Strange question you may say, but one of the many challenges of writing a resume is that you don’t know how many people will read it and what their role is in the selection process.
A resume is a static document that is often seen by a number of people.
If your resume is to stand out in a market increasingly overcrowded with job seekers, don’t just focus on the requirements of the role. Think about who is actually reading your resume.
Resumes for Recruitment consultants
For recruitment consultants a brief resume is better. Right now many recruiters are struggling to survive. Their clients are listing fewer jobs and consultants will often compete against each other in a race to fill those jobs.
Few people realize this but, consultants do not always read all the resumes that hit their desks. They may just look at the best five near the top of their pile then quickly invite a lucky few into interview.
If you’re applying for a job through a recruitment consultant your resume must make it very obvious on the front page what you have to offer.
If you respond to a consultant’s online advertisement, never just hit “apply now” then wait. Always call before you send your resume to find out more about the role and to tell the consultant when to expect your application. Refine your resume based on that chat. Call after you send your resume to make sure the consultant reads it. You can then cover off any concerns/questions he or she may have.
Once the consultant invites you in for interview you can then question them about the role to craft a resume more targeted to the job role. Questions should focus on the challenges involved in the role as well as what is involved in the hiring/screening process.
Try to find out what the next stage looks like, who will be interviewing you, what their concerns will be and how time poor they are. You can then work up a resume to take into the next interview with the “client” – that is, the employer. You can refer to this resume in interview and leave it with the employer at the end.
There are good reasons to refine your resume after a consultant interviews you. The biggest one is that all companies or government agencies for that matter, want you to have done your homework. But often the only time you’ll find out the name of the consultant’s client (the employer) is after you’ve sat in front of the consultant. Only then can you go away and look all over the potential employer’s company website and read anything online to relate your skills to the challenges ahead.
Another reason to do this is that a consultant may re-type your resume. Often this is a task left to an administration person. It will generally be based on a standard template and the quality of that new resume can vary from good to bad.
Resumes for employers - HR managers, team leaders, managers
If your resume is going directly to a large company or government agency, they will have internal recruiters or HR staff reading it. As a general rule, you’ll need to spell out your achievements clearly to make it easy for this group to on-sell you to their internal “client” – the person you would be working for.
If your resume is going directly to a manager or team leader they will be interested in both your achievements and some specifics on how you achieved what you’ve claimed.
“Achievements” are the things you did in a past job that you were not paid to do. Use bullets to list items such as staff awards, special commendations, suggestions you put forward, scoped out or helped to implement that led to cost savings or an increase in revenue, access to new clients, higher levels of customer service, time efficiencies and so on.
Please note that meeting a target is not an achievement - it's doing what you are paid to do. Exceeding a monthly target is an achievement. Achievements show potential hirers what you are made of - and what they can expect you will do for them.
Resumes for Networking
You’ll need a completely different approach to resume writing when you are using your networks to find a role.
For example, when you are canvassing people for opportunities, sending out a fully fleshed out resume may see your opportunities limited to what you have down on that piece of paper.
Instead take a blank page when you have your first meeting with someone to research a company or an industry. Fill that with answers to the questions you may have. If this meeting goes well, you may be asked to provide your resume. Then you can go away and put something together based on your research.
Resumes for government
However, there are times where your resume isn’t so closely scrutinized. Government interviews are one example.
Government jobs require candidates to answer “selection criteria”. While in the private sector the resume is commonly used to cull and shortlist candidates for jobs, in the public sector, the most important thing is how well a candidate addresses the selection criteria.
If your written responses don’t address the requirements of the selection criteria you may not get an interview even if you have the most dazzling resume. While you may be stressing about your resume, the recruiting panel will be stressing about reading the volumes of the “claims to the position” they’ve received, which is what they call the responses to the selection criteria.
The panel will generally only read your resume for context if they need to find out where you gained your skills if you haven’t spelt this out clearly enough in your responses to the selection criteria formelly called “KSAs”.
Last word on resumes
A final thing to consider when you’re thinking about who’s reading your resume is that no matter who that audience is, perfect spelling and grammar is a must.
Assume every person reading your resume is busy with many tasks on their plate and so will appreciate an easy to read and engaging format.
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