Five tips to get that travel technology job application noticed

If the amount of job openings received over the past three months is an indicator, I would suggest that things are definitely looking up.

We have seen an explosion of job opportunities in the travel and hospitality technology sector and we are beginning to find it difficult to uncover the right candidates for our open positions.

This being said, I am amazed at how some people completely miss the mark as they try to get ahead of the job seeking pack.

People, who would normally be at the top of any hiring pile, seem to make any number of mistakes that ensure they will not be called for any open position that they apply for.

Here are five things that you can do to make sure that you make the hiring manager’s short list:

1. Make your resume title stand out.

I am amazed at the number of people who title their resumes with such innocuous titles as resume.com, myresume.com, 2010resume.com or my favorite, my2010resume_V2.com.

Please, do yourself a favour and title the resume so the person reading it will know what it’s all about.

Use you full name within the title of the resume along with the type of position you are applying for. For example, Alan Young_Sales resume.doc, this will make sure that you are put in the right pile immediately.

2. Do some research.

Please, please, please do a substantial amount of research on the company you are applying to.

One of the main reasons that candidates get overlooked for a position is the fact that they have not researched the position or company well enough.

Thus, their cover letter is way to generic and immediately they get thrown in the trash bin.

If your currently unemployed, why can’t you spend some time researching the company you want to go work for? If you are currently in a job, do your research out of hours, but please, get it done.

3. The cover letter is your gateway into the job.

Make sure that your cover letter makes sense and is well positioned for the job you are applying for (also point 2 above).

Also, sell yourself in your cover letter. Remember, there are a number of other qualified people vying for the same job so you have to sell the reasons why you are the perfect person for the job…and try to do this in 100 words or less! Resume readers get bored very easily.

4. Be honest (for goodness sake).

In today’s competitive job market, hiring managers and recruiters are delving into your past with a sense of determination not seen in recent memory.

It is extremely easy now to use the internet as a tool to validate what you have or have not done during your career.

Sites like LinkedIn can be mined effectively to find pertinent data and to possibly chat with your contacts prior to even sending you off to a prospective interview.

Oh, and also clean up your Facebook page. That picture of you licking a Smirnoff bottle during a drunken weekend in Vegas just may come back to bite you.

5. Stay Positive!

I know it can be a daunting task at times to stay positive about a job search when you have been looking for quite some time but the lack of a positive outlook on things can show up when you are interviewing.

I am constantly being told that the candidate did not “wow” a client. We have determined that the “wow” factor that clients are looking for these days are a combined sense of passion, a positive outlook, a need to succeed and most of all, they are looking for people who can make a difference in their companies.

So, as the job market heats up, increase your odds of landing that dream job by standing out from the crowd. Oh yeah – don’t forget to ask for the job!