First, you have the HR Clerks and Secretaries-these gatekeepers are usually not familiar with your position, they have 100s of resumes to review and a stack of job opportunities to match to. They will likely give your resume a 10-20 second scan to identify if there is a match. You need to make their life easy by having clear direction followed by supporting evidence of that target. So you need to identify yourself as the ideal candidate for the job, and you need to front-load the resume with relevant keywords for the target position.

Second, we have companies who scan resumes into databases for future keyword searches. Many job seekers are tripped up by this because they either don’t know about it or, they don’t what to do. Here, you can’t make assumptions that the reviewer knows what you did solely based on a job title. So, resumes that don’t have “process” or key words will never get picked up by the scanners, leaving some of the most qualified applicants never getting a phone call. In addition, your resume must be completely OCR scannable. There are many elements of a resume such as a font type, underlining, tables and boxes, that are not scannable and can actually hurt your chances of having the resume read or not.

Third, if you have survived the first two scans, or you have a contact, your resume is now in a smaller stack of seemingly qualified individuals and it’s presented to a decision-maker. This individual is looking through the resumes trying to determine who is worth taking the time to talk to. Here you face a combination of issues based on visual presentation (does the resume grab attention?), focus on value to the company (have you emphasized your unique selling proposition in relation to the company’s need?), and results you can and will propose (have you balanced responsibilities with quantifiable challenges, actions, and results?). You need the resume to reach out and grab the reviewer and make them say, “I’ve got to speak to this person!”