Carl Bradford

Maybe you’re in this story, or one just like it.

It was 8:30 AM as Julie the Sr. Recruiter got her first copy of coffee and sat down to begin her day.

Day 1

Julie had just opend three new jobs the night before and got them posted on the Internet before leaving for the day.

Day 2

Now, she was anxious to see how many new resume responses were already in her in-box, but before she could get to that, she clicked over to her calendar for the day.

Looks like she had about 30 minutes before her first phone interview and then three more before 11 AM.  After that she was scheduled to meet with Bill the VP of Engineering to discuss a series of new job vacancies he was about to open.  Next she had a working lunch planned with the Director of Talent Management.

For the afternoon, three more phone interviews and one in-person interview.

Your Resume Arrives

Now for the in-box of resumes – your resume is among them because you applied last night. You’re excited about the prospects of this job opportunity, it looks like a great match and with a company you’d really like to work for.  You plan to give this employer a couple of days before you follow-up, just to be sure they have time to read your resume.

Now back to Julie.

After the calendar check she opens her in-box – oops three internal emails that are urgent, so these will take priority.  Whew, now that’s out of the way, on to reviewing the resumes.

Before Julie begins working down through the stack of resumes she glances at her watch…darn, only 15 minutes available for that first phone interview.  Determined, she begins to review the resumes faster and faster trying to get through as many as possible before 9 am.

After another 7 minutes, and she finally comes to your resume.  She opens it and begins a quick glance at the top half of your resume.  She notes which job you applied for and immediately within her head a pre-recorded message begins playing.  That message is the criteria she will use to quickly move your resume into the Yes or No stack.  You’ve got no more than 30 seconds to connect with the message playing inside her head.

Twenty seconds into your resume and she quickly moves it into the No stack and opens the next resume.

What went wrong?  Based on the job posting you know it’s a close match.

It Was A Resume Failure

It’s a resume failure.  Your resume didn’t connect with the message playing inside Julie’s head.  The clues for what your resume needed to communicate were available, but you didn’t pick up on them or maybe you just didn’t know where to find them.  Your resume – which is your marketing brochure when you’re not there in person to fill in the gaps – failed.

You’ve fallen victim to the single biggest reason that candidates don’t get invited into the interview process.

Don’t let this story be yours.  Learn how to connect with the message inside the reader’s head.  Unfortunately this story happens all day long, every day and it doesn’t have to be that way.

It’s also unfortunate that recruiters are stretched just this thin in most companies these days.  That means your resume has to be great – not just good!

Go to our Members Only Section to find out what you can do to create a resume that vastly increases the odds for you to get an interview.