The unemployment rate, as of this writing, is 10.2%. More specifically, in fact the youth unemployment rate in India stands at 15.5%. Scary isn’t it? Because if you’re looking for a job right now, that number can make it seem like the odds are stacked against you.
Given the tough environment, it’s a given that most job position openings would receive hundreds of resumes and applications.
This will be the first thing people see to get a glimpse of who you are. You can either stand out by being so awful that you’ll be remembered as an example of what not to do, or you can stand out by having an exemplary resume.
So what exactly is a resume?
A resume is a summary of background, skills and qualifications, which you as a job applicant send to employers for review. Consider it to be your personal marketing brochure with the goal of gaining the employer’s attention and giving them the information they need to bring you to the next step in the hiring process, an interview.
But in a manner inversely proportionate to its importance, is the time most applicants spend on drafting it. Why is that so?
It is stressful. Resume Writing requires extreme attention to detail and every word we put down on the page seems like a make or break, so we want to bury our head in the sand and just neglect the task
It is a struggle, because you are not a copywriter and writing a resume places too many demands on you, so you just neglect the task
Its boring and frustrating plugging in details of what you have done in the past, trying to present the reality like a pretty picture. You wish you could say the truth, like math was the worst subject ever, so you just neglect the task.
The investment of this time and thought into the design of a resume is necessitated by multiple factors.
First and most importantly because the resume acts as a door opener or a closer. Did you know that on average an employer or Recruiter takes only 8-10 seconds to screen your Resume before considering an applicant to either be shortlisted for a pre-screen interview or not. Sometimes it can be even less than this. That is not a lot of time at all to create a first impression on a piece of paper and hence why getting it right is so critical
If you are through the first scan, and the hiring manager decides to pay attention, the resume becomes a source of information about your professional and academic trajectory, your interests and aspirations and given that you have been shortlisted becomes the foundation of your interview.
In fact through your very resume you can most often control the direction of the interview, taking the interviewer in a direction you want him to go, keeping in the safe territory of what you have prepared and avoiding pitfalls
The resume positions your candidature in the eyes of the hiring manager and interviewer, in a certain way, hopefully in the way you have planned and that becomes the spring board for you getting the job.
So the Resume is a very important document and critical to enabling your career movements. So if you feel you cant do justice to it, evaluate getting your Resume Professionally Written.