Getting Past the First Reader

Posted by robert morris on June 13th, 2019

When you submit your resume to a company, your resume goes to a first reader, who is probably thinking more about lunch than about the pile of resumes she has to read today. It's estimated that employers receive a minimum of 400 resumes for a single position. In that kind of climate, you need to make the first reader stop thinking about lunch and pay attention to your resume.

The best way to get past the first reader is to write a strong introduction or summary that describes you as the unique person you are. Suppose you're answering an ad that calls for an administrative assistant with MS Office expertise. Many jobseekers submit a resume with a general introduction as follows:
Self-directed, hardworking individual who seldom needs supervision seeks a full-time administrative position where I can put my talents and skills to use and grow with the company.
At first glance, this looks like something an employer might want. You're self-directed and have talents and skills, after all, right? And growing with the company seems like something an employer would want.
But the ad called for someone with office.com/setup expertise. This introduction doesn't mention that. And not only does it use clich("self-directed," "hardworking") it could apply to about ninety-nine per cent of the job-seeking population. Nearly all of your competition will use some variation of those exact words. Worse yet, it says nothing about what you will do for the company. The first reader will shunt this resume to the "NO" pile without reading any further.
On the other hand, there's this introduction, written by Janet Jobseeker:
Highly regarded Administrative Assistant, with a reputation as the go-to expert for answers to Microsoft Office questions. Utilized MS Word to create proposals and correspondence; Microsoft Excel to build expense reports and graphs, and MS PowerPoint to create presentations that won new accounts. Combined MS Excel and Access to build relational databases.
This introduction jumps off the page. Not only does Janet have the MS Office expertise required, but she also demonstrates exactly what she's done with that expertise. This introduction says, "I understand your need, and here's how I filled that need elsewhere. I will fill your need the same way." This introduction encourages further reading; the rest of the resume should have the hiring manager imagining Janet already filling the position advertised office.com/setup
Your resume is like a TV commercial for you, only you are the "product." And just as in a TV commercial, you need to sell what you'll do for the "buyer." A TV commercial usually has only one minute to get its message across. Your resume has even less time than that commercial. Each resume has about 15 seconds to get the first reader's attention. The way to do that is to show the company what you'll do for them.