Is Your Resume Visually Appealing?

Working with quite a few companies, hiring managers and human resource specialists, I have had the pleasure of having conversations about resumes and I have a front row seat to understanding what appeals to them and which resumes will most likely wind up in the “To Be Interviewed” stack instead of the circular file.

It is without a doubt that they show a strong sense of favoritism to the best designed, best formatted and most eloquent of resumes. Poor quality resumes are a continuously running joke with hiring managers which has a lot to do with outdated formatting mentalities along with the “cut and paste” mentality of younger generations who are more likely to send a simple email or text message rather than write a formal business letter.

Older generations were schooled in the fine art of business correspondence, but now, young professionals are living in the less formal world of texts and instant messaging. While young professionals today have noteworthy and desirable skills that employers find extremely valuable, their resumes are often unable to articulate these skills and ultimately it holds them back.

If you put yourself in the shoes of a human resources professional at a company that receives 300 resumes for any given position, you can begin to understand that the perfect balance of substance and style are important. Do not give them a convenient reason to cut down the size of the resume pile simply because it yours is poorly worded or poorly formatted.

As the gatekeeper to your future employment opportunity, hiring managers expect nothing less than a polished, articulate and powerfully persuasive resume to engage them from the moment that come into contact with the paper version of your pitch.

When the top “A-list” candidate hands over a “C-list” resume, unfortunately that may have put themselves at a huge disadvantage before they even have a chance to showcase their skills.

If the job market is wide open and you are in extreme demand, you could probably scribble your name on a piece of loose leaf paper and get a job, but in a saturated job search market, you have to ask yourself, “Will my resume be on the top of the pile of 300?”