Resume Submissions: The Black Hole

You are a high performing executive or director level professional and you have been applying for numerous jobs at online sites and through company websites. You have heard nothing back. How can that be?

There are thousands if not millions of books and articles written on the topic of resume writing and submission. While there are no magic bullets and no way to cover the entire topic in one blog post, here are some simple and straightforward ideas on how to approach resume writing and submission. The resume should be straightforward, succinct and should carry a direct message as to a professional’s skills, abilities and objective.

Most times when you send your resume to online ads they are evaluated by the lowest level of HR by professionals who have little to no knowledge of how your strategic experience could benefit the company at the executive or director level. Their job is to match keywords. For this reason many super qualified executive and director level candidate resumes never make it to the desk of the critical C level hiring executive. These tips and ideas should help when attacking the resume submission process.

Tip: Try to avoid going through the online submission process until you have already made contact with a C level executive through your network.

You will ultimately have to fill out that online paperwork if you become a candidate, but cross that bridge when you come to it.

Getting your resume through and getting it read are two different issues. The reality of today is that your resume has approximately 15 seconds to catch an executive’s eye before she moves on to the next resume OR continues reading yours. For this reason your objective and/or executive summary are extremely important.

Tip: For lower level positions, have an objective on your resume that matches the position for which you are applying as well as a phrase reflecting some of your relevant & key experience.

For the upper level positions make certain to have an Executive Summary highlighting your accumulated basket of skills to present. Use bullets to point out important points.

Congratulations. Your resume has made it through to the decision maker. But you’re still not hearing back. Wait, I thought if we could get our resume to the decision maker and get her attention we are as good as in? Not necessarily.

Tip: There are a number of common mistakes which cause resumes to be passed over. While not a comprehensive list – here are a few:

• Resume is too long. Too verbose. No one wants to read a 6 page resume when there are 50 more resumes waiting in her inbox. Get it to two pages. Remember that the purpose of the resume is to get you in for an interview. That’s it. Once you’re in the interview you can fill in the rest as appropriate.
• Have multiple resumes. Keep a base resume and make sure to tailor it to match the jobs for which you are applying. Having only one “jack of all trades” resume can come off as too vanilla and won’t get the attention it deserves.
• Constantly review your resume for wording, typos and for the addition of phraseology which can display your industry knowledge or discipline expertise. These are powerful eye-catchers.

Bear in mind that the resume is a summary representation of a professional’s experience at a point in time. The resume should be the sum total of your skills with the most recent experiences being the most relevant. Use every bit of your network to get your resume on the desk of the decision maker at the company where you are applying. Make the top half of your resume really pop using key phraseology, a strong Objective or Executive Summary and give your resume a chance! These ideas should give you a good start!