If you would like to subscribe to 1StopResume.com's newsletter, let us know and we'll send it to you, beginning with the next issue. Your address will be secure, we do not share our email lists. You may, of course, unscubscribe at any time.
If you have requests or suggestions for future Newsletter topics, please feel free to email us.
Your resume will be given less than 10 seconds to make a good first impression! It is true. Since you will get just a few seconds, your resume should provide your job titles, current working situation and also demonstrate your professionalism.
We have seen literally thousands of resumes and hear resume gripes from hiring professionals all the time. One of the challenges in the present job search climate is that the volume of resumes received by companies has increased dramatically. How do you get your resume to be noticed?
Here are some suggestions from hiring professionals:
Hiring professionals tell us that Objective Statements on resumes are more likely to talk the candidate’s way out of, rather than land, the interview. Why? If there are only a few seconds of viewing time, do you really want the reviewer to know your career aspirations or your background? “I am looking to work for a company utilizes my talents in . . ."
We recommend you leave the Objective Statement off your resume. It is much better for the viewer to read your job titles and background. Space on the resume should be used for accomplishments, job titles and headlines to make the strongest impression and describe your background.
Write a headline or two at the top of your resume giving one to three functional job titles in large capital letters, centered just under name and contact information. These job titles introduce you in bold headlines. If integral to the business, it is also suggested that you include the industry name, e.g., “Pharmaceutical Quality Assurance Executive.”
Putting your job titles front and center gives the hiring professional an immediate view of your background. This is especially true for executives and candidates in the high-tech field.
What you include in the first half of the first page is important; this is your chance to sell yourself. Start with an upbeat professional statement with strong adjectives to describe your background and talents. Next, list three to five of your top achievements or personal characteristics that make you ideally suited for the position.
A few years back hiring professionals made a big deal that every resume should be no longer than one page. Now we recommend at least two pages as a minimum and three pages as a maximum. In some cases (top executives, research scientists, etc.) four pages are acceptable, but never more than four.
It is important also to make very good use of “white space.” If you have a lot of experience that can be jammed into two pages by narrowing margins, removing double-spacing between groups of information, and decreasing font size — you are really doing yourself a disservice to take this approach. It is much better to go to a third page and use indentation, double-spacing at appropriate places for legibility and style. And keep the font size 10 points or larger.
The fact that you are married, love softball or volunteer at the local YMCA is not appropriate on a resume. Don’t include information on your marital status, age, race, religion, family or hobbies. Keep your resume content professional.
Many companies have purchased resume-parsing systems. These programs eliminate the need for a “real” person to read your resume. In many such cases, a live person does not review the resume at all. It simply gets scanned automatically for significant words and then stored in a database. When a human resources professional is ready to review resumes, they then search all resumes in the database for specific “keywords.” If your resume happens to lack a required keyword, then it will not come up in the search, and never even get the 10-second review. Once your resume is selected electronically, it will be compared with all the others selected. Therefore, it is important that the resume includes all relevant keywords AND reads well.
Even top marketing executives, those who promote billion dollar ideas, can have a difficult time selling their own attributes. We stress to all candidates that it is best to give your resume to a professional for writing – or at the very least for critique. A good, professional resume writer keeps up on the newest and best ways to promote and present candidates on paper. Call us! And don’t forget, any money you pay for a professional to write your resume is tax-deductible.
Your resume is your calling card. It tells the prospective employer where you have been and helps predict the future. Writing a great resume can tell more about you in 10 seconds than an hour-long interview!
1StopResume.com utilizes several sources to bring you revolutionary and fundamental job search wisdom. While we would like to acknowledge individually those websites, books and articles, authors, and masters, this list would be extensive. We thank these sources for their contributions.