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After reviewing hundreds of resumes, I have a few ideas about what a hiring manager is looking for. They say the average reviewer spends 6 seconds with your resume. It’s a glance. In 6 seconds how much can you really gather about a candidate? Enough. You gather enough to know if you should spend, say, another 30 seconds glancing at it more closely. But if you don’t stand out in those 6 seconds, you won’t get the closer glance. So how do you keep yourself in the running for those extra make-it-or-break-it seconds? Follow the tips below:
Where do a hiring manager’s eyes go first? For me, I go to the center of the page, about a quarter of the way down. This is because this is the place that is generally going to give me the best sense of who this person is and what they’ve done. This is the place for most relevant work and sometimes education. If your resume is not strongly communicating how you want to be remembered at that point of the page, consider revising it. If you’ve gotten very creative with a format that doesn’t provide much content in that place, reconsider your layout. I’m all for creativity but I have 6 seconds and hundreds of resumes to look at. I’m already less interested if I have to reorient my brain to where you’ve decided to put your information.
Make words that are relevant to the job stand out. You’ll need to have a few words for the hiring manager to hang onto—to see and quickly assess that yes, this person gets what we do. All the transferrable skills in the world won’t mean much if they don’t initially (in 6 seconds or less) believe you are somehow already connected to their work.
Bold your name (and graduate school level relevant degree if you have one), and put it at the top of the page. Centered or on the side—doesn’t matter. I just want to see it clearly in the place I’m expecting to see it. Don’t make me hunt for it. If it’s not bold, make sure it’s in a larger font than everything else.