The most important section of your resume!

5 seconds and the clock is ticking

Resume, the most crucial section

How long have I looked at your resume? It is common for most recruiters to give a resume about 5-10 seconds.  Your resume probably won’t if you haven’t caught my interest in those first 5 seconds.  It’s an unfair reality.  Too many resumes’ in this economy puts me in a situation where I am not looking for the best resume.  My initial task is to weed out resumes quickly and look for the best.  Two different mentalities.

Your resumes most important real estate is the top 1/3 to 1/2 of the first page, “above the fold”.   This is the make-it-or-break-it area, and it is here that determines if your resume will be read or recycled.  If you were to fold a resume into thirds as if you were going to put it into an envelope, the top line is the fold.  If you fold it in half, top to bottom, much like a newspaper, that middle line is considered “the fold.”  You can guarantee that everything above it will be looked at.  I didn’t say it will be read, but it will be looked at.  Formatted correctly, it will be read.

Location, Location, Location

Too often, this high-value resume real estate is wasted on facts that I don’t need, don’t care about or can be listed elsewhere.  I have posted “How I read a resume,” but I thought I would talk about the valuable target-rich area on a resume.

Whether or not it is just human nature, most recruiters and hiring managers read a resume in the following order:

1. The top 1/3 to 1/2 of the resume.
2. Move quickly to the very end of the document. I am not so much reading the document as “looking for the endpoint.” I want to know how much time this will take. The section I am looking for is the last ¼ of the last page of the document. This is usually reserved for “education, interests, awards, etc.”
3. When searching for the end of the document, a cursory glance is given to the middle section of the resume.

Total time elapsed, maybe 5 seconds.  Probably less.

Take advantage of how you go about writing your resume

1. You know that the top 1/3 of the resume will be given “a look”  (not read, “a look”).  If this is easy to read and clean, it will be read.
2. Stop number two is the end of the document.  Whether to see how long the resume is or what the education section reads like, you can be confident that the last section will at “least get looked at.”
3. Step 3 is to go back through the document, reviewing the experience. Hopefully, something relevant and eye-catching stood out (on my way to the education section).

Considering the above psychology, think about writing your resume this way.

1. Top 1/3 to 1/4 of the first page:  Contact info and “summary”

Keep this as absolutely CLEAN AND EASY TO READ as possible.  If it doesn’t need to be there, take it out!  I see resumes every day that lists a complete physical address.  Leave this out because it only leaves you with a downside at this point in the game.  I don’t know of any company that will use the postal service to send you a declination letter or schedule an interview.  Let’s face it; you will be lucky to get an email acknowledging your resume was received.  Just list what is needed.  Name, phone number, and email.  The city if you are local. If you have an advanced degree or certification, list these after your name. 

Listing your full address can knock you out of a job

If you live too far away from the company, the recruiter is going to think about several things, including but not limited to the following:

• If you have a long commute, can you get to work consistently on time?
• Do I have to worry about the weather?  If it snows, can you make it to work?
• Will you always be on the lookout for a job closer to home?
• If you are not local, does this require a move, and how much will it cost? Don’t even get me started on the spouse or children making a move.

You can use the “physical address” space to make room for accomplishments that WILL help your job search.

Make it easy to find you

A link to your LinkedIn profile and any website or blog you have.  Make it easy to research you.  Please help me help you.

I see a lot of obvious effort put into the “objective statement”,  “value statement”, or “summary of skillset”.

Carefully crafted paragraphs fill an entire page. Too much into too little area is common.  These are word-dense paragraphs with big, descriptive adjectives that need a cryptographer to decipher.  When I ask for an interpretation, I get a litany of accomplishments that correlate their experience with something they interpreted (not read) in the job description.   Nine times out of ten, they mean something to the author only and no one else.  

KISS:  KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID

The goal of this top 1/3 of the resume is to capture attention.  This is high-value real estate, so make the most of it.  Inspire the reader to continue with the rest of the document.  If it looks like the Iliad, I am going to be overwhelmed.

A format that is easy to read will list just a few key, one-word skill sets at the top, followed by a few bullet points that go into more detail.  This doesn’t mean 15 or 20 skill sets are listed in 5 columns of 3 or 4 skills.  It means 4 – 6 skill sets “period”.  You are not being hired for multiple positions.  Your resume should be applying for one specific job.  No one job needs 15 KEY skill sets.    

Bullet points are easier to read than paragraphs.

Subconsciously, my job and the hiring manager’s goal is to read your resume as quickly as possible. I want to get as much information as possible in as short a period. If I can not get that information or there is too much: “NEXT!”  Don’t make me work.

2.  The middle section (experience):

Bold significant accomplishments related to the job. This way, when I scan the resume, accomplishments related to the job will stick out.  Subconsciously, this tells me I need to come back and dig deeper.  Make it stick out from the rest of the document, and it will catch my attention.

Again, bullet points are easier to read than full paragraphs.  The more numbers you can use, the better.  Numbers quantify actions because everyone says they work hard.  There is a difference between “I am a hard worker” (I hear this every day) and “When I was in school, I took 17 credits a quarter and worked two jobs for a total of 22 hours a week while maintaining a 3.5 GPA.”  There is a vast difference between:

•  mowed lawns during the summer

vs.

• Mowed ten lawns weekly, made 15 cold calls to generate new business, and took ten credits a quarter.  Increased month-over-month revenue by 10% each month.

3.  Education, certifications, outside interests section

The last section will be read, so maximize its use.  It will be read because it is human nature to flip to the end of a document and see how long it is, how it will end, etc.  It is human nature to want to see the end of anything. Education WILL be seen.  As an HR pro, I am subconsciously trained to see it.  I am looking for it.  Trust me, every hiring manager will LOOK for the education no matter how deeply buried.

For this reason, I recommend that education be listed at the end of the document and before awards, industry-related classes, extracurricular activities, certifications, etc.   The latter can get lost if they are somewhere else.  If you have more than 2 years of experience, you will be hired for the experience, not the education.  The experience is your most significant accomplishment.

Recent graduates

If you have any job, project, or internship experience, list it first before the education.  Too many recent graduates list their education at the beginning of the document. This space can be used for accomplishments.  For the most part, everyone who is applying for your position has the same education.  Generally speaking, education will not be a deciding factor.  If you attended an Ivy League school, have a high GPA, etc., and want folks to know it by listing it on the front page, I ask you to reconsider.  I will see this even if you have a 2-page resume with the education at the end.  I am conditioned to skip to the end and see this.

Keep the area above the fold CLEAN!

See you at the after party,

HRNasty

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