Thursday, November 1, 2012

Is your Resume all Fluff and No Flavor?


Professional resume writers are not the only ones being bombarded with resumes from job seekers who are having no luck with their job search. Recruiters are too.

Too many of those resumes contain more fluff than flavor and really do not stand a chance. When you have 20-30 seconds to impress a recruiter or hiring manager as they complete a power scan of your resume, fluff won't help your resume make it to the "keep" pile.

Here are 3 resume writing tips to ensure that the top 30% of your resume packs a lot of punch, offering less fluff and more flavor:

1. Limit name, address and other contact details to two lines maximum. That is all you need. This may be harder with college resumes with a temporary and permanent address or some addresses in other countries. 20 Ways to Audit Resume Contact Information so Recruiters Can Find You

2. Audit your resume objective for relevance and focus. Get to the point! Guidelines for Writing Resume Objective Statements

3. Try a powerful summary of qualifications. One trick to writing a powerful summary of qualifications is to write it last. Pump up Your Resume with a Summary of Qualifications

The key is to make sure there is nothing in that top 30% that will make the recruiter stop reading.  Your goal should be to help them get to the other 70% of your resume where you share relevant skills, education and talk about outstanding outcomes.

3 comments:

Dee said...

Excellent advice as always Marcia. You sure do Get To the Point. Loved the ref to Sabina Park in the sample resume. Nice hat tip.

BullsEyeCareers said...

Thanks Dee.

I use those special references all the time to communicate when I get really nostalgic.

If you recognize it, then you know we have something in common.

Unknown said...

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