3 Secrets to Holding the Attention of a Hiring Manager

a guest blog post by David Luke

3 Things to Remember

Have you heard that the average hiring manager only takes 30 seconds to read a new resume?  Well, according to Phil Rosenberg at Resume Revolution that time is now down to a mere 15 seconds.

15 seconds? That’s less time than it takes to get the conditioner to work in the shower!

Take a look at your current resume. See how far you can get – reading your resume as fast as you can – in fifteen seconds.  According to Phil, you will never get past the top half of the first page.

What does that mean to us?  For one, it means we probably have to start editing!

My current resume was put together by a resume professional seven years ago. She charged $400, which was top dollar back then. The format looked great, so I’ve just been updating once a year. It featured (and still does), a classically worded professional summary statement that is about nine sentences long. This is followed by my twelve areas of expertise and then followed by my professional experience.

Guess what happened when I took the time test? I didn’t even get past the first paragraph!

You’ll have to take Phil’s class, Resume Revolution to get all his secrets, but to start you might want to think about changing your personal summary statement to less than two sentences. Some people will want to eliminate it all together, and go straight to the professional experience. According to Phil, areas of expertise should now be listed last, and your professional experience needs to move way up towards the top of the first page.

Here’s why.

First, the hiring manager/recruiter only wants to know one thing – do your key words and experience help them solve their problems, address their current needs and do they match the key words in the job’s requirements. In order to be successful in gaining interest in your resume, some of those key words must be found in your first sentences of your summary statement and in your last few job listings.

Second, you might have heard that personal branding is one of the newest buzzwords in preparing for your job search. It’s true.  And it’s no different in the new and improved resume world either.

Some recruiters/hiring managers suggest that we replace the summary statement with a short branding statement.  A branding statement communicates your unique value proposition.  Your branding statement should be relevant for each specific job that you apply.  Each application now requires its own unique resume targeted at each specific job.  No more standard resumes – each one is unique unto itself.  And each one has its own branding statement.  Try it – it’s fun, but be prepared –it’s not easily done.

Third, you may want to tailor your branding statement to the kind of job that you are trying to get. It might mean that we all end up having dozens of different resumes, depending on each hiring company’s needs and each job’s requirements.

If some of these suggestions sound too radical for your personal style, try playing with different length combinations of personal branding and professional experience. There is no one perfect answer here.

Resumes are changing with the times and the medium that we use to distribute them.  And they will continue to evolve as our society and our methods of communication evolve.

Whatever we write, and wherever we positioning it, it has to be powerful, impactful and attention-getting.  This will always be true.

Your resume must contain the exact key words that the recruiter is looking for and they must be positioned within the top half of the first page of your resume.  It’s the only way to grab the attention of the hiring manager and make them want to read the complete resume.  If we do not capture his or her imagination within those first few sentences, we will lose the opportunity to impress him or her with anything else we have to say.

If we can get the hiring manager to read all the way to the bottom of our resume, we will be that much closer to that interview that we seek. But extra resume fluff and jargon won’t get us there.

So take the test – go time yourself as you read aloud your new resume, and see how far down the page you get in 15 seconds.  See if you are interested in reading further.  Refine it.  Hone it.  Edit it. Then re-write it again.

Finally, test it out on the people that you are planning to use as your references.  See if they get what you are about within that first 15 seconds.  If not – order another re-write.

And finally, when in doubt, remember one thing – less is more.

About David Luke:

David Luke is a 20-year publishing veteran who is currently consulting in the world of print and outdoor media.   He is completing his M.A. in Counseling, and has recently started an intense study on Mobile Marketing.    A trained public speaker, David is coordinating the P3 Career Advancement Division to help further develop the careers of those in the graphic communications industries.