Three Ways to Make Your Resume User-Friendly

As media folks, we're accustomed to evergreen stories so pieces will last and gain the most readers as possible so why should a resume be any different, right? According to a piece by Josh Sanburn on Time, there are several ways to ramp up your resume so recruiters can spend more than a few seconds eyeballing it. After all, you'll want the most readers here, too! As per the piece, recruiters spend about six seconds reviewing each resume (yes, you read that right: Six). For starters, Will Evans, TheLadders’ head of user experience, explained one way to gain more attention is to be simple. Your resume is not a vehicle to flex your creative skills! Since recruiters clearly aren't spending a lot of time reviewing resumes, the important take-away is making it user-friendly, simple to read and following a common template. All of the essentials should be clear: Your name, title, company, responsibilities, and then former titles, employers, and responsibilities. Evans explained in the piece, “Recruiters develop this mental model that allows them to extract the most important bits." As for another way to keep eyeballs fixated on your resume for a little bit longer, don't make it too long. Although it's fine extending a resume to two pages and have a lot of experience and publishing kudos to add, go right ahead. Just don't make it too long -- as pointed out in the piece, that would appear too cluttered. As for a third tip? Skip the personal achievements. Okay, you don't need to skip them altogether but succinct bullet points are fine; don't focus your CV on running a marathon or volunteering at a local soup kitchen. Leverage the resume to play up your professional achievements instead.

Fishbowl

Three Ways to Make Your Resume User-Friendly

Vicki Salemi

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Vicki Salemi