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Why Most Resumes Fail
Bob Weinstein is a journalist who covers technology, project management, the workplace and career development.
Despite the dozens of books and thousands of articles about how to write them, the majority of resumes are awful, according to most executive recruiters. After a couple of decades in the search game, Mark Jaffe, president of Minneapolis, executive search firm Wyatt & Jaffe, is still amazed at how bad they are.
Jaffe’s firm receives about 200-300 resumes every week. The firm’s two assistants spend about a minute scanning each one. If they spot credentials that match a search, the resume winds up on Jaffe’s desk. Facts that stand out are impressive executive positions and prestigious high-profile companies (FedEx, Microsoft, Intel, IBM) or extraordinary educational credentials (MBA from Harvard or from the WhartonSchool of the University of Pennsylvania).
How many resumes reach Jaffe’s desk? Are you ready? “Fewer than two per week,” he says. In a good month, he sees somewhere between six and a dozen. Jaffe offers four tips for capturing a recruiter’s attention. They can be applied to any job--from CEO and CIO to IT project manager and junior programmer.
Don’t lose sight of the resume’s purpose. It’s simply to land an interview. Most job-hunters think of the resume as an annoying protocol in the job-capturing process. “The resume ought to be thought of as wrapping paper that makes the…
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