How Employers Assess your Resume
It's not a key, but it can open doors. It's not a crystal ball, but it can affect your future. It's not money, but it's a piece of paper that can hold tremendous power over your income. What is it? It's yourresume, and it can either make you shine like a star or sink you like quicksand. Whether it's received through snail mail or email, your resume only gets several seconds to make a good impression on a prospective employer. Make every second count by following these guidelines regarding how hiring managers assess your resume.
A resume reviewer's standards are partly objective and partly subjective. From your resume, they want to learn whether you have the skill set they're seeking, whether you've had a sound, progressive job history, and whether you possess that certain indefinable quality that simply gives them a good gut feeling.
Keep in mind that the employer may have to slog through hundreds – or even thousands – of resumes. With such a high volume, companies are often scanning, not reading, resumes. Make the most of the few seconds the employer spares for yours.
The first thing they're looking for is legibility. If you're sending your resume via email, use a clean, common font, such asTimesorArial, that can be read by a variety of computer systems. You may think you're impressing a potential employer with a fancy font, when, in fact, you're making your resume cluttered and difficult to read, and a candidate for deletion (unless you're applying for a creative position where the stylizing of your resume is specifically requested). Keep your formatting simple, as well, so your resume doesn't become a jumbled mess at the other end.
If you're sending out a paper resume, use originals that are fresh and crisp, printed on conservative white or gray paper – not a resume that's been photocopied countless times. Employers frown upon resumes that look as though they've been randomly mass mailed to dozens of companies without concern for a good fit.
Resumes will also get pitched if they're handwritten, contain misspellings or are cutesy – people have been known to send resume songs, resumes that look like ads and resumes fashioned to look like special edition newspapers. These types of resumes will only be regarded as amateurish and highly unprofessional.
Ensure that your resume is customized for each position for which you're applying. This is so easily accomplished on a computer that you'll be out of the running if you don't do so. When your resume is customized, the employer knows you've researched and understand their company, business, customers and products. Employers appreciate this depth of knowledge and curiosity.
They also appreciate a well-craftedobjective sectionof your resume. This portion provides a snapshot of your strengths, so make it very specific, avoiding vague interview killers such as, "To obtain a position enabling me to utilize my strong organizational skills and attention to detail." Employers are on the lookout for objectives that succinctly showcase an applicant's noteworthy contributions and qualifications.
Next, summarize in your work history specific tasks you've done that are a match for the experience an employer seeks. This is the meat of your resume, and the section many resume readers scan first. After you've completed this portion, read your resume backwards. Yes, you read that correctly. Employers do this to ascertain your work chronology, rather than making the jump from your present job though your previous ones. This technique also ferrets out any inconsistencies or holes in your resume. Your resume will look very different this way. If you catch any problems, now's the time to fix them.
With access to the Internet, employers can easily research you. Especially if you belong to numerous social networks. That Facebook photo of you chugging a beer bong may have cracked up all of your friends, but it probably won't elicit laughter from Human Resources. Before you submit your resume to anyone, clean up your online presence. And ensure that whatever remains online doesn't conflict with anything on your resume – no company wants to hire someone who's dishonest.
Hiring managers also discard resumes with gaps, where months or even years are unaccounted for. If you spent that time traveling, attending school full time or raising children, mention that on your resume or risk having it pitched.
An unusual employment history may hike a red flag up the Human Resources hiring pole. Job-hopping is no longer stigmatized, but it still does make a potential employer wary, and requires an explanation on your resume. Applicants with short-term employment at several jobs may have had the unfortunate luck of being hired by companies that downsized or went out of business. They may also still be seeking their best career or place of employment, thus their resume reflects these multiple shifts. If companies weren't a good fit for your interests and goals, the resume reader will appreciate knowing this.
A resume is like an autobiography – it can be an interesting, informative story of your work life, or it can be painfully boring. Keep your reader's interest, and you'll close the distance between yourself and the job of your dreams.
