Resumes & Interviews >> Browse Articles >> Interview Tips & Advice

Matchmaking 101: Hooking Yourself Up With a Job!

Featured Author:

Sara Crow

Sara Crow is Assistant Director, Communications, for LSU Career Services. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication from LSU and is working toward earning a master’s degree in Human Resource Education and Workforce Development.

More articles from this author:

• How Much Are You Worth? The Entry-Level Salary Conundrum
• 2010's Résumé Rehab

Here’s the hard-to-swallow truth about searching for a job: you are your own matchmaker. It’s so easy to blame others for an unsuccessful job-hunt, but it isn’t very helpful.
Here are some of my favorite excuses:

• My career center doesn’t bring ANYONE to campus to recruit!

• Employers aren’t hiring in this economy!


• I wish I could search for a job, but I just don’t have time with everything else going on!

• I’ve sent out 85 résumés, but no one is calling me back!

Hmm. That’s a lot of bellyaching that isn’t getting anybody a job.

When an employer has a job opening, finding the right person is the end goal. Otherwise, employers would just hire the first person who submitted a résumé for jobs. Your goal is to show an employer you are that right person. This is when your inner matchmaker comes into play.

Put your résumé and the job description side by side. They should look like the perfect couple. Show the employer you have the qualifications listed in the description. As much as possible (and always truthfully!), your résumé should mirror the experiences, skills and knowledge outlined in the job description. It sounds like common sense, but what’s actually common is that a job seeker sends the same version of his/her résumé to every employer. That will buy you a one-way ticket to the rejection pile.

Make the match, as my colleague would say. It’s the only way to ensure that the recruiter who picks up your application thinks, “Finally! This is exactly the person we need.”