Never Underestimate the Power of a Resume

89% of managers surveyed claimed to have dispositioned an applicant based on the appearance, legibility, and/or lack of professionalism in a candidate’s resume.   

A first impression is the most profound and impactful event a candidate or employee can leverage when developing a professional relationship. In many scenarios, a resume is the first document a potential manager or supervisor may view to peer into the mind and personality of a candidate — what does your resume say about you?

Apart from typical information gleaned from a resume such as work history, education, and geographic location, a resume contains priceless qualitative data for managers to process that may lead to a more informed hiring decision. The qualitative aspects of a resume often overlooked by applicants include the layout, color scheme, legibility, word choice, aesthetic design, and the overall subconscious signaling inherent in the document. In today’s competitive market, it’s not enough for your resume to simply be typo-free. Basic Microsoft Word templates might not make the cut when leaders are reviewing dozens, if not hundreds of resumes for desirable positions. According to a 2019 global market poll, 89% of managers surveyed claimed to have dispositioned an applicant based on the appearance, legibility, and/or lack of professionalism in a candidate's resume. 89% is an astonishing metric indicating the vast majority of managers are making split-second decisions on an applicant’s capability solely on the look-and-feel or ‘presence’ of his/her resume.

Graphic design and tactical writing, or wordsmithing, have become necessities rather than niceties in the modern market. While your resume may list accomplishments and previous roles/responsibilities with accuracy and detail, your word choice, layout, and overall design demeanor may be sabotaging any chance at success. Furthermore, current human resource management systems use optical character recognition (OCR) technology to automatically filter through the library of applicants to produce the ‘cream of the crop’ candidates for leaders to review. However, as with any technology, OCR is not perfect. These systems may produce resumes from unqualified candidates or may exclude resumes from the most accoladed hopefuls due to lackluster resume design and/or verbiage. As a result, the onus lies on the candidate to ensure his/her resume contains powerful and relevant verbiage to the job posting and is aesthetically pleasing and different enough to stand out from the crowd.

If you are not communications or design professional, Dru Creative provides exemplary resume production services for any industry and level. To consult with us, send an email to [email protected], or access our contact information here. Provide your current resume or any previous job history and accomplishments and our consultants will craft an exemplary resume complete with custom design and concise verbiage to compete with the most talented competition (we never use templates available to the public, your resume will be unique to you!). Your finished resume will be provided to you via email in PDF format. Satisfaction guaranteed.