How do you know if your resume is going to wow employers and provoke a callback or an interview? When you finish working on a resume, it is important to put it through a test run before you send it out to represent you. This list of seven tests will determine whether your resume is ready for prime time or whether it needs a little more work.
1) What's Your Text-to-Blank-Space Ratio? - The ideal ratio is 50-50 - too much text makes your resume feel cluttered, but too little text makes it feel sparse and unqualified. You should divide your resume into quadrants and ensure that each quadrant has approximately a 50-50 ratio. If one quadrant feels too cluttered or too sparse, play with your formatting or add / remove content to make it more readable at a glance.
2) The 20-Second Test - Have a friend or family member read your resume for twenty seconds, then take it back and ask them to describe everything they remember upon reading it. Most employers will only look at each resume for about twenty seconds, so this is a good simulation of what is actually going to happen. If you wanted certain information to stand out but your test subject didn't mention it, the information must not have stood out strongly enough. Conversely, if a minor detail seemed major in your reader's description, you might want to tone down that text in your resume.
3) Results Orientation Test - When an employer looks at a resume, he or she is thinking, "How will this employee support my company's bottom line?" Employers are not interested in whether you're a nice guy or gal, a hard worker, or even an experienced professional - they want proof that you will bring results to the company. By emphasising the tangible results of your previous employment to your previous company, you will cause the dollar signs to light up in employers' minds.
4) Specificity Test - Do you make claims that can't be verified? Specific numbers are always better than vague qualitative analyses. Go through your resume with a fine-toothed comb and cross out anything fluffy or unfounded like, "good interpersonal skills," and "conscientious." Nobody can prove or disprove that, and it means nothing to someone who is about to risk money on their payroll to take a chance on your skills.
5) Branding Test - Someone should be able to know who you are and what you want within five seconds of looking at your resume. This is often accomplished by means of a summary statement in a prominent place about a third of the way down the first page, but other elements such as layout and length can also have a huge role in branding who you are as a person. You want your personal brand to mesh with the company's brand, but in order to do that you have to have a brand in the first place. What's the overall feeling you get when you look at your resume for two seconds? Give it to friends and ask them what they think.
6) Growth Test - We all have a hodgepodge of employment records, but the trick in a resume is making it look as though your employment has shown a consistent pattern of growth and increased responsibility over the course of your career. Oftentimes the actual truth of what you did is less important than the general story of the arc of your career that your resume presents. If it looks as though you've steadily grown, you're more likely to get a job with opportunities for advancement.
7) Grammar and Spelling Test - Obviously, you can't turn in a resume with spelling mistakes. Once you've made all the style changes that you need to make after following the above six tests, you have to finalize the package. Every awkward statement, every misspelled word, and every incomplete sentence will be held against you in comparison with other resumes on the market. Many employers simply don't have time to deal with poor grammar and spelling.
These tests represent the unconscious judgment factors that run through employers' minds as they scan over your resume. By tailoring your resume to pass these tests, you will significantly improve your chances of getting the job.
No comments:
Post a Comment