Does your resume matter anymore?

Earlier this week I spoke a little bit about social media and your job search...and someone asked me “Does your resume matter anymore?”  Which seemed like a great follow up to my earlier post.

So....with all the stuff in the world now between profile pages, LinkedIn profiles and other social networks...does your resume matter?  In a word, yes....but not as much as you’d think.

The Ladders recently did a study that talked about how most recruiters can review a resume in about 6 seconds.  Crazy right?  I mean, I can’t believe it takes that long.....kidding!  But the point is, your resume matters and you HAVE to get to the point.  Long, rambling resumes just aren’t read anymore.  Take some time and look at the study above, pretty cool stuff.  A few other quick take aways from this data:

- Recruiters focus what they think is important....education, current experience and location.  Not rocket science if you think about it. Recruiters are basically asking 1) Does this person meet my educational requirements 2) Does their current experience map to the role I’m looking to fill and 3) How realistic is it for them to work in my office from a location perspective.

- You’ve got 6 seconds...........when people are writing resumes or doing “elevator pitches” the golden rule should be “Short and Sweet”

- Employee Referrals are REALLY the way to get hired now....recruiters are swamped and screening people in seconds.  Your best way into a great new gig.....finding a friend or former colleague who can get your resume to a hiring manager.

That’s it for now....hope you are all having a great week!