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How to survive the six-second resume review

Six seconds. That's how long you have to make an impression with your resume, according to one recent study. With such a narrow window in which to convince a recruiter or hiring manager to keep your CV for future consideration, it has to be polished, delivering your message with clarity and enthusiasm.

To help you survive those crucial six seconds, here's a list of what influences recruiters and hiring managers  look for, both for good and bad, when reading your resume:

The good:

  • Certifiable skills: While you have likely heard the phrase before, be careful not to confuse "relevant skills" with "relevant experience." Empty descriptors like "hard-working" or "detail-oriented" mean little compared to specific skills that can be corroborated by relevant certifications. Spend more time describing what you know how to do than listing what you're like as a person you can show that off during your interview.
  • Situational experience: A job title doesn't mean much on its own, so hiring managers and recruiters look for your resume to provide context and explain the specific scenarios you were expected to deal with in each role. Read a few descriptions of the job for which you'd like to be considered, and highlight any experience you have that speaks to how you might perform in the new role. Specificity is key!
  • Measurable accomplishments: Where possible, include some statistics that demonstrate your impact on your department or your company. Use this opportunity to show recruiters or hiring managers the direct value you bring to an organization.

The bad:

  • Errors: Often times, hiring managers will simply throw away a resume that's riddled with grammatical and spelling errors, as they assume the candidates work will reflect the same lack of polish. It can be surprisingly difficult to catch your own mistakes sometimes, so have a friend (or two!) review your resume for errors before submitting it.
  • Poor formatting: While using a creative layout can be an effective way to differentiate your resume from the pack, it is never worth confusing a recruiter or hiring manager. If they feel lost trying to find specific information on your CV, they're likely to simply move on to the next one. Send your resume to a few friends and ask for their feedback on how easy it was to find the information they were looking for. In many cases, it can be better to spice up a standard resume with a creative graphic or clean typography than redesigning the format altogether.

For help getting your resume into the right hands, try working closely with an executive recruiter. Recruitment consultants like YES Partners can help you connect with some of your industry's top companies, even if they never post their openings online.

To see some of the roles we have already successfully placed, click here!

Finding people is easy, but finding the RIGHT people is not. YES Partners helps companies FIND the right people for all company functions, across many industries and globally.

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