Resumes that will get you an interview
- 31 Jul 2011
- Resume Writing
- 22 Comments »
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Imagine one hundred emails or a pile of one hundred resumes. It’s late on a Monday night and the HR Manager or Director has twenty minutes to cull that pile into no more than ten for potential interviews. Now think of the resume you are going to send. Will it stand out? Does it get your message across? Will you be selected for an interview? Will you hit the yes pile?
It’s the role of an executive recruiter to read resumes in depth and part of their professional livelihood to ensure that they don’t miss a key skill or passage of experience in a job seeker’s resume. The corporate line or HR manager often doesn’t have the same luxury of time. They will quickly glance through the resume looking for the key parameters required for the role and will usually sort the responses into three potential interview piles: yes, no and maybe.
They will often spend no more than five seconds glancing through your work.
If the resume is too long, too short, badly presented or illegible, the resume immediately goes in the no pile. If they can’t readily see what they are looking for on the resume it also goes in the no pile. This is where the job seeker has the right skills or experience for the job but hasn’t displayed them and this happens in almost every recruitment assignment. If it happens to you it’s unforgivable. Both you and the employer miss out on a great opportunity.
To be considered for interview, build an effective resume which will ensure you reach the yes pile. If there aren’t enough resumes in the yes pile, the recruiter will probably look through the maybe’s in a little more detail.
Depending on the recruiters preference, they will interview some or all of the yes pile.
Now you see the extent of the problem. It’s very easy for you to get lost in the five second screening test. Your resume must stand out. Here are 15 tips to ensuring that it does stand out in a positve way.
15 tips to ensure your resume stands out
1. Get focused on the objective of your resume
The objective of your resume is to win you an interview. It’s that simple. It’s not the life and times of your role. Keep it stylish, professional and succinct. Make it want to be read.
2. Know what recruiters look for
In the five second screening recruiters are looking reasons not to pick your resume. If they don’t see the labels they are looking for they will not put you in the ‘yes’ pile.
These labels are generally:
- Personal details (name location etc)
- Knowledge (qualifications, schools and universities)
- Skills (technical and technological)
- Experience (employer brand names and responsibilities, achievements)
- Career objectives
3. Make it relevant to the job or employer in question
Spend the time to make sure your resume fits the job application (or employer) otherwise you’re unlikely to win an interview. This means tailoring the skills and experience you have to the job or employer in question. It does not mean being liberal with the truth. If you have to do that then you are not right for the role.
4. It’s your advert – there is no right or wrong
There is no right or wrong. It’s your advertisement and your resume. As such, it should reflect you. If you engage a resume writing service ensure that you spend the time to review and be satisfied with the final document.
5. Style – You are a professional, make it look professional
Even though 99% of resumes are now delivered electronically it is still imperative that your resume is professionally crafted. When it comes to formatting, less really is more. Keep the fonts legible and consistent and maximise use of space. There is no need to include your photo to your resume but for those that do want to, ensure it is a professional mug shot. If you do prefer to stand out and send your resume via traditional mail, make sure that paper your resume is printed is of a quality grade.
6. Length – 3-5 pages max
Depending on the stage of your career, your resume should really be no more than five pages long. Remember, it only needs to get you to interview. You can provide additional information on request.
7. Structure – Ensure a mix between functional / chronological
American resumes tend to be ‘functional’ displaying skills and experience but they often lack depth and don’t equate experience with employers. European resumes tend to be chronological and often gloss over skills. Try to achieve the best of both worlds in your resume.
8. Personal details
You don’t need to put age by law but your potential employer will often try to guess. You can help them or hinder them. They will also want to know where you live and if you have a valid work visa. If it’s not obvious, state that you do. Whatever you do, put your contact details where they can be found.
9. Knowledge (qualifications, schools and universities)
Potential employers will be more likely to interview you if you have the right educational and professional qualifications and less likely if you don’t. You can’t do anything about this at resume preparation stage except document what you do hold in entirity. This includes what stage you are at and your pass rate. This is important at all stages in your career.
10. Skills (technical and technological)
If it’s not obvious in the body of the resume, often a brief paragraph detailing your technical and technology skills will help to sell you.
11. Experience (employer brand names and responsibilities, achievements)
Employers like to see who you’ve worked for. They want to see job titles and a concise description of responsibilities and achievements so that they can start to visualise how you can add value to them in this position. Help them by equating your achievements to the requirements of the job.
12. Career objectives
If you’re starting out in your career or wanting to make a career change then restate your career goals.
13. Referees
I would suggest that you leave referee names off your resume but include a line saying that references can be provided on request. In this way you have more control over the recruitment process.
14. Salaries
This is an emotive issue. Employers will want to know your salary but it’s unlikely to be a deciding factor on whether to interview so I would leave it off the initial resume.
15 Objective review
Once you’ve prepared your resume, leave it a day or so and then try and read it objectively with the image of the one hundred resumes in your mind. If you have a close friend who will give you constructive advice ask them to review it also. We would also be happy to give you our professional view.
These articles are great, wish I had read them a few months ago. Definately worth reading them all. Thank you for assistance.
Some application processes do not permit an application letter. So my CV becomes 5 pages: 1 page application letter addressing the criteria inthe ad 1 page career summary – name, contact details, qualifications, skills summary, companies where I have worked, timeframe and their industry 3 page chronological career history with my job title, reported to, major responsibilities and major achievements. No role is broken by a page break. But 2 years down the track I’m still looking!
Sally-Anne (myambition) Reply:
March 24th, 2010 at 3:57 pm
2 years is a long time to be in the market. What type of roles are you looking at, how are you managing your jobs search, working with recruiters? I would be interested to know how many interviews your resume has secured you to date.
I am searching for last 3 months. But was able to secured only 1 interview.. Can u please advise me about to write OBJECTIVE.. I am so confused.. I have 4 years overseas exp in accounts. Now I want any accounts job including entry level. please advice me, how can I write the objective. Thanks in advance.
Sally-Anne Blanshard Reply:
September 28th, 2010 at 3:07 pm
Your objective is a summary paragraph that sells what you want to do. It is an opportunity for you to sell your skills featured in the resume. Take a look at these tips:
-Consider more of a “value to the organization”
-Make it personal
-Use of adjectives that are relevant to you
Here is an example:
Results driven and ambitious with experience in financial accounting and various management roles. Highly adaptable to new challenges as demonstrated by the transfer of a flexible skill set to a diverse range of management roles. Proven capability to effectively communicate on all levels from senior management to operational and support staff.
Hope this helps you construct your career objective.
Good Luck
I am looking for a job since last 6 months and haven’t managed to find one until now. I have 6 years of accounting experience and am also professionally qualified but overseas and not in Australia. I have 3 years of work experience here and want to move on to a next level since this is an entry level job that i did to get started here. I am not sure how to write the key achievements in my Resume, since sometimes it feels exagerrating too much. how should I write my key achievements? Please help.
Sally-Anne Blanshard Reply:
January 21st, 2011 at 5:18 am
Hi there
You will find this article useful.
http://www.myambition.com/2009/09/what-have-i-achieved-having-difficulty-with-ideas/
Achievements are your opportunity to ’sell’ your experience on your resume/CV. Once you have been able to quantify and qualify those achievements you are likely to be asked about them in interview. A resume without achievements is like a Chocolate bar without chocolate!
You may also find the resume and interview tutorials useful.
http://www.myambition.com/products/resume-interview-package/
Good luck.
Hello,
Can i have format for cover letter and resume?
Regards,
swati
Sally-Anne Blanshard Reply:
February 14th, 2011 at 5:06 am
Hi there
You will find templates in our downloadable interactive tutorials and also featured in various articles in the resume section.
http://www.myambition.com/products/
http://www.myambition.com/category/resume-writing/
Enjoy browsing!
Sally-Anne
Sally-Anne Blanshard Reply:
February 14th, 2011 at 12:54 pm
Hi Swati,
You will find templates in our downloadable interactive tutorials and also featured in various articles in the resume section.
http://www.myambition.com/products/
http://www.myambition.com/category/resume-writing/
Good luck,
Emma
Hi
Despite the fact that I have 2.5 years’ experience in Bookkeeping, Accounts payable & receivable in Melbourne Australia in addition to being CA/CPA qualified and I have prepared my resume with the help of professional resume writers, I have only been able to secure a few job interviews. Since my experiences are based on small companies and thereby many organizations want candidate with 4/5 years’ experience, I decided to apply for graduate position. My biggest wonder is I have applied so many graduate positions but I am yet to receive any call for interview. Some graduate position requires that experience would be an advantage. so I thought since I have 2.5 years’ experience from Melbourne and thereby very few Uni/TAFE graduates do have experience because of lots of challenges while being accounting/finance student, I would be able to secure this position easily. But in reality this does never happen. I even get rejected in the casual position like one a week job. Even when I get such rejection recruitment agency still advise me to apply for any future position. Again and again I get rejected again and again they make such advice. Whenever I call or email them to explain why I have been unsuccessful, they say they have more than 200 applicants and there are some candidates who are more suitable for this position, regardless of what position. Can anyone please give me advise under such situation what to do
Sally-Anne Blanshard Reply:
May 30th, 2011 at 10:55 am
Thanks for your email, I appreciate you taking the time to comment.
I have asked Emma, one of our Career Managers to email you to discuss further.
Cheers
Sally-Anne
Hi, I am very much in a similar situation with the above member who has the relevant experience yet has not been able to secure a job. I am currently employed but am looking to progress with my career. my current compnay has no career progression hence my search. Please give me advcei as to how i can secure another job.
Thanks
Sally-Anne Blanshard Reply:
August 3rd, 2011 at 7:34 pm
I think that it does take a lot of patience and perseverance.
You need to combine your job search with both proactive and reactive methods: make sure you are networking, speaking to your contacts, applying directly to companies that are advertising and those that are not.
Also keep your search reactive to new jobs posted on job boards, magazines.newspapers and through recruiters.
Hope this helps.
Sally-Anne
Take a look at this article too. http://www.myambition.com/tag/job-search/
It is very interesting to note, that most of the above commentators are immigrants having a tough time integrating into the job market. This may be besides the topic of resume writing, but apparently foreign experience from Asian or Middle Eastern countries does seem to be a bit of a ‘turn off’ when it comes to competitive roles in Australia. How do you suggest one mitigates this factor in his or her resume ?
Sally-Anne Blanshard Reply:
August 4th, 2011 at 7:45 pm
Thanks for your comment. Having worked in the UK and Australia as a recruiter my advice was always about education. Being able to educate the reader as to who you have worked for and making a comparison to an Australian business or well know company. Since resumes/CVs are viewed online it can be helpful to include a hyperlink to the company website/about us page. Hope this helps.
Sally-Anne
Hi Sally,
I read the Morshed’s comment and I am in a very similar situation. I have to recognise that I’m not very good at writing resumes, for that reason I have paid for professional resume writes help, twice. The last one was very convincing in showing me the total points that my resume earned in each key parts. So I paid and actually I am really happy with my current resume. However, I haven’t been able to secure any interview since then, moreover I haven’t even received any “unfortunately” responses. This resume seems to be worst that my previous one. At this stage I don’t know what else to do, because none can’t tell me where I am failing. This situation is like go fishing always with the wrong bait.
I’d appreciate any comment or help you could give me.
Thank you
Sally-Anne Blanshard Reply:
August 7th, 2011 at 11:33 am
Hi Martin thank you for taking the time to comment. I would be happy to take a look at your resume. Please can you send this through and let’s talk. I may not have all the answers but I am more than happy to give you some direction.
Sally-Anne
Hi
Getting in the door has been the hardest thing for me. I am a generalist, having done a lot of everything, just not in the specific roles. e.g managed incidents ad finitum but never in a Incident Manager role. Also a lot of the positions seek someone who is doing the hard yards now, not has had the experience and moved onwards. Managerial jobs in finance technology are not in abundance!
My resume got the tick of approval from the outplacement agency, has a profile, objective, roles, responsibilities, achievements, education and personal interests.
However the silence is deafening and seriously thinking of packing it in altogether and taking a different work/life option altogether. The biggest frustration is the non-response. The short polite you didn’t cut the mustard is so much better. I am still hanging out for jobs advertised months ago yet no sign of being short listed, contacted or rejected. The jobs are still vacant. Just happens to be my former employer, which only adds further uncertainty to the mix.
Sally-Anne Blanshard Reply:
August 7th, 2011 at 11:37 am
Hi Martyn – thanks for your comment. have you considered a Skills Based resume that will enabl you to offer the chance to go into more detail regarding your skills on your resume, rather than a chronological version?
I know it is frustrating to put your resume out there and never get a response. I would follow up each application to the recruiter or employer.
You need to take both a reactive and proactive approach to your job search – it sounds like you have the reactive part covered with applying for role but what about the proactive part – networking, researching companies you can work for, finding contacts on Linked in etc.
Happy to discuss further. We offer career consultations for that very reason.
http://www.myambition.com/career-coaching/1-hour-career-consultation/
Good luck
Sally-Anne
Hi,
I also have the same problem with others. I have three years experience in Australia as assistant accountant, doing full function of account payable and receivabless. I resigned 2 years ago because I had baby; but I undertook CPA to update my skills when I was out of work force. I sent a lot of applications and I even applied for the job which is simplier than I did in the past such as account payable but I am still not sucessful. They always have a standard reply saying my skills did not match. It really hurt. i do not know the reason behind that. I studied Bachelor in Vietnam but I did Master degree of accounting in Australia. I did have experience in Australia as I mentioned before. I did use various f accounting software such as MYOB, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamic, but still can get 1 interview. Sometimes I think maybe because they prefer Australian ( I am Australian citizen but not born in here). I appreciate if you can give me some advice to help me overcome this situation.
Sally-Anne Blanshard Reply:
August 14th, 2011 at 11:04 pm
Hi there
I understand it must be very frustrating.
I think there are a number of factors that spring to mind:
- We have had a change in the market since you resigned to go on maternity leave. The Global Financial Crisis meant there was a significant increase in the amount of people looking for a job.
- You also do have some employers/recruiters who would prefer to have people with more than 2 years ‘local’ experience. Whilst you have 2 years experience, you also have had 2 years out so again, your competition is steep.
I would suggest that you contact the agencies/recruiters who are advertising the jobs you are interested in. Ensure you are prepared to run through what it is you are looking for in terms of role and whether full time or part time. They will be testing your communication skills over the phone so practice in advance and ensure you have no distractions. Can the CPA support team help you – did you complete your CPA? There are a number of networking groups managed by CPA that may be a good way of getting back into it?
Finally – if you are still not making any in roads, then ask for some feedback. “What do you need to do in order to be considered for a role” would be a good question to start with.
I hope this helps you?
Sally-Anne