MUST-HAVES OF A SUCCESSFUL RESUME

By Barbara Gonzalez

The recruiting team may get a thousand resumes for one position; which means they have to skim them. They do not have time to read every single resume. Resulting is the hiring team spending about 7 seconds on average. Additionally, our eyes work in a Z pattern —. they go left to right across the top, down across, and back over. One of the secrets to a great resume is leveraging and optimizing how you design your resume.

Optimize Your Resume

A simple layout with clearly marked sections allows the reader to absorb the most amount of information about you in the shortest amount of time. Follow these tips:

Have a Headline

Two to three word sentence or summary about your professional skills. Example Financial Analyst Specialist, this will quickly demonstrate what your skills is.  Make sure you have a killer headline.

White Space

Make sure you have plenty of white space between the words. When there is too much text on a page it is impossible to read; recruiters will not bother to read your resume. White space includes wider margins on sides, top and bottom, and plenty of space between your work experiences. It is better to have a two or three page resume, full of white space and easy to read, than trying to cram it all onto one page and overwhelming the reader.

Key Skill Sets On the Top Half of Your Resume

You should have two columns with 8 to 10 skillsets listed. Skill sets are what you most want to leverage about you, things recruiters can measure. It’s what you can do for a company, how you can save or make them money; what are the task that you can complete. These are often found in the bottom of resumes. They must be front and center, under your headline, so very quickly I can read through them as a recruiter and check if you meet the qualifications. The recruiter is checking that you have everything they were told they need in order to share your resume with the hiring team. This will make it easy for them to form an impression about you as a professional. Again, key skillsets in the top fold/top half of your resume.

Lead And Bold Your Job Title in Work History

Recruiters are looking for progression in your career and start this search with your job titles; they are looking for growth with each position. By listing your job title first and bolding this, it will make my eye quickly look at that and be able to analyze and see your job history progression. It is more important about what you did than where you worked. Always lead and bold with your job title in your work history.

Font Size 11pt

Nothing smaller than an 11pt font should ever be used on your resume. Again, recruiters prefer a longer resume than short resume with small font. The goal is to easily read your resume faster and absorb who you are as a professional.

These five tips will helpmake sure your resume stands out and it is 7 seconds worthy and you get more
phone calls from recruiters.

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