WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING ABOUT A RESUME? IT IS NOT WHAT IS IN THE RESUME!

#resume #jobsearch #workforcedevelopment #careercounseling

The most important thing about a resume is not the resume. A resume that comes by email to an employer and scores 90% on the resume content scale will often not get an interview. But the resume that scores 70% on the resume content scale will often get an interview over the higher ranked resume. How can this be the case? The 90% resume came through an email. The employer questions whether or not this resume is honest. Checkster and HireRight say that over 50% of resumes include lies and gross exaggeration so the employer's questioning of this resume is a valid assumption. The employer thinks how do I know that this resume is honest? This resume is viewed skeptically.

The 70% resume came from a person the employer knows and trusts like a trusted employee, a personal connection or someone who knows the employer. A resume that gets to the employer in this way comes with an implied reference. It is more likely to be honest. Also since the referral source knows the employer, the person from this resume is more likely to fit into the company culture. While culture fit criteria can often be discriminatory, it is an important consideration in the hiring process. Culture fit is one of the most difficult things to assess in the hiring process. So getting a resume from a source that means that there is a strong culture fit between the candidate and the company is worth a lot to an employer.

If the 70% resume employee will work harder than the average hire to do the work. They want to make sure that they don't disappoint the person that referred them. If they don't perform well the employer can go back to the referral person and complain and that person will make sure the referred employee performs better so the relationship between the referral person and the employer is strong.

Ask yourself if you were an employer with a job opening, how would you evaluate a resume that came through an email versus a resume that came from someone you knew and trusted. In short, the most important thing about a resume is not the content, but how it gets to the employer! There is a lot of social capital involved in an employer getting resumes from people they trust and that social capital will often influence the hiring decision. Job seekers should not just apply at companies. They should spend their time using their personal connections, social media connections and other ways of making connections that will help them get to the people that an employer trusts that can give the employer their resume. The most important thing about a resume is not what is in the resume, it is how the resume gets to the employer!