Editor’s note: This article was first published in January 2019; the model resume it presents dates from 2013. Use of screening software (ATS) has grown a lot since.
Thousands of résumés reach companies, so the mere fact that a recruiter ever gets your CV in their hands is already a matter of luck. And if that happens, you’d better have the perfect résumé, because I don’t think anyone wants to risk not even getting the chance to spark the HR manager’s interest, so that they are left wanting to meet you in a face-to-face interview.
On average, you have 6 seconds to catch their attention, because according to various studies, that’s how long a person spends on each résumé. So in those 6 seconds we have to grab their attention quickly and make sure they find what they’re looking for. To do that, even though there’s no such thing as a perfect résumé as such, it should be direct, concise and to the point, without including things nobody cares about.
Recently, a woman became very well known in the media for creating what is considered the perfect résumé, but in my personal opinion it is just an adaptation of the one created a few years ago by the recruiting experts at TheLadders, which experts still regard as the best résumé format. I still think TheLadders’ résumé is more useful, more concise and more effective at quickly catching the recruiter’s attention, and certainly more usable across different fields and industries.
This would still be the perfect résumé in 2019
You can see the sample résumé, created by TheLadders, in Business Insider’s article.
See also: Online résumés: some tips
According to these professionals, we need to catch the recruiter’s attention quickly, make it easy for them and get to the point. With that in mind, Business Insider asked TheLadders for an example of the perfect résumé today, and the company put one together, stressing that this model is meant as a guide for mid-level professionals with 3 to 5 years of work experience relevant to the job they are applying for.
It may look very simple, but they stress that it also avoids many of the mistakes we make in the traditional résumé. And although many of the things people put in their CV could be very interesting in a job interview, when it comes to the CV itself, the recruiter generally has neither the time, nor the desire, nor the patience to read one or two pages from thousands of candidates.
What makes this résumé perfect?
1. It includes a URL for the candidate’s online profile
It’s important for professionals to have an online professional profile these days. According to these experts, 86% of HR professionals already look up candidates and their profiles online. Don’t make them waste time, and try to avoid being confused with someone else.
2. It has no objective statement
“Seeking opportunities that allow me to develop and make use of my skills,” according to these experts… isn’t useful. It’s too generic. Replace it with an explanation of who you are, what you’re looking for and the exact value you can bring as a professional.
(Read: What the perfect cover letter looks like)
3. Reverse chronological order
It’s more useful for recruiters to be able to see quickly what you’ve been doing in recent years. Reverse chronological order is almost always recommended, except when you want to make a complete career change.
4. It uses keywords
Most people don’t know that many HR departments already use some kind of software to search résumés for certain keywords. In this case, the highlighted keywords are “forecasting” and “strategic planning”.
This means that if the company is looking for a strategic planning specialist and uses software, out of 1,000 CVs perhaps only 5 that include those words would come up. Look into the keywords used in your industry, because although it’s estimated that, for now, less than 10% of companies in Spain use this type of software, its use will keep growing.
5. It describes the company (if that works in your favour)
Being the manager of a company with 5 employees is not the same as having run a company with 350 employees. In the second case, make sure it stands out clearly on your résumé. The same goes for team leaders or significant roles within a specialist field.
6. It quantifies achievements
One of the most common mistakes people make when sending out CVs is listing their achievements in dense blocks of text. However many achievements you have, try to include only 3 to 5, and quantify them. You didn’t sell €300,000 in the year you worked there; you increased sales by 20% compared with the year before you arrived.
7. It uses white space
White space points the recruiter to the important points, so use it and don’t bury the most important information in dense blocks.
8. Simple formatting
They advise against using colours or unusual fonts. You can see how the résumé has a minimalist, traditional look, which already says a lot about us.
9. It doesn’t say “references available on request”
Avoid including unnecessary things. If the recruiter wants references, they won’t ask you for them. They’ll look for them themselves.
10. It uses no images
On this point I’m going to disagree with these professionals. While I agree that you shouldn’t put tables or charts in your résumé, since they could confuse keyword-screening software, the truth is that many studies say the most important part of a résumé is the photo, and according to most recruiters, it’s where they look first.
In other words, I personally think this is a perfect résumé format for not wasting anyone’s time and catching attention quickly, but these days, at least in Spain (and I imagine in Latin America too), the photo is still essential.
Further reading
Featured image: COD Newsroom, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr.
