Matthew Warzel Featured in Another Career Addict Article!

Please check out this fantastic article by the Career Addict I was fortunate enough to be featured in as a contributor – 𝟭𝟱 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗼𝗻 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗕𝗲𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗝𝗼𝗯 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗥𝗲𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻

You’ve got all the right education and credentials. You have years of experience in your field. You’ve researched, prepared, carefully tailored your résumé and yet, somehow, your job applications continue to be rejected. What are you doing wrong?

Getting out of the stressful cycle of jobhunting isn’t easy. Competition can be fierce, and with the ease of online applications, there may be thousands of applicants for a single job opening. Hiring managers have to be ruthless, quickly discarding candidates to get to a more manageable selection.

There are ways to avoid these errors, which guarantee automatic disqualification. We’ve spoken to HR, recruitment and résumé experts in order to help you identify your mistakes.

Read on and find out the 15 most common reasons for a rejected job application, and how to get around them!

My responses?

You didn’t highlight your transferable skills 

A persuasive cover letter can save you from the rejection pile, but you’re not out of the woods yet. As Matthew Warzel, a certified recruiter and president of MJW Careers, explains, hiring managers are looking for candidates who can seamlessly transition into the new role.

If your experience doesn’t exactly match the job description, then you must highlight your transferable skills on your résumé and LinkedIn profile. Using buzzwords and keywords for that industry will also help if they’re using ATS.

Warzel suggests backing up a strong summary and skills section with a list of accomplishments, including relevant coursework. He gives an example of a teacher trying to transfer into a corporate/marketing role. Like Laos, however, he warns against adding too much “fluff”. Here’s what he said:

If it’s not clear to the hiring team how your skills will translate to the new job, you’ll have to endure another job application rejection. This is when it can be helpful to follow up with the recruiter. Politely ask if they can suggest improvements that could increase your chances of getting hired for a future vacancy. Hopefully, you will get a response that will help you tailor your résumé for the next opportunity.