How much time does a recruiter spend on your resume?

According to a US study, it only takes 6 seconds for a recruiter to analyze a resume and decide whether to go further. However, the 30 recruiters who participated in this survey conducted by the US job site TheLadders, stated that they estimated spending between 4 and 5 minutes on an application. In reality, "eye tracking" technology, measuring their eye movement when faced with different resumes, concluded that it only took them 6 seconds!


1- You need to spend more time on your resume
Rest assured, you are not the only one surprised! So, the mistake would be to think that you should therefore spend less time on your resume because it will only be "skimmed" by the recruiter. On the contrary, you will have to work more on optimizing your resume. For example, you will need to ensure that the important elements of your background, skills and experience are immediately identified by recruiters.

2- In 6 seconds, recruiters focus on 6 points
According to the survey, recruiters are almost exclusively interested in 6 points during those famous 6 seconds, including the candidate's name, the job title and the name of the current employer, the job title and the name of the previous employer, the start and end dates of the previous position, the start date of the current position, and the education.

3- What elements should be prioritized?
In addition, it turns out that photos sometimes have a negative impact, and that other visual elements may distract recruiters, preventing them from focusing on the most important and decisive information. So, try for example to highlight and refine these elements, in order to improve your application. Choose a photo that showcases you (feel free to ask for your entourage's opinion), don't overdo the colors, logos, tables, etc. In short, the goal is to make your resume simple and informative. There's no need to impress the recruiter, because if they only spend 6 seconds on your resume before deciding whether to analyze it in depth or not, it is therefore better not to distract them with these trivialities.

4- Don't forget to...
Finally, don't take the risk of creating your resume yourself, unless you have the soul of an art director. Also, remember that even if you managed to "beautify" your resume, there is always the risk that the recruiter does not have the same "Word" version as you, which could destroy your work through simple incompatibility. It is therefore better to "copy" a template (they are plentiful on the net), optimize it as much as possible, and embellish it while remaining sober and simple.

Jobaw.com

Posted on March 11, 2013.