Take a guess how much time the average HR manager spends looking at a resume? I will tell you that there are a couple of different resume review levels. There’s the 6-second rule. An individual skims a resume in six seconds and they look for a few skills – boom, boom, boom. It can be your name and the couple of letters after your name, that’s one. Your school, boom, that’s two. Your current job, boom, that’s three.
One of your big personal skills or your charitable activities or whatever. They’re looking for just a few things. Very high level. Six seconds and that’s it. If you pass that test, they might look back over it again for something with more depth, but at that review, they probably only spend 20 to 25 seconds looking at the resume. Then there’s a third review, where, if you have touched some sort of chord with them, they will actually look with more depth. And it’s not until this point that they will actually read your words.
So you need to make sure that your resume is crisp and clear and telling the reader where you want to go in the 6-second overview and in the 20 to 25-second overview and then in the longer minute and a half, two-minute review.
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