What goes in a Resume?Home > Employment > Articles > Resume Survey
The Society for Human Resources Management in early 2000 conducted a survey with Human Resources professionals and how they manage the resumes they receive for job postings at they work of employment.
Significant results from the survey included:
- 76% of HR professionals remove resumes from the applicant pool if they contain typographical or grammatical errors.
- 54% of HR professionals review resumes in less than 3 minutes.
- 55% of HR professionals prefer resumes that are one page long.
- 62% of HR professionals view resumes negatively if they are more than 2 pages long.
So what does this mean?
In a nutshell, your resume should be a single page. (yes one page long). I can hear some of you groan.). It also means that any resume 3 pages or longer will result in giving yourself a serious cramp in your chances in securing employment anytime soon. You can get away with 2 pages if the position requires a great deal of experience and specific qualifications. Less is best.
Since your resume is getting on average less than 3 minutes of attention, you want it short enough so they can read it and then admire it after all. You are such a wonderful and intelligent person so focus on what's important and make your points crystal clear.
Lastly use the spell check on your computer and then actually spell check it with your own eyes. Once you are satisfied then call a family member with patience and have them spell check it. Once you are again satisfied, get a neighbour, preferably if they are a wordsmith, and have them give it the final look-over. With a 76% rejection rate at the first sign of a misspelled word you can't afford to give yourself that kind of albatross.
In the next article in the employment series, we will be looking at Resume Examples. Seeing examples for yourself will make it easier to make your own.
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