6 seconds. That’s all it takes for a recruiter to decide your fate.
If you move to the interview stage or not.
It sucks to hear, I know - your incredible hard work and lifelong efforts being decided in 6 seconds.
But now that you know this - you realize it’s about capturing attention quickly, not length.
So what are the 5 things corporate recruiters want job seekers to do on their resumes?
1. Include a Hard Skills Section
When we reformat our resumes, skills, and competencies are always at the top, right underneath the name, before you get into work experience.
When reviewing resumes, recruiters are often hunting for the hard skills first. Because hard skills determine if you can do the job.
It’s become increasingly popular to list skills near the top of the resume.
2. Use Accomplishments to Backup Your Skills
Skills are great but you can’t depend on a skills list alone.
Those skills lose their meaning when they’re not backed up by evidence, context, and accomplishments.
You want to bring the recruiter down this process:
Here are the hard skills that I have
Here’s my current job.
Here’s a project I worked on and what that accomplished.
Here’s the problem and here’s how I solved it.
Here’s my contribution to this company, and what I did.
If an important skill is listed, it should be made abundantly clear how and where that skill was utilized and developed. Evidence is required.
Instead of putting things like ‘hard-working,’ and ‘dedicated’, how is that demonstrated?
Instead, if you put down something like, ‘Haven’t missed targets more than 2 consecutive months in a year,’ that’s solid numbers, something that’s more tangible.
3. Prove That Your Experience Meets The Requirements
Direct experience is highly sought after.
Job seekers that clearly demonstrate that they have enough quality experience will stand out among applicants.
The questions you want to answer are:
How long have you been doing what you’ve been doing?
Were they any progressions in your career and what was the progression of not only what job title and what company you were working for
What types of companies have you worked with? Was it a startup? A large enterprise application? What was the size of the teams you worked with or managed?
4. Resume Formatting Matters
Quick and efficient is the name of the game.
While being quick, people can be judgemental quickly as well. That’s where you need to ensure:
You do not have errors
Your format allows the recruiter to easily skim their eyes downwards while absorbing your experiences and accomplishments
The logical flow of your resume, how you categorize the information, and how it reads.
It’s not just the design. Consistent formatting can make a difference.
5. Don’t Use a Resume Template with a Photo
Job seekers should also be cautious of resume formats that include their headshot.
The reason is that it immediately opens the door to recruiter discrimination, which is obviously something everyone is trying to avoid.
To safeguard themselves from claims of discrimination, some recruiters may also automatically reject any resume that includes the applicant’s photograph.