Maryland Job Search Guide: Suitability Scoring and Career Resources

Introduction: The Core Issue in Modern Hiring

I want to introduce myself. I’m the founder of the My Jobscore job board network, which is designed to give you a suitability score for any job posting anywhere. My work includes working as an executive recruiter for midsize companies. Typically, I would work for the president and owner-operator finding them key personnel.

What I learned is the number one issue for companies is finding qualified, suitable team members. This has become more difficult in the past few years because technology and AI makes it so easy to apply for jobs and to customize your résumé for a job, which sometimes includes a bit of exaggeration and fakery. We’ve spent years developing suitability scoring matching a job seeker for a job, going beyond AI to examine many different parameters.

Understanding the Green Folder Suitability Score

A green folder score, which is a score over 70, indicates this is an opportunity to pay attention to. What does that mean? This means before applying, you research the company, you research the opportunity and make sure you’re a fit. You go on social networks such as LinkedIn and learn about the company, what they do, their key personnel, and other job openings.

Then you have to determine whether this is a solid opportunity for you before customizing your résumé for the job opportunity. Customizing is perfectly fine because you can highlight results, achievements, and success stories that would make sense to a hiring manager evaluating applicants. Before doing that, see if you know anybody at the company either directly or through somebody else. This is highly possible if the opportunity is local.

Our focus beyond the suitability scoring is to get you access to local jobs through our own job feed and job board network, but also connecting you to the government career departments and agencies in your area who already are working hard to find you jobs and help you get employed.

Platform Features: Queenie AI and Proof of Awesomeness

My Jobscore suitability scoring is more than a score. You can access an instant fix of your résumé using our internal AI hive named Queenie, who has been trained through the wisdom of hundreds and hundreds of experts to help you.

Another feature of My Jobscore is what we call the Proof of Awesomeness. You can download a PDF copy of your score for a specific job. This is your proof, and you are welcome to save it and send it in to wherever you apply for that job. Check it out—it includes links to your LinkedIn profile, your contact information, your score, and of course your component scores along with a link to your résumé that was used in the scoring. It is completely free, just as the job seeker scoring is free.

Tracking Funnel Ratios in Your Job Search

It’s critical to have a professional approach to your job search because it’s incredibly easy to waste time. Wasting time would be applying to hundreds and hundreds of jobs blindly that you may not be suitable for.

We track the experience of many job seekers who use the Sankey diagram that showcases how many jobs they’ve applied to, how many responses they’ve gotten, how many rejections, how many telephone interviews, how many face-to-face interviews, and how many offers. What you want when you apply for a job is to have a high ratio of telephone interviews in relation to the number of job applications.

The Optimal Ratio: If you can get one telephone interview for every 10 to 15 job applications, you are doing a good job in your job search. An unfocused job search often involves 400 or 500 job applications with just one telephone interview result.

Even if you get that telephone interview, if you were unsuitable for the job, you probably won’t move forward in the process. Suitability is critical. You don’t want to join a company pretending to be someone with experience or expertise that you don’t have. It’s a waste of time for you, it’s a waste of time for them, and you won’t survive the probationary period. Being selective is critical to getting results and using your time effectively.

The 4-Step Success Story Framework

A success story is a very effective way to prepare for interviews or even just introducing yourself to someone who may have an opportunity for you. It is a simple, structured four-step process:

1. Identify the problem that you solved.
2. Share the cost of doing nothing—what would happen if that problem was left unaddressed.
3. Detail what you did to fix the problem.
4. Provide the measurable results.

When you’re asked in an interview, “Tell me what you did at this job” or “What would you say your strengths are,” you will have an instantly structured, formatted response. By preparing this, someone interviewing you sees instantly that you can articulate well and that you’re focused. Even if the success story is not directly applicable to the job you’re going for, it demonstrates that you are organized, thoughtful, prepared, and understand that every employer wants results and problem solvers.

Strategic Resume Structure for Maximum Impact

My recommendation from reading tens of thousands of resumes is that you use a functional style résumé in combination with your work experience chronology structured as follows:

The top of the résumé are the claims you’re making, and the bottom work history section is your proof. Hiring professionals want to spend 3 to 6 seconds looking at the top section. If you make it easy to figure you out, you have a better chance. A poorly constructed resume forces them to work hard to determine what you can do, which is viewed as less professional. It is a marketing document designed strictly to get you an interview, not the job itself.