With five candidates for every job, competition is fierce. Your online profile impacts your chances to win interviews, but your resume is still the most crucial element of your job search strategy.

Here are five tips to help you identify how to appeal to your targeted employers:

1.  Study organizations’ websites. Companies spend a lot of time, effort, and money compiling their public relations profiles for visitors. Look for repeated words and phrases, tag lines and hints about their philosophical approaches. Some employers include videos or testimonials from employees to illustrate their corporate culture.

What can you learn?

Is the company leadership focused? Team oriented? Do they value diversity? Is community service important? What are their goals? Do they specify problems they solve? What buzzwords appear multiple times on the sites? Studying their official online presence offers a window for you to determine a) if the job is a good fit and b) how to market yourself for the position.

Read the rest on my weekly blog on U.S. News & World Report’s Careers site…

How to target your resume for an employer

photo by Eileen Sand