Six Tips To Make Your Resume Scannable in Seven Seconds!
Recruiters look at your resume for seven seconds. Yes, seven seconds! That is the amount of time you have to prove to the recruiter that you are worth moving to the next round. In a pile of thousands of resume, your resume should not only stand out in terms of your experience and skills but most importantly, be scannable. There have been dozens of studies that found out that recruiters look at big titles, dates, some keywords, and a minuscule amount of your actual experience.
During late 2020, while I was looking for product roles, I applied to over 500 places. With hit and trial and enough time spent applying to different roles and companies, I learnt a lot about what works and not works. During some of my interviews, some recruiters were kind enough to share feedback with me on my resume and one of them even helped me improve it. Here are some of my learnings and things I know that definitely worked!
#1 Describe your previous company(ies) in 6–7 words
If you have been working with start-ups, small scale, or growth stage companies that haven’t yet built their name and reputation, essentially a company that a recruiter might not have heard of, you should explain what your company is/does in a short phrase using industry standard terms. If possible, try and relate it to the company that you are applying for. For example:
Uber of X
Payment Facilitator for Y
Product Analytics for Z
Y type of platform for X type of companies
Your goal should be to help the recruiter understand your background by looking at different companies that you have worked with in the past without having to go into tiny details.
I have had companies in the past where I was invited to interview with them just on the basis of the fact that the company that I was interviewing for belonged to the same industry as my previous company.
#2 Stick to a consistent format for your experience bullet points
Each of your bullet points for experience will most likely consist of an impact, where you highlight metrics and the actions you took that resulted in the impact. If you are starting each bullet point with the impact and ending with the action, ensure that you follow the same pattern for all the following bullet points. This is applicable if you are writing the bullet points other way round as well i.e action first and impact second.
So now when the recruiter is screening your resume from top to bottom, all your impact is aligned towards the beginning of each sentence and actions towards the second half of the sentence.
You are helping the recruiter find everything that they are looking for in a quick glance. I also recommend using a single line for each bullet point, as it improves the readability from top to bottom and the recruiter does not have to read each sentence from left to right as well.
#3 Retain your full title
If in your previous roles you held a specific title like PM, Growth; PM, Platform; PM, Payments or anything else on similar lines, ensure that you retain that on your resume as well.
The more specific and targeted your resume is, the higher are chances that your resume will connect with a recruiter.
A generic resume will not the fit the needs of any of the companies. Well, your goal is not to interview with all the companies but with companies where you are a close/perfect match!
#4 Maintain different versions of your resume
Each role and job description has different requirements and often denoted by different titles such as — PM, Platform; PM, Growth; PM, Monetization; PM, Analytics etc.
It is recommended that you apply to such roles with different version of your resume where certain parts of your experience are given more precedence over others.
This is in line with the advice in #3, where your resume needs to be specific and targeted. Once you modify your resume, save it as a separate copy to ensure that it is readily available when you see a similar role in future.
#5 Prioritize your projects and side hustles
If you are fresh out of school, ensure that you prioritize your projects and side hustles over sections like summary statement, skills, tools, interests, and hobbies. These sections add very little to no value to your resume. They are just (buzz)words and phrases which do not help build any credibility as they are not backed with data or instances from your work experience.
Your projects and side hustles are much more valuable in terms of showcasing you skills, willingness to learn, and thus building credibility.
In a world where the recruiter is only looking at your resume for seven seconds, less is more!
#6 Call attention to the keywords
Highlight your impact! Use different shades of black and gray, font sizes, and caps to define the structure and layout of your resume. This makes your resume more scannable. Go through the job description to find what words, skills, or qualifications keep coming up.
Pick out your strengths from what you’ve found, and make sure that the recruiter doesn’t have to go very far to find something he or she would be interested in.
Are there other tips that have worked for you? Feel free to share it in the comments! In case you have any questions, just reply to this email :)