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Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic more than two years ago, businesses, especially small firms, have struggled to find employees to fill vacancies within their companies. A survey from CNBC/Survey Monkey released in May 2022 indicated that 52% of small business owners reported it had grown more difficult to find qualified people over the previous 12 months.

The difficulty many businesses are having in regard to finding qualified applicants can be seen as a great opportunity by skilled professionals looking for a new job. Qualified job seekers can take advantage of the lack of competition to land their dream jobs. Prior to beginning a new job search, seasoned professionals might want to consider some strategies to modernize their résumés and improve their chances of finding a dream job.

RECONSIDER YOUR RESUME TEMPLATE

If it’s been awhile since you looked for a new job, chances are strong the design of your résumé could be viewed as outdated. Fairly or unfairly, an old template could give prospective employers the impression that your skills are as outdated as your résumé. Jobscan.co/resume-templates offers a host of Microsoft Word-compatible free résumé templates. These templates are categorized, with some specifically for senior- and executive-level positions and others based on how job seekers want to list their skills and experience (i.e., chronological, hybrid, etc.).

PROMINENTLY DISPLAY YOUR ABILITIES

The job-seeking experts at Jobscan indicate that the average recruiter spends around six to seven seconds glancing at a typical résumé before deciding if an applicant could be a good fit. With such little time to make a strong first impression, applicants will want to emphasize their skills at the top of their résumés. Recruiters and human resources professionals who see an attractive skillset might then be compelled to explore the document further to determine how those skills were acquired.

AVOID INFORMATION OVERLOAD

If HR professionals and recruiters are only spending a few seconds scanning each résumé, applicants will want to keep job descriptions short and sweet. Condense responsibilities into bullet points, ideally using just a single line for each point. Avoid listing too many bullet points for each job, as that could affect the likelihood that the résumé will get more than a passing glance.

REMOVE OUTDATED INFORMATION

The online jobs resource Indeed notes that seasoned professionals who have been with their current employers for more than five years can remove certain sections on a résumé. Sections like internships, awards received early in a career, volunteer gigs from years ago, and pre-college educational background do not need to be listed on experienced professionals’ résumés.

Now could be a good time for experienced professionals to look for a new job.