The stats say that recruiters read each resume for an average of 10 seconds. How can you get their attention?
The people you’re dealing with have tight schedules and short attention spans; so the key is to do what you can to get their attention right off the bat.
How do you do that? According to job site Workopolis, the key is to begin your resume with a powerful and unique value proposition statement. This one change can make an immediate impact in the number of interviews you land. That means replace your objective statement with a professional profile.
You need to actually think of yourself as a product that you have to sell. Your professional profile is your value proposition statement, the place where you clarify, right from the start, what it is you can bring to the job.
Most objective statements are not effective in communicating the skills, experience, and qualities of job applicants. Instead of suggesting the value of the potential employee, they tend to say what your personal goals are. Starting your resume off with what you have to offer, instead of what you want to receive or achieve, can make you come across as a much stronger candidate, and should give you more chances at interviews.
How do you do this? Here’s an example of a professional profile/ value proposition…
Management professional with more than 10 years of experience in leadership, sales, and customer service. Self-motivated with prior success building and leading high-performance organizations. Generated $1 million in revenue within the Ontario region by both increasing sales within the existing client base and bringing in new business from referrals. Highly collaborative team leader inspiring superior performance by developing, coaching, and mentoring employees. Visionary change agent with a consistent record of transforming challenges into expansive business opportunities.
When it comes to length, a paragraph like this is perfect, but remember to only focus on relevant information. You don’t want to pad this section with filler.
Where possible, it’s also a good idea to use numbers and data. Doing so can instantly make an achievement more memorable and impressive (e.g. “Increased web traffic by 25% vs increased web traffic.”)
This tactic is all about “hooking” your reader in so they spend more than 10 seconds on your resume…ideally they read the whole thing. Spending some time to make this one change to your resume could result in significantly more interviews and give you a greater opportunity to hear those words “You’re hired!”
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