The role of the resume writer has considerably changed over the past few years. With competition for jobs world wide greater than it ever has been before, it is more important than ever that a resume writer is able to properly identify the job role that a potential candidate is applying for and be able to write the resume accordingly.
20 years ago it was enough just to use a basic resume template that followed a predicable path. Education at the top followed by professional experience (including a few sentences about the duties and responsibilities), and a skills section at the bottom.
How times have changed. These days, a hiring manager will see on average 100 resumes for every job that is posted online (this is obviously lower for more specialised jobs and much higher for general administration jobs, but let us use 100 for our example).
Out of the 100 resumes that a hiring manager will see, at least 50% of the candidates will have similar skills, educations and backgrounds. With the remaining 50 other candidates le’s say that 50% of these candidates have greater experience, skills, education and 50% have less experience, skills and education. Now that you have an idea of the competition you are up against, have another look at your resume and see if it is going to be good enough to get you in the top 5-10%.
The role of the modern resume writer is to understand first and foremost the current state of the economy and industry that the applicant is applying for.
The second role of the resume writer is to highlight your achievements in order to stand out against the competition. It is no longer acceptable to just list your day to day duties in your resume or list brief duties you performed. I see this every day and people wonder why they cannot get an interview.
In today’s world this is no longer good enough. Hiring managers want to see how you have added value to your past jobs and what you can offer them going forward. The role the resume writer is to highlight these achievements and ensure that your resume opens the door for you to get an interview. At the end of the day that is what you want your resume to be able to do.
Remember to keep these ideas in mind – you want to give yourself the best shot possible every time!
