Use a Strong Headline in Your Resume
HR people report they spend about 15 seconds on each resume. 15 seconds!
How can you ever hope to make your resume so appealing, so note-worthy that it makes it over to the next pile? The answer is NOT to print it on a toilet paper roll or some other dumb idea.
15 seconds, less time than it took for this .gif to run twice.
Instead of putting your name and objective at the top of your resume, try this technique: Make a single sentence headline about yourself that is so intriguing, funny, descriptive, unique, or creative that it breaks through the clutter and gets read. The hiring manager’s reaction you want is, “I have to figure out more about THIS person.”
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Typographically, make it bigger or bolder than anything else on your resume, so that it is the first thing read…remember you have 15 seconds.
So, how do you come up with the one sentence headline? Before you do that, do these four things:
1. Leave your humility at home.
2. Read some magazine headlines and see what gets your attention.
3. If your mom or dad were asked to list three positive things about you, what would they be?
4. What are you most proud of?
The perfect sentence would combine a specific reference to the job you are applying for, a skill you have demonstrated before and how you would apply that skill for them. Or, more simply, just make every word count.
This is hard to do, so I have given you eleven examples:
1. I married the prettiest girl in my small town high school, proof positive I can sell myself; just think what I can do for the widgets of ABC.
2. Voted ‘most likely to succeed,’ when I should have been voted ‘most likely to help ABC develop killer products.’
3. I’m the eldest of five, so I’ve always been the go-to person for extra work; hopefully, no one is still in diapers at ABC, and if they are, chances are I will be the first volunteer for this and other work that no one else wants to do.
4. If I maintained my grades and juggled three jobs to pay my own way through college, just think what I can do for ABC when I can really really concentrate on the customer service job.
5. I know who both Britney Spears and Carl Icahn are, but if I don’t know something, I can get the answer faster than you can say GOOGLE and ABC. So, you won’t have to tell me how to do every little step along the way.
6. I am not the kind who takes credit for things I don’t do—ABC has the perfect team spirit for me.
7. I will never ask you for a raise, but I bet I will earn them at ABC, working hard.
8. You can’t know how good I will be for ABC, yet; but I am confi dent there is no other candidate who knows more about PHP programming than me.
9. I was MVP for a state championship team in high school, voted on by my peers.
10. I can tell someone’s mood by just the tone of their voice; maybe you could use someone with my empathy skills in the customer service department of ABC.
11. I am the kind of person who looks in snopes.com when I am sent forwarded ‘factual’ emails, and I know which sender I can correct and who I shouldn’t.
For more on this topic, check out these posts from our friends:
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May 28th, 2010 at 12:29 am
These are awesome ideas you have posted regarding job resumes. Job workers resumes are all highly unique (as it is a reflection of you as a professional) so a template only should be only considered to guide you in crafting it.
September 17th, 2010 at 12:39 pm
I like your website – nice work!
October 22nd, 2010 at 7:03 pm
Can we get back again on theme please. Every thing seems to have gotten off the subject. Some of those comments are unbelievable.
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