On Careers

HR Gives Your Résumé 20 Seconds

January 6, 2009 RSS Feed Print

Comment (6)
Tweet

GL Hoffman

Twenty seconds. That's how long, on average, your résumé is reviewed.

This is why it is often the form, and not the substance, of your résumé that gets the most attention. So, you'll have to make yours errorproof, clean, and well designed just to get past the first five seconds.

Next, be sure your résumé highlights experience relevant to the job. This means making your résumé fit exactly the company and the position. I understand that it takes a bit of extra work to make a custom résumé for each job opening. Obviously, if you are going to broadcast your résumé out to hundreds of employers HOPING to get noticed, this will not be possible. But this generic résumé blasting hardly ever works.

I did an experiment over at WhatWouldDadSay.com, where I asked readers to create a SIX-WORD résumé for themselves. Given the widespread fascination with Twitter and its 140-character limitation, I thought it would showcase good writing discipline. Not that you have to make your own six-word résumé, but notice how effective some of the (personal or otherwise) entries were:

"As I live, so does Apple."—Steve Jobs
"Solving complex problems efficiently and elegantly."—A personal entry
Another personal entry: "I stand alone, next to me."
"Fire it up. Ready to go."—Barack Obama
From a real estate staging person: "Staging it better. Selling it faster."
Here is one of my favorites that combines two movie characters: "Now reverse in aging am I."—Yoda Button

This may seem to be a worthless exercise—and it is certainly silly—but it's not worthless if it only makes you realize that a lot can be said in a few well-chosen words.

What are your well-chosen words about you that you would put on your résumé?

G.L. Hoffman is a serial entrepreneur and venture investor/operator/incubator/mentor. Two of his companies have traveled the entire success path from the garage to IPO. Currently, he is chairman of JobDig, and his blog can be found at WhatWouldDadSay.com or at JobDig.com.

Tags:: careers

« Previous Post Next Post »

Reader Comments Read all comments (6)

Add Your Thoughts Comment Name State Email

Please enter the two words below into the text field underneath the image.

Your comment will be posted immediately, unless it is spam or contains profanity. For more information, please see our Comments FAQ.

I do agree with you on the rule of thumb in 20seconds (actually just meant short, not timer precise). To some, it may sound like a very short time because the time taken to write can be much longer, but really, reading it is a fast process, especially if the person speed reads. Personally, when I go through the resumes of applications, I look at the format of how it is written first before going through it in about a minute or less for most. I imagine that the format does have signs of what kind of person is the application, attentive or passive.
Although nowadays, the resumes go through a computer keyword scan first before it goes through to the HR department, it still matters. Getting pass the computer doesn't mean the HR likes it or when they pass it to higher levels will too...choke full of keywords isn't really one for humans to read through. Do write it well :)
6 words?
"Maynas Eric Creates Lives That Matter"
Thanks for the thoughtful question :)

Maynas Eric 2:21PM April 14, 2009

Good points: CK, Kari, Newb, working.
See six words all you need.

gl hoffman of 8:09AM January 08, 2009

As I hiring manager, I can say that I do actually sit and read through the resumes presented to me (even the ones that are more than the recommended 1 page). What concerns me a lot more, is that our recruiter hasn't bothered to read them at all.

The Office Newb of WA 8:46PM January 07, 2009