Tesar-Reynes

On a fairly regular basis I’m asked by senior management about whether there should be a great deal of space devoted on their resume to their corporate summary or the bullet positioning of their experience and accomplishments. In most cases, these people have agonized over this piece of real estate. They’re unsure how many words to use and how all the key words will be scanned by recruitment software.

My position on this is pretty simple. I never read this part of their resume until after I’ve read the meat and potatoes down below and I feel that this candidate belongs in our database or that they fit a search that I’m working on. Only then will I go back and read a summary and only then will I go back and read a cover letter.

For me, a resume has a 20 second half life. This way I can get through a lot of resumes and figure out whether they actually fit our practice. I will then go back and reread a resume for a second time. If I think it has promise, I spend a minute on it. If I still feel that there’s more promise in this individual, I will go back and read every word of the resume, and I will read the cover letter that goes with the document.

I may be old school, but I firmly believe that with this method of scanning I’m going to be able to look at virtually every resume that comes in, and check it for our criteria and respond in a proper manner. Unless the resume comes in a “dear occupant” manner, I try to respond to every letter.