Is your resume format keeping you from getting calls from recruiters?
Answer: YES!
Here is my story. I went to a job team meeting after fighting the urge for about a month. At that time I was getting 2-4 calls per week and had no real job prospects. They suggested two things to me. The first was to get on linkedin and the second was to change my resume format from a slick ambiguous one pager to a detailed multiple paged document with tons of keywords.
Of course I resisted. I mean, really, I've been working in my industry for 15 years and been successful. Why should I change now?
( internal monolog: Well, dummy, why was I at the meeting instead of work, because I was not getting any traction with my current resume?)
So after a few weeks of hearing the same gentle advice, I updated my resume to their suggested format, posted it to dice.com and do you know what happened?
My phone started to ring. In fact that first day I was on the phone for five hours with recruiters about real job prospects.
They were right and I was wrong.
Here is the formula.
- Summary statement
- Skills / Keywords by industry or job type
- Qualifications (1 sentence)
- Professional history
- Professional Development (schools, degrees, certifications, etc)
- Recommendations (some of my linkedin recommendations)
Make sure that you mention every keyword again in the history section.
That is it. I put down everything I ever worked on and every thing I ever worked with.
image by Steve Rhodes
