Finally, the Secrets to Making the
Perfect Resume are YOURS!
I was shocked.
It wasn’t long into my career as a recruiter that I discovered that the main reason that job-seekers weren’t getting the call, the interview, and the job wasn’t their skills or background.
It was their resume.
Because it ALL starts there.
Time and again I would post a job and receive fifty or more resumes…sometimes over a hundred. And time and again it took only 5 seconds for me to decide that they were not going to be interviewed. Not necessarily because they didn’t have some good, relevant experience, not because they weren’t likely bright and professional just like you..but because their resume just wasn’t good enough.
Look at it this way. Recruiters are very busy. After they’ve posted a position on their website or job board, their BIGGEST priority is to as QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE go through the resumes they get and short-list the best applicants to contact for an interview. Remember, the ONLY way they can judge you is by your RESUME. A fantastic resume is a clear reflection of your ability to impress their client (company or hiring manager). Impressing their client is vital to them! Even if your experience is good, a poor resume will tell them you are not the level of quality their client is looking for.
Over the years my experience in recruiting let me to understand the sad but true reality about resumes:
About ONE THIRD of the resumes I receive were BAD. Sometimes it was awful spelling or grammar, other times it was disastrous formatting or clear inconsistencies, but often it was a real lack of fundamentals and understanding of what I was looking for that made me delete them.
This is harsh, I know, but it’s true. I’m here to tell you how it REALLY is for recruiters. A recruiter is just too swamped to deal with a resume that doesn’t last that first 5 second test screening. It can be easy to turn a recruiter off. Into the recycle bin you go.
The second ONE THIRD of resumes received were what could be considered OKAY. No glaring mistakes, but clearly the candidate didn’t understand proper resume formatting, use of space, organization, powerful wording, or the responsibilities of the job I’d posted. They obviously weren’t trying very hard to help me help them.
I never met ANY of these TWO THIRDS…EVER. Maybe some of them would have been perfect for the positions I was looking to have filled…but their resume was the FIRST and ONLY way of convincing me they were good for the role…and they failed.
Most of the FINAL ONE THIRD were either Good or Very Good in quality. Sometimes I met these people. Sometimes. But that depended on the final 5% of resumes….the EXCELLENT resumes.
These are always a JOY for a recruiter to read. They are powerful, attractive, easy to read, and make our job easier. Not only do recruiters feel a bond with these people, we’re secretly ON THEIR SIDE, because they clearly GET IT. I ALWAYS started with the EXCELLENT resumes. And if I had enough of these to make my shortlist (usually about 6-8 people) then I didn’t call ANY of the others. I didn’t need to.
That’s right. Even the Very Good resumes were skipped if I had enough Excellent ones. I would file them away for possible consideration for some future position...maybe. But as for this job? They were out.
I wasn’t alone…I talked to my recruiter colleagues, all who regularly screened thousands of resumes and everyone agreed. Every single recruiter has the same ongoing frustration: we find that the overwhelming majority of people FOR WHATEVER REASON give us sub-standard resumes.
I wondered WHY? If the quality of their resume is TRULY the difference between getting the interview (and then the job) or being ignored, then why don’t more people make their resumes EXCELLENT??
It helped me realize that the VAST majority of people just don’t know what it takes to hit this top 5%...to have an excellent resume that leads to success.
Some of you may be thinking that YOUR resume is probably in this top category already…or at LEAST very good. Think again. In order to test my theory, I started asking my applicants what level they thought their resume was at…and over 90% of them thought it was BETTER than it really was. People are fooling themselves!
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