Secret Revealed - Updating Your Resume

Sometime back, a Senior Director of Human Resources working with one of the top brands in the country approached us, seeking assistance in revamping her resume. She said “I feel its time to update my resume to bring it in sync with the market. I see resumes everyday and thousands of resumes have passed through my desk, but when it comes to writing my own resume, I am having a difficult time doing it and so I need your help” She also said “I understand that the resume is nothing more than a couple of pages of marketing material, but it is an important document in today’s market”.

There are a lot of professionals out there who might be thinking about updating their resume now. Some of the Baby Boomers may have been with the same organization for a few years and the present market scenario with layoffs happening across, they feel the necessity to update their resume.

So given the scenario, that you’ve done a fairly decent job at developing your resume over the years that it has the strength to get through the Applicant Tracking System (ATS), and it has reached the recruiter of the hiring manager’s desk. A recent study shows that the hiring manager pays attention to the section which has your summary of qualifications. This segment is of utmost important because almost all of the employers interviewed during this survey said that this is one of the first areas they read. And, if that crisp write-up is able to give them confidence on your suitability for the role advertised, they tend to slow down and give that applicant a careful consideration by going through the rest of the resume at depth. In today’s market, employers usually spend about 10 seconds to glance through a resume and it is important that you have a compelling one, that is carefully drafted using the right content and aesthetics if you expect them to spend any more time on your resume than the usual 6 to 10 seconds.

The secret here is your Summary Of Qualification or the Profile Summary as it is used on most resumes:

This is almost the secret weapon that you must use on your resume and give the top most priority to because most hiring managers claim that this vital information seems to be missing on most profiles that they come across and these are the profiles that they skip because they are not in a position to arrive at a decision immediately. They tend to keep such profiles for later and only revisit them rarely. Being in this industry for decades, we never skip this section and ensure that the whole flavor of the resume is brought into this section because we understand its importance more than anybody. We place this segment early in the resume and it’s a crisp 6 – 8 liner that showcases an overview of your experience followed by accomplishments and moving on to the value add.

One of the best examples of a well-written profile summary:

There are several ways to start writing a Profile Summary. For example:

1. 10 years of experience working in top automotive manufacturing environments.
2. An amazing problem solver recognized for delivering some of the top-notch cost saving and operational policies.
3. An award-winning IT Services professional, recognized for delivering best in class customer service.

The key to make this process of writing the profile summary easier is not to focus on this part first. Focus on drafting your resume first and then move to the profile summary. This will give you insights on what goes into it. Make sure you emphasize on the results and accomplishments in this segment. Ensure that your profile summary defines the experience you carry and gives them a fair understanding of the value that you bring to the organization if they hire you.

And if you are still stuck with this segment, we are only a call away to help you draft a perfect one. You can reach out to us at d@cvdesigner.in | 0091 844 844 8780