Does Your Resume suffer from ADHD

As an experienced recruiter and resume writer I have probably seen several hundred thousand resumes over my career.  I have identified several patterns that most resumes have in common.  In this post I want to focus on a major resume blunder that may be dramatically affecting your ability to get interviews.

Does your resume lack focus?

The first question that I ask my client during the initial resume writing consultation is, “What are you looking to do in your next position?”  Very few people are able to answer this question succinctly.  Having a defined focus in essential to your job search and must be established front and center on your resume.

As an experienced recruiter, I can tell you that it is true what you hear about resumes being evaluated for an average of 11 seconds.  If you can not get your message across to the person reviewing your resume in that time frame then forget about getting called in for an interview.  A recruiter must be able to look at your resume and get a feel for who you are, what you have done, and how your skills and experience will fit in with what the company is looking for. 

5 tips to focus your resume

1. First you need to determine what you want to do.  It is fine if you have several paths you are considering, you will just need to make sure that you have separate customized resumes for each path.
2. Make sure you have a summary or profile that cleary articulates your experiences.  If the first third of your resume does not sell who you are and why you are great for the job, then take some time to make some adjustments.
3. Weave your objective statement into your summary.  I do not recommend standard stand alone objective statements, but I do recommend that you make it clear in your summary statement exactly what you want to do.
4. Be sure your experience section supports your summary and objective.  Pull out the skills, responsibilities and accomplishments that are most relevant and supportive of your goal.  If it doesn’t fit in, leave it out.
5. Consider a Headline.  Using a well writtenn headline write below your contact information can be very powerful and set the tone for the rest of the resume.  If you could answer the “What is this candidate all about?” question right up front you will engage the reader to continue reading.  When the reader sees that everything matches and tells a consistent story, you will be on your way to beginning the interview process.

The job market is way to competitive to leave your resume to chance.  By making sure that your resume is tight and focused you will have a leg up on your competition.
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Author Bio- This post was written by Dan Keller.  Dan is a career advice blogger and experienced resume writer . If you are want to see if your resume measures up, send an email to proreswriter@gmail for a free resume rating and evaluation.

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2 Responses to “Does Your Resume suffer from ADHD”

1. resume objective says:

   November 21, 2010 at 9:15 am

   One good way to make resume summary stand out is to incorporate keywords found in the job description. Use those keywords in your resume. This will create a more targeted resume and increase your chance of getting a call for interview.
2. Professional Resume Writing says:

   September 10, 2010 at 2:59 am

   According to the accepted resume ingredients rule, the dates on the resume are not as important as the tile or job position you held in your last job. Besides that, you need to list your working experience and education in the reverse chronological order so that the most recent one remains at the top of your resume.