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Ten to 15 seconds. That's how much
time a hiring manager or the first person reading your résumé is likely to
devote to it. In that short period of time, that person will likely decide
whether your résumé is worth passing along or if it should be deleted from the
inbox.
What's on your résumé, what's not
on it, and its overall presentation may seal your fate. Should you mention diversity-related
experiences? Would you, for example, want to mention that you are a member of
the National Council of La Raza or the National Urban League? Would this benefit
or hurt you?
Here are some tips to help get
your résumé noticed:
1. Highlight diversity
connections
Millette Granville, a
diversity-recruiting strategist at Wachovia, No. 11 on The 2007 DiversityInc's Top
50 Companies for Diversity® list, says the interview is really the best
forum for job seekers to highlight diversity-related experiences, skills and
other factors that a prospective employer would consider a value-add to their
organization. Including information about your diversity or your commitment to
diversity in your résumé can't hurt, as it will only increase your chances of
identifying the type of employer that truly supports and embraces
diversity.
"Job seekers should pride
themselves in sharing information about their diverse affiliations and community
involvement with potential employers. Sharing this information helps to
demonstrate leadership and a commitment to the communities in which they live,"
Granville says.
2. Make it
21st-century-employer-friendly
Jaclyn
Kokores, manager of client services at Valerie Frederickson & Company, an HR
consulting firm in
She says you should use the MS
Word version for print and e-mail, and HTML when posting online. "Forget PDF
versions—these files are bulky and difficult to read," she
says.
3. Use action verbs
C.
Trent Perry, president and founder of CTP Enterprises in
Kokores
agrees. "Both
employers and search engines scan documents for key words and phrases that
describe a candidate's skills and abilities. Don't worry about repetition as
long as it is not gratuitous," Kokores says. She suggests starting sentences or
bullets with words such as founded, designed, organized, completed, implemented,
created or built.
4. Gear it toward future
career goals
To move your career to the next
level, your résumé should read like an argument with supportive evidence.
"I am good at X because I have experience in Y and Z," Kokores
says.
She suggests breaking your résumé
into two parts—skills and experience—with the skills part at the top. "The
experiences section (Y and Z) should back this up. By writing the
skills section first, and then tailoring the experiences to this, a candidate
can build a résumé that is focused on what they want to do," Kokores
says.
Perry suggests "spinning" or
highlighting the part of your experience that fits with the qualifications of
the job you're seeking. "It's a sales process," he says. "You have to have a
marketing strategy to continue growing in your career."
5. Eliminate needless
items
Employers don't want to have to
take the time to pick through the fluff to find the true value of a résumé. What
can go? Start with bullets that don't identify the direct impact you made for
the company. Also get rid of months. Instead, just provide the years you were at
each job. And eliminate the "References available upon request." "Everyone has
them and all employers know to ask when the time is right," Kokores
says.
Instead, choose a spot or two to include items that demonstrate your ability to work with diverse groups. "Diverse job seekers can draw positive attention to their résumé by including information that demonstrates leadership with diverse professional organizations, colleges and universities, community and outreach organizations, as well as any leadership involvement with sororities and fraternities," Granville says.
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