Dang. I lost out on the job because of… my resume?

December 14, 2009 | (3 Comments)

I nearly jumped out of my chair when I saw it!

I was sitting in the Quarterly Review for our Resume team on Thursday, when they showed me this chart. We had studied over 26,000 recent resume submissions made to TheLadders and scored them based on best practices in getting through the “black hole” of job applications.

Here’s what we found:

And paraphrasing, what I said is this:

“Hold on, hold on, hold on. Go back to that slide and let’s see that again.”

“If our customers are coming to us to find a job, and we spend all this time and effort on getting jobs into the system and recruiters engaged in viewing their resumes, how come you are letting them go out there and apply for jobs with crummy resumes? Look at that graphic!”

“It just doesn’t seem like we’re doing an effective job of explaining this problem to people. We know that better resumes lead to better results for people. Send me that graphic, and I’m putting it in the weekly newsletter on Monday.”

So what’s going on here? The resume scores are distributed somewhat evenly along a bell curve, but there’s a pop in the 8 to 10 range. Why’s that?

Most people don’t know the specifics of how to write a resume that breaks through the 21st century hiring system: Applicant Tracking Systems like Taleo, Kenexa, PeopleClick, and others; HR screeners and sourcers; keyword search engines; how to market / advertise your skills to the hiring manager, etc. etc. As a result, most people are guessing at how to make an effective resume. And, unfortunately, guessing wrong.

So why the bump between 8 and 10 when we grade resume submissions from our subscribers? In most of these cases, the job seeker has already worked with an outplacement firm to create their resume. With all of the layoffs this year, the outplacement firms such as our friends at Right Management have been very busy writing resumes for job seekers. And they do a really good job because, like us, they use only Certified Professional Resume Writers (CPRW). In that case, of course, we say, “Hey, this resume looks fine. Want us to write you a cover letter?”

So, look, whether you use us or Google any CPRW professional, you need to make sure that your resume is up to the job. With so many people out there looking, you can’t let yourself be at a disadvantage.

OK, Readers, hope that helps explain some of the importance of getting professional help with your resume. I hope you have a CPRW (Crushingly Productive Rocking Week) yourself!