the job description. Now, how would the ATS judge me and evaluate my score based on what the recruiter or the hiring manager will see?" So once you get back in the score, and if you don't score 100%, which usually it doesn't happen, you can actually ask one more qualifying  question of how would this company evaluate me as a candidate for what they are looking for within this position?  It'll give you more tips to upgrade your resume based on how the job description is, but it also will search websites like Glassdoor and Indeed, where there are reviews about what companies interview for, what are their priorities, and it'll take some general feedback to not only focus on just the job, but what the company is looking for within a candidate, and how you can make even further enhancements within your resume to appear as an ideal candidate for this company and this job.  And if you're looking for more information, comment resume down below and we will send you a link so you can get one of our free guides from the Job Search Network about crafting resumes and applications.  So within the Job Search Network, we provide you with an outreach grid that standardizes 10 personality types or profiles that you can make contact with. We provide you with templates of an initial message and a follow-up message, along with how to find each person's LinkedIn profile, professional email, or other ways that is acceptable for you to reach out to them.  This will increase your conversion rate more than any other step of the process of what we have talked about.  The three profiles that I absolutely recommend for everyone to reach out to.   Number one, the hiring decision-maker. You can very much validate who the hiring decision-maker is for the position, whether it is going to be a manager title, director title, whatever you're applying to.  Going online and finding out who that hiring leader, it takes a little bit of effort, but you can absolutely identify who this person is, send them a very appropriate message through our templates, and communicate with them directly, attaching your resume to get human eyes on your resume.   Number two, the recruiter. These are people who are literally paid to fill this position, and you reaching out to them makes their job easier of not having to go through the hundreds of resumes in terms of what have applied to the system.  All recruiters are pretty easy to communicate with. They are very frequent to accept communication since part of their job responsibilities is to get the job filled. They want to hear from you. They will welcome your outreach and feedback. They will give you some guidance in terms of what makes you qualified or not because they wanna fill the job just as much as you wanna get the job. So reach out to the recruiters every single time that you either complete an application or where you intend to complete an application.   The third profile that not many job seekers really do think of is the employee who will benefit by having the position filled and who might benefit themselves by getting a referral bonus. It is a huge incentive for people to say, "Hey, I wanna look like a great teammate. If this individual contacted me," and say, "I can help fix your problem," and they can take that directly to their boss, their manager, they will feel very validated themselves to be able to contribute in such a way.  But then there's the fiscal benefit, 'cause many organizations will pay employees a referral bonus for finding a talent that helps fill the job. If you reach out to somebody who would be willing to put their name on you through specific communication, through specific validation, not only will they receive a referral bonus, you are getting yourself out of the black hole of applicants and getting your resume in front of eyes. So those are the three profiles, the hiring decision-maker, the professional recruiter inside the organization, and an employee within the organization who stands to benefit from an employer referral.   we wanna put the power back into your hands so you can take action to get out of the black hole of resumes and into the next step of the process, converting to the interview. All a resume is to validate your experience to get you to the next step. The best way you control it  is gonna be the format of what you have, the content of what goes into it, the exercise of what you do before you hit submit, and then the outreach of what you have after you apply to the position.  And if you wanna know more about the insights of what goes into it from a 20-year professional that's worked both with the hiring leaders and coaching job seekers,  come join us at the Job Search Network." Use our community use our tools, use our training, use our guidance, use our playbooks in terms of how to best optimize your ability to beat the bots and get converted to the interview stage of the process.  i'm CJ, founder of The Job Search Network. We'll see you in our community!