Hi everyone, this is Andy LaCivita, founder
of milewalk and the milewalk Academy and award winning author of The Hiring Prophecies, here
with this week's episode for work and life. I've got a great one to help you succeed in
your careers. It's all about getting your resume noticed
and how to get it noticed in five seconds, guaranteed. This topic is so hot that I decided to wear
my hot salmon colored top. If you're watching me on the podcast, hope
over to my blog or hop over to YouTube just so I can brighten your day. It is that hot. It's really, really important that you get
your resume noticed quickly. Today what we're going to do is we're going
to talk about, how do you get the resume noticed? What's actually happening when someone opens
your resumes, how they look at it? How can you make sure that you're getting
on top of them right away so that they recognize this as something that they want to continue
reading? The third thing we're going to talk about
is what not to do. Just by way of background and just so you
understand how many resumes I've actually looked at in my life. In my career, I have looked at more than a
half a million resumes. I'm not kidding. How could something like that happen? For decades, I have been recruiting and interviewing
and hiring people at a high velocity. Throw in, or maybe a not so thanks, to a great
recession, but thanks to that great recession a number of years back, I spent four entire
years looking at about 1,500 to 2,000 resumes a week. Then we also have some great relationships
with outplacement organizations that help large organizations facilitate the exit of
individuals. Whenever they go into reduction and force
or one of their clients goes into reduction and force, they send us resumes by the thousands
hoping we might be able to help them. I do look at an awful lot of resumes, and
in one of my earlier posts titled How to Fill the Ultimate Professional Resume, I gave you
what I thought was the ideal layout for your resume, whether you're a professional or a
college student. Let's talk today about how do you make sure
that that resume gets noticed right away? You already understand how I've looked at
so many resumes. Now I want to talk to you about how long you
have. You've got about six seconds. That's from my personal experience, looking
at all of those resumes, that's about how long it takes me to look at the entire resume
and determine if I want to look at it. If you don't want to take my word for it,
there are many job sites like The Ladders and Monster and others that year after year
they interview, or they survey. They're recruiters with the hirers and employers
that are using their site. They ask them, how long does it take you to
analyze a resume? Six seconds is the number, which means you
have five seconds to interrupt that person, to make sure that you get their attention
and that they're noticing what you have. That's how long you have. How does somebody like me actually look at
a resume? What's actually happening in that six seconds? First thing I do, and assuming for the most
part, that somebody's going to be opening your resume via email or a career portal,
or something of that nature, up is going to come the resume. The first place my eyes go, so my first eye
glance is at the top. I'm looking at the top, center, I'm looking
for your name. I don't need to see a whole lot of other stuff. I'd like to see your address because I'd like
to know where you live, but I don't need to see a whole bunch of letters and other hieroglyphics
after your name. That's just going to prohibit my ability to
remember it. The next thing that I do is I look, all at
once, at the top half of the first page of what should be a no longer than two page resume. I look at the top half. The whole top half. I look at it all at once. I'm looking for something in particular that
I'll talk about in a couple of moments. I look at the top half of the first page. I don't read it. I don't read it no matter what it says. I just look at it. Then what I do is I go down the left column
and I start to look for which organizations or which companies you've worked for. I care way more about the companies you worked
for than the particular positions that you've held within them. I want to look for super bowlers, people that
have played on a super bowl team that have got good pedigree, that have been well trained. I care more about the company. If I have to look for it, that frustrates
me, so I go down the left column. Then what I do is I go to the next page and
I look at the entire second page all at once only to let myself know, I'm really looking
for just what's on the page. Is it a little more work history, is it your
education, is it your volunteer programs or activities or other credentials or boards
you sit on, or whatever it might be. That's what I do. I look at the name at the top. I look at the top half of the resume all at
once. Then I go down the left column, I look for
the organizations. Then I look at the whole second page all at
once. Beyond that I won't look. If you have third page, it's just going to
upset me. It frustrates me because you don't respect
my time. That's actually how I feel. Now that you understand how I look at the
resume. Now, all of that took me about six seconds. It really took me about six seconds. If the resume's shorter, it might even take
me less time. That's all it takes. Now I have to decide, what am I going to do? Based on what information you have there will
tell me whether or not I want to read more. When I think about why did you open this blog
post? There's probably one of two reasons. You either know me and love me and said, "Oh
my god, Andy's got another great post or article or video or whatever, I'm going to have to
click it just because I want to read everything he writes," or, more likely, you have no idea
who I am, and you're thinking, "Based on the headline, wow, this guy is promising me resume
glory in five seconds. I'm going to check it out." There was a headline that got your attention
that caused you to click that caused you to get here. You're resume, assume that you have to do
the same thing with your resume, so where's the headline go? At the top of the front page. It's the first thing that they're going to
see. You need to, in a few seconds, entice them
to want to read more. That's the real estate that's the most prime. You've got to show them how you add value,
how you can add value to their life, how you can add value to their company, where it is
that you've been, what it is that you've done, all at the top. The easiest way to do that is just like I
instructed, in How to Build the Ultimate Professional Resume, if you want to look at that, it's
in the notes. I tell you exactly what you have to put up
there. Two great things, a career profile that in
aggregate shows your entire career in a paragraph or two. The second thing is, your career highlights. What value you've contributed and how an organization,
a customer base, or somebody of people or groups has improved because of what you've
done. I'm not going to go into all the details. The important message that I want you to understand
is, at the top, the top half of the front page, that's where you put the career profile
and the career highlights. I promise you that, if done well, and if you
do them in accordance with how I instructed in How to Build the Ultimate Professional
Resume, you'll have the right language. They'll be enticed. What that will do is it will help you share
with them immediately who you are. You'll give them a picture of you in their
mind and you'll avoid some things I don't want you to do. There are three really big don'ts. You know, as I mentioned, this is the most
prime real estate that you have to entice the employer to keep reading. Do not, under any circumstances, put an objective
statement. An objective statement is what you want. Not what you offer. Don't waste any of your prime real estate
on the resume in those few precious seconds that you have, telling them what you want. Tell them what you offer. The second thing that I see a lot of people
do that wastes tons of real estate is putting a laundry list of skills. At first off, putting a laundry list of skills
is bad, but if you put a laundry list of skills that are really, really generic like leadership,
project management, detail oriented, hard working, good communication skills, no one
cares about those. That is your opinion of yourself. What you need to do is you need to make sure
that you're stating facts and evidence of why you are as awesome as you are. The person who's looking at the resume isn't
going to take your word for it. They want to see some hard evidence, at least
on paper, of what you bring to the table. Don't waste any of that up front area talking
about these generic skills. If you have some really discreet skills that
are really, really good, they're certifications, they're training programs, things of that
nature, just put them at the bottom of your resume on the second page. It's a great spot for them. Just make sure that they're something really
worth putting in and not these really generic labels that you can actually talk about in
a more concrete fashion throughout the resume. The third thing, if you are a professional,
and when I say professional, I mean you've been working for longer than 24 hours, don't
put your education at the top. Put your education at the bottom. The moment you have your first job and you
are working, you're now a pro. Take that education, move it to the bottom
of the resume, wherever that might be, bottom of the first page, bottom of the second page,
middle of the second page, doesn't matter, but put the education there. Education is great, but we don't want you
consuming the top portion of the resume, the most prime real estate with education unless
you are a college student. I also talk about collegiate resumes and all
that stuff. It's also in the body and in the notes. I hope that really helps. You want to make sure, the moral of the story
is, you want to make sure that you're taking the top half of the front of your resume and
putting in a career profile that's an aggregation of who you are and what you've done, as well
as three major valuable contributions, the ones you're most proud of, up at the top. Like I said, I instruct exactly how to do
that in How to Build the Ultimate Professional Resume. Couple other quick things. If you really, really want more resume help,
in the next couple of weeks, I'm going to be doing an hour long resume on how to write
the perfect resume. Depending on when you're watching this or
when you're seeing this, it might already be out. The second thing is, I've got a great job
interviewing webinar. It's free. It's live. This job interviewing webcast is called Three
Keys to Ace Your Job Interview. It's fantastic. We've been running some sessions so far. That's in the notes on how to sign up. Lastly, if you enjoyed this, please share
it or give me some comments on the blog or on the social feeds. Always love to hear from you. Until next time, have a good one.
