Nobody’s going to read your resume

But that’s OK, you can still get hired. 

Have you ever watched the interviewer when you’ve had an in-person interview? If you haven’t, you should. They don’t actually read your resume, they skim. We casually talk about “reading resumes”, but no-one ever does. Everyone skims. 

The only goal of a resume is to get you an interview. It's a marketing brochure. So you need to make your resume skim-friendly. To do that, it’s helpful to think of skims happening incrementally.

1️⃣ An initial 3-4 second skim

2️⃣ A deeper skim if “the reader” likes what they see on the first skim 

3️⃣ A yet deeper skim that a hiring manager might perform…

You get the drift. For now, let’s focus on that initial 3-4 second skim. Because if you don’t succeed there, you won’t ever get to the deeper skims. It’s all about that summary paragraph at the top of your resume. If you don’t have one, now’s the time to fix that.

That summary has to show a strong basic fit for the open role. Don’t make “the reader” have to think about it, serve up exactly what they need to see. Demonstrable success doesn’t hurt either. You should tune and refine your summary for every role you apply for. Here’s what you’re aiming for:

💡 60-80 words, short and concise enough for a quick skim

💡 Experience and responsibilities that match the job description (JD). If the JD asks for 5+ years experience in graphic design and you have that, say so. Don’t say 10+ years, don’t write highly experienced, type 5+ years. If the JD asks for a “detail oriented marketing professional” and that’s you, tell them. Within reason, if the job description asks for a specific skill and you have that skill, get it into your professional summary.

💡 I don’t see this very often, but I highly encourage you to close your professional summary with one or two quantifiable achievements. Just copy and paste from the bullets further down your resume. Everyone likes a winner.

Need help shaping your professional summary? Use the button at the top of the page to setup a free call and we can knock it into shape.