Back in the 60′s, Andy Warhol made his famous statement – that in the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes. Whether it’s an accidental walk-on part in a TV news report, or a querky vid on youtube, we’re all entightled to one brief moment in the sun. Sadly though, unless you’ve got a voice like a Susan Doyle or the athletisism of a Usain Bolt, this moment is all too fleeting.
Now let’s think for a moment about the resume (or the Curriculum Vitae as the precise and history rich Brits would call it). That one document that each of us relies upon to get our moment in sun and land that life changing job (and that, well let’s face it we’re absolutely made for). Well my friends the problem with relying on the trusted and traditional resume is that you actually don’t have 15 minutes to get your point across. You don’t even have five minutes…probably more like 15 seconds, and here’s why.
Recruiters and those HR folks normally don’t have the 15 minutes needed to determine whether you’re famous or not. They have a strict timeline in which to assess whether or not you ‘cut the mustard’ for their clients. And for that one position you know you were made for they could have 100′s of other pristene resumes all silenting screaming– choose me, choose me!!
Now it’s not that HR managers and recruiters are heartless beasts, far from it. They are professionals, compensated on their ability to find the right person for the gig. And years of professional zeal, combined with good ole’ gut feel and instinct is sure to pay dividends and enable them to match a square peg with a square hole (well, hopefully). No, it’s not with the recruiter where the problem lies, it’s with the traditional resume and how it isn’t suitable for selection / shortlisting timeframes.
With external recruiters especially, it’s all about a sales cycle. That is, selling that very special product (aka you) to their clients in the shortest timeframes possible. Now unlike a Ferrari salesperson who has a darned good product to flog, and a rather discerning and cashed up client base, the recruiter has to choose from a vast array of products in that pile of resumes to match a very specific set of criteria. Time is of the essence, and devoting 15 minutes to each and every resume probabaly isn’t worth the effort — especially if the recruiter is trying to just find a decent product marketer, Java programmer or heck, even a HR manager — all of course within the budget and time constraints imposed by their clients.
To get that special moment in the sun, job candidates have to stop hoping that anyone has 15 minutes to casually peruse their resume over a latte - they don’t. It’s about getting that ‘special you’ across in 15 seconds….and the clock is always ticking.
In the next post I’ll discuss what to avoid on your resume and why it’ll never get you noticed.
Zapeteo
Living in a land far-far-away, zapeteo writes about anything and everything related to the management and mentoring of really talented people. As such, he frowns on wooden phrases like ‘human capital management’ and ‘performance-based culture’. Instead preferring to discuss real issues, involving real people and the real things businesses can do to build and retain talent.
15 seconds of fame
0Back in the 60′s, Andy Warhol made his famous statement – that in the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes. Whether it’s an accidental walk-on part in a TV news report, or a querky vid on youtube, we’re all entightled to one brief moment in the sun. Sadly though, unless you’ve got a voice like a Susan Doyle or the athletisism of a Usain Bolt, this moment is all too fleeting.
Now let’s think for a moment about the resume (or the Curriculum Vitae as the precise and history rich Brits would call it). That one document that each of us relies upon to get our moment in sun and land that life changing job (and that, well let’s face it we’re absolutely made for). Well my friends the problem with relying on the trusted and traditional resume is that you actually don’t have 15 minutes to get your point across. You don’t even have five minutes…probably more like 15 seconds, and here’s why.
Recruiters and those HR folks normally don’t have the 15 minutes needed to determine whether you’re famous or not. They have a strict timeline in which to assess whether or not you ‘cut the mustard’ for their clients. And for that one position you know you were made for they could have 100′s of other pristene resumes all silenting screaming– choose me, choose me!!
Now it’s not that HR managers and recruiters are heartless beasts, far from it. They are professionals, compensated on their ability to find the right person for the gig. And years of professional zeal, combined with good ole’ gut feel and instinct is sure to pay dividends and enable them to match a square peg with a square hole (well, hopefully). No, it’s not with the recruiter where the problem lies, it’s with the traditional resume and how it isn’t suitable for selection / shortlisting timeframes.
With external recruiters especially, it’s all about a sales cycle. That is, selling that very special product (aka you) to their clients in the shortest timeframes possible. Now unlike a Ferrari salesperson who has a darned good product to flog, and a rather discerning and cashed up client base, the recruiter has to choose from a vast array of products in that pile of resumes to match a very specific set of criteria. Time is of the essence, and devoting 15 minutes to each and every resume probabaly isn’t worth the effort — especially if the recruiter is trying to just find a decent product marketer, Java programmer or heck, even a HR manager — all of course within the budget and time constraints imposed by their clients.
To get that special moment in the sun, job candidates have to stop hoping that anyone has 15 minutes to casually peruse their resume over a latte - they don’t. It’s about getting that ‘special you’ across in 15 seconds….and the clock is always ticking.
In the next post I’ll discuss what to avoid on your resume and why it’ll never get you noticed.
Zapeteo
Living in a land far-far-away, zapeteo writes about anything and everything related to the management and mentoring of really talented people. As such, he frowns on wooden phrases like ‘human capital management’ and ‘performance-based culture’. Instead preferring to discuss real issues, involving real people and the real things businesses can do to build and retain talent.