How to impress a recruiter in 6 seconds
A recruiter will initially spend 6 seconds on your resume before making a decision. Learn how to get to most out of those seconds!
Every jobseeker has felt the dreaded suspense of waiting for a response after sending in the application for a job opening. Will the recruiter pick me? Will my resume make a good impression? Will they even read my cover letter?
We have all heard horror stories when it comes to recruitment. The HR manager that takes the stack of applications, throws away the top half and says “I don’t need the unlucky ones”. While some of these stories are unlikely to happen to you, it is a good practice to bear in mind the recruiter.
On average an open position will receive 150 applications. Considering that the recruiter has a multitude of positions to fill, this leaves very little time to go through all the applications in detail.
A research done by TheLadders indicates that a recruiter only spends 6 seconds before making a first decision. 6 seconds is a very short time. It is important to make to most out of your 6 seconds, so that your application lands on the “interview” pile. In this post I will provide some concrete tips in getting your 6 seconds perfect, so you can impress that recruiter and increase your chances of getting the job.
6 seconds to impress with your authentic self
In order to impress the recruiter, you have to get your first 6 seconds right. Let’s break this down in 3 critical aspects: a strong synthesis, authenticity and a clear design.
A synthesis of yourself
When you only have 6 seconds, you have to make the best out of it. Many jobseekers try to cram as much information as possible on a small area on the first page, hoping that recruiters manage to grasp it all in the blink of an eye.
Less is more, so keep it short. You have to synthesize who you are in one or two sentences, a piece of information that provides the big picture without going in the details. A synthesis is different from a summary though and is not easy to write. So take your time on this one.
Secondly, make your synthesis relevant to the job at hand. The main task for the recruiter is to find the most suitable candidate for the position within a team. It is not about you and giving you a job. It is about a painpoint that the company has and tries to solve. So always keep the context of the job in mind and don’t be afraid to leave out information about yourself that does not add value to the position.
You are unique, so show it
Or as Mark Twain so nicely put it
“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
Forget about the corporate speak. Not a single company ever hired a list of bullet points. If you can let your personality shine through by what you say and how you say it, you are ahead of the curve.
Recruiters look for a certain baseline of skills and competences. You, just as most of the others, will probably have that covered, otherwise you would not be applying to the job. So after you have that baseline covered, it comes down to your attitude. This is where you can set yourself apart from your competition. It does not mean you have to show off your crazy hobbies. You are unique by your past experiences, what you learned from those and your ambitions for the future. It is your personality that starts building a bond of trust between you and the
Keep in mind still to keep it short. You have to find a good balance between what makes you unique for this position, but leave out all that is not relevant.
A clear design helps
A nice and easy-to-read layout will decrease the cognitive load of the recruiter. In other words: if your resume looks like a mess, you do not even get 6 seconds. On the other hand, if it invites to be read, you increase your chances.
Except for the creative sector (designers…) there is no need to get overly creative. I know you want to “stand out”, but so does everybody else. Imagine going through 150 resumes that each have a creative, standing-out design, this would leave you with a headache. So work on your resumes visual hierarchy.
“Good visual hierarchy isn’t about wild and crazy graphics or the newest photoshop filters, it’s about organizing information in a way that’s usable, accessible, and logical […]”
Go for it!
Now you understand better how the recruiter thinks and why your initial 6 seconds matter the most. We have gone through 3 concrete tips to improve your resume: a strong synthesis, authenticity and a clear design. Now that you have learned how to make the most out of the most important 6 seconds, it is your turn!
This article originally appeared on goodresumeguide.com, a service that helps you get hired.
