Have you wondered why your resume doesn’t get noticed? Are you curious regarding how a recruiter “examines” your resume? Interested in the job resume killers? Join career expert, motivator, and award-winning author Andrew LaCivita as he discusses how to get your resume noticed in 5 seconds guaranteed!

How can you review 500,000 resumes? Honestly?

I’ve reviewed more than a half million resumes during my career. I bet you’re wondering how this is possible.

Combine decades of interviewing and hiring at a high velocity, coupled with a whopping no-thank-you to a great recession (where I reviewed an average of 1,500-2000 resumes per week for four years), and strong relationships with prominent outplacement companies who send me resumes by the thousands when they handle a large reduction in workforce for one of their clients, and, hey presto, there it is.

How long? 6 Seconds!?

Recruiters worth their salt can glance through your entire resume within six seconds, which means you’ve got five seconds to interrupt their mind-numbing, eye-glazing, white-noise-like key-stroking through an electronic pile that will make you start talking slowly no matter how much caffeine you’ve had.

Don’t believe me? I’m sharing my personal experience (more on this in a minute), but a number of job sites such as The Ladders (check out their eye-tracking story on how recruiters review resumes) indicate their survey says employers review your resume in six seconds. Ouch.

Why? Everyone’s busy and they have too many resumes to review.

How do you review the resume?

Click. Open. Big Thunderbolt Mac Screen!

Eye-Glance 1: Name please! My eyes go right for the top center. I want to see your name. Just your name. I don’t need 18 other credentials and letters (unless you’re a medical doctor, lawyer, or whatever). An address is nice too. I want to know your geography.

Eye-Glance 2: Then I look at the entire top half of the first of page of your resume—all at once. I’m looking for something specific (more later). I do not start reading the top half of the page. I’m filing away whether I want to come back to it later. If it has what I want, I’ll come back. If it doesn’t have what I want, I never go back to it.

Eye-Glance 3: Then I scramble down the left column of the first page. I’m looking for the companies you worked for. I’m much more interested in which companies you worked for than the positions you held. I want people who’ve played for Super Bowl-winning teams.

Eye-Glance 4: Then I look at the entire second page all at once. Yes. The entire page. If you have a third page, I’m upset because you didn’t respect my time.

Side note: If I can sum up my entire 28-year career in 26 words, you can summarize a 50-year career in two pages. If you think you can’t, you are mistaken.’

This entire eye-glancing escapade takes me no longer than six seconds.

How do you decide to keep reviewing the resume?

Now, I need to decide whether to delete the resume or whether to review it. I stress the word review because anyone who has time to read your entire resume has too much time on his or her hands.

Want to know what I’m looking for?

What’s the 5-second magic pill!

Why did you open this post? It was one of two reasons.

You either know and love me and thought omigawd, Andy has another amazing post and I just have to watch (listen or read). Otherwise, you had no clue who I was, but saw the headline telling you some dude promises you resume glory in five seconds.

I’m guessing the latter. Regardless of your reason, you need to interrupt the recruiter’s mind-numbing review process by giving her something she’ll love—right away. It’ll be your analogous “headline.”

She wants to know you’ll bring value to her organization.

The easiest way to do this is by encapsulating who you are professionally—in aggregate—and also highlighting your (likely three most) valuable contributions.

I suggest doing this in a Career Profile section at the very top followed immediately by a Career Highlights section immediately underneath.

I’ve already given you the exact formula and language in How to Build the Ultimate Professional Resume. I’ve also given you the templates whether you need a professional or collegiate resume.

Get your ultimate professional resume template with instruction here.

Get your ultimate collegiate resume template with instruction here.

The absolute DO NOTS as in NEVER EVER!

Don’t waste your most prime real estate at the top of your resume with…

An objective statement. Yuck. Double yuck. You are advertising what your objective, needs, or wants are. The employer wants to know what you can contribute. Tell them what you offer not what you want.

A bunch of skills: Ugh. Please, whatever you do, don’t list skills in a table or any other format that tells the employer you are a leader, project manager, hard-working, detail-oriented, energetic, so on and so forth and so boring. This takes up space sharing generic skills, which are technically your opinion of yourself. The employer wants facts. Give them facts. Caveat: you can identify skills in your career profile sparingly and according to the instruction I provided in How to Build the Ultimate Professional Resume.

An education section: Education is nice and should be toward the bottom of your resume if you’ve been working professionally for more than 24 hours. That’s right. You’re a pro now. Drop it down. Caveat: You are in a CV-type world where the studies, doctorates, and so forth are key. Caveat Part Deux: You’re a college student.

Coming soon! I’ll be running a webinar completely dedicated to writing the perfect resume. If you’re on my Tips for Work and Life® blog subscription, you’ll be notified!

FREE Live Job Interviewing Webcast: I’m offering a FREE LIVE WEBCAST titled 3 Keys to Ace Any Job Interview. It comes with great instruction and a nice workbook for note taking. Even more, I have an awesome giveaway when you attend. It’s an eBook titled How to Interview the Employer: 75 Great Questions to Ask Before You Take Any Job. There are several times available.

You can sign up here.

Like this episode? Please share it via social media and review it on iTunes! I can keep this blog and all future podcasts and videos ad-free and sponsor-free ONLY because you share my work! Please share or subscribe to my podcast and YouTube channel too!

Want more advanced material? Join the milewalk Academy!

Thanks!

Andy 

Have you wondered why you didn’t get hired even though you were perfect for the job? Join career expert, motivator, and award-winning author Andrew LaCivita as he discusses the number 1 reason you did not get hired!

Mistake Alert

Most people think they get hired because of their qualifications. In doing so, they expend so much energy in the interview focusing on their experience before they know which parts of their experience and qualifications the employer is most interested in. At this point, you must be thinking whaaaaaa?

The Obvious

You are in a job interview of some kind. The employer, through its action of spending time to speak with you, thinks you’re qualified—on paper.

The Not-So-Obvious 

You actually get a job interview because of your qualifications. You get the job for three reasons, none of which are your qualifications.

Why Do You Get the Job?

Based on my observation from thousands of interviews between my clients (the hiring companies) and job candidates (prospective employees), I've concluded a candidate's attainment of the job is largely contingent on three often-undetectable success factors:

• The candidate's ability to effectively articulate his or her qualifications and potential contributions (encoding)
• The interviewer's ability to accurately interpret the candidate's qualifications (decoding)
• The interviewer's capacity to remember the candidate (memory)

It all comes down to your ability to communicate how your qualifications match what the employer needs.

The Unfortunate Reality

The reality is you have a greater chance of failing the interview because of a misrepresentation or misinterpretation than you do a lack of qualification.

The 3-Step Fix 

1. Keep the three reasons why you get hired in mind. Awareness and consciousness (of these issues) is key to success. Of course, general consciousness is too. J

2. When asked an interview question, don’t rush to share your awesomeness unless you know which part of your awesomeness the interviewer and employer needs to know. (That is, it doesn’t matter if you’re fantastic. You need to connect the dots for the employer how your fabulousness matches what it needs!) Sometimes the job interviewer’s question is specific and he or she identifies clearly what’s needed. Other times, the interviewer is vague. Make sure to look before you leap.

3. Ask a clarifying question (if need be) to zone in on exactly what information the interviewer needs to know to determine whether you are a great fit. This is especially helpful in the wake of the dreaded and horribly ineffective, “Please tell me about yourself,” question. (See Bonus Section for more.)

Bonus Section 

For junior and mid-level folks who often face the dreaded, “Please tell me about yourself,” question, your immediate response to ensure clarification should be: 

I’d love to tell you about myself. Can you let me know what part of my background would be most helpful for you to know so you can make a good determination regarding whether I’m a great fit for your company?

For senior-level folks, make sure to clarify what the employer considers the most important growth areas (units) within the company as well as what attributes, traits, capabilities, and skills are most important for its leaders.

Free eBook and Video Series: Sign up for my Tips for Work and Life Blog® to receive a 3-Part video series that includes more information regarding this issue and how to overcome it through your storytelling and question asking. When you sign up for the blog, you also immediately receive a great eBook titled Ace Your Job Interview: Master the Best Answers to the 14 Most Effective Job Interview Questions. 

Free Live Webcast: I’m offering a FREE LIVE WEBCAST titled 3 Keys to Ace Any Job Interview. It comes with great instruction and a nice workbook for note taking. Even more, I have an awesome giveaway when you attend. It’s an eBook titled How to Interview the Employer: 75 Great Questions to Ask Before You Take Any Job. There are several times available.

You can sign up here:

https://www.milewalkacademy.com/p/webcast-3-keys-to-ace-any-job-interview-registration

Like this episode? Please share it via social media and review it on iTunes! I can keep this blog and all future podcasts and videos ad-free and sponsor-free ONLY because you share my work! Please share or subscribe to my podcast and YouTube channel too!

Want more advanced material? Join the milewalk Academy!

Thanks,

Andy