Start With A Resume: Fill & Download for Free

Received an unformatted, 12 page resume that was a nightmare on the eyes and listed every single thing the person had done starting at the age of 9 or so.I received this resume probably 4-5 times in the course of a week. I finally responded, assuring the girl I had indeed received her resume, that she only needed to send it once and that the position had already been filled.She wrote back, asking why she wasn't called in for an interview.I stated bluntly that her resume wasn't even looked at because it was too difficult to read. I suggested that she trim it down to one page, eliminate anything that wasn't necessary and make it easy to read, I even sent her a few urls of resume templates to see examples.She responded with a threatening letter about "be careful when you cross the street you don't know who you insulted that may be driving" and then started an online campaign against me and the organization claiming we post fake jobs just to troll naive students.That was the last time I ever said yes to "Do you want to take on some interns?" and I also learned why HR almost never contacts people unless there is an offer.

Oh I love this one. Some 7 or 8 years ago a résumé arrived in the company I used to work for at the time. We were relatively large considering the timing and location and we have seen our share of résumés. But this one had literally “I'm the IT guru” sentence in it.So the “SWAT team” had been assembled, consisting of CTO, CSO and the main network administrator. When the guru showed up, they quickly started with the questions, each going deeper into their respective areas of expertise. Very soon the guru started to sweat, ummming and ammming as he struggled to find answers. After less than 15 minutes he stood up, yelled “The three of you, go f*ck yourself” and left the room.

Yes. And as a hiring manager, I’ll tell you why.I read a lot of resumes. When I post a position for a mechanical engineer, I expect to receive more than 100 resumes. I don’t have time to read them all, but I do have to select candidates and start interviewing them.When I pick up a resume, I skim it on a first pass to see if the resume is addressing the requirements for the job I’m hiring for, or if it is simply an autobiography in outline form. I can tell that pretty quickly, and I’ll toss the autobiographies.If you want your resume to be noticed and read, focus it entirely on the requirements for the job you are applying for. Don’t include items that don’t speak directly to the position—we can cover that stuff in the interview. Make your resume your marketing brochure to tell me why you fit the position. If you do that, I’ll see it easily within six seconds and you’ll more likely be invited to an interview.OP: Is it true that recruiters reject a resume in six seconds?[EDIT: I’ve just completed writing a book on this topic: On Reinventing Your Resume—A Hiring Manager’s Perspective. It is available only at reinventingyourresume.com.]