Hearing that hiring managers or recruiters spend only 7 seconds reviewing your resume can be a little frustrating. You’ve spent hours, weeks, or even days preparing this document that represents your life’s work, only for someone to skim it with the same momentum one does at a mediocre restaurant.

When I first heard this statistic, the first thing to come to mind was the research quality. My background is research (both quantitative and qualitative), and I had questions. So first, let’s explore what this study was about and what we can take from it.

Using a scientific technique called “eye tracking”, software company TheLadders utilized 30 professional recruiters as participants identifying candidates from resume and candidate profiles within a lab setting. In 2012, they found recruiters to spend, on average, 6 seconds making that initial decision on if they should continue learning about you as a candidate. Repeating the study in 2018, they found that number had increased to 7.4.

As a career coach, it’s a shocking and sometimes defeating statistic for clients to hear, and I can empathize with that. You spend hours building a meticulously detailed resume outlining your most coveted achievements and skills, in return for less than 10 seconds of time. That sounds like a pretty rough ROI.

As a researcher, it’s two studies with very little information on methodology. I’m not sure who the participants were beyond being labeled as “recruiters”, and I also know nothing about demographics (i.e., ethnicity, geographic location, time in field). The research was also conducted by TheLadders, a company selling resume services. That’s not to say there’s nothing to learn from this study, just that more research needs to be done.

And maybe that is why experienced recruiters have stated that in reality, it’s more like 30 seconds to a minute with outreach. Technology advances like the use of Applicant Tracking Software (ATS) recruitment systems help narrow candidate pools (which causes other issues - we’ll get to this later), but also recruiters and anyone else reviewing documents regularly are more likely to read very fast.

We know recruiters and hiring managers can and do review resumes at fast rates, but they also slow down to focus on pertinent details. A clear and concise resume balances this system, but writing one can be incredibly challenging.

Let’s go through some of the biggest resume writing challenges, provide some tips on how to overcome them, and explore how the team at the Wilbanks Consulting Group can help you write a well-prepared resume that best tells your story.

You. You’re the Biggest Resume Writing Challenge.

Please don’t take it personally when I say you are the biggest resume writing challenge, but it’s the truth. Let me explain with recent stories from my life as a career coach. One of my clients broke down crying during our Zoom call while explaining why their resume was written poorly. It’s okay! It happens.

Despite being a senior professional with an impressive 20+ year history, she struggled to articulate their skills, accomplishments, and everyday job on paper (which is common!). Digging in deeper, she felt shame in being boastful and was also nervous about her lack of a college degree.

Another client cried while sharing their job loss story, because it impacted their personal life on a truly devastating level. More often than not, clients I have worked with have some sort of concern in their career history that needs to be addressed. People lose jobs, have children, make career transitions, lack experience, or make bad choices impacting their career. As we all know, life happens.

If you have a unique situation affecting your resume’s presentation, an experienced resume writer can help guide you on the best strategies in presenting your work history. The Wilbanks Consulting Group combines 35 years of experience in career coaching, human resources, and recruiting to provide you with a roadmap for the career you want. One of our team members can work with you to develop a resume that best highlights you, your career, and the path you want to take.

Resume Writing Challenge #2: Spelling and Grammar.

Spelling and grammar issues are some of the most frequent and avoidable resume-writing challenges that can destroy your chance of landing an interview. It conveys laziness, lack of preparedness, poor writing skill, disorganization, unintelligence - no traits or qualities you want attached to who you are as a professional.

It’s always helpful to have multiple eyes on a resume, as it’s difficult to catch everything. Recent tech tools like AI writing assistant Grammarly are also helpful in eliminating spelling and grammar issues, but it’s not 100% effective. I recommend using as many methods as you can to help catch and fix resume errors.

Hiring a professional is also an excellent way to ensure your resume is void of any spelling or grammar mistakes. The Wilbanks Consulting Group has a robust team of writers skilled in delivering resumes that speak to the level of professional you are, and help land you key interviews.

Resume Writing Challenge #3 - Formatting, Fonts, and ATS

Not only does your writing need to make sense and be grammatically correct, it also needs to be formatted in a way that is readable for human eyes and ATS. To refresh, ATS refers to automated tracking systems employers use to filter and rank resumes. It helps automate, organize, and streamline the hiring process, but it is not without its quirks.

Drafting an ATS-friendly resume entails optimizing the document for the software to read and analyze. Here are a few tips:

Avoid graphics and images. (sorry, no selfies in your resume)
Use a reverse chronological format. List your work experience with your most recent position first.
Place contact information at the top and make it easily visible.
Include a headline under contact information with job title or key skills.
Don’t use fancy templates. ATS scrambles your resume into something often illegible or inaccessible.
Use bullet points and headings to make it easily skimmable.
Use standard or common web fonts that are easy for ATS to read like Calibri, Cambria, or Georgia.
Keep your resume under two pages.
Tailor the resume with keywords and phrases from identified job descriptions (we’ll talk about this next).

These rules seem limiting, but are an unavoidable reality as nearly 99% of Fortune 500 companies and 70% of large companies reported using ATS in 2024. And if ATS is something that concerns you, you aren’t alone. As a professional resume writer, clients frequently inquire about the software, how it will impact them, and if their resume will successfully pass through the system.

The Wilbanks Consulting Group has worked with hundreds of clients to deliver ATS friendly resumes. Our custom-designed resumes are optimized for ATS via identified keywords, strong action verbs, use of success metrics, and strong formatting. Let us build a resume for you that leads to interviews.

Resume Writing Challenge #4: Unable to Quantify Achievements and Skills

One of the most effective ways of getting your resume noticed is by quantifying achievements and skills. Metrics help provide context for how effective you were. Stating you have experience leading teams of 100+ to “deliver X, X, and X” instead of just writing you are an impactful team leader provides critical information to the recruiter or hiring manager.

Many people struggle to provide metrics. They often do not have the data, do not know how to do the math appropriately, or feel they are bragging so they shy away from including numbers. Regardless of reason, metrics are a key part of your career narrative. They help hiring managers understand your level of impact.

Numerous metrics are appropriate on your resume, but here are a few examples:

Budget Oversight
Sales Figures
Team Size
Customer Satisfaction Ratings
Project Deadlines
Budget Savings
Revenue Growth
Cost Savings
Rankings
Time
Number of Clients Served

A Wilbanks Consulting Group resume writer can help uncover the metrics needed for your resume. Our coaches are skilled in asking the questions needed to make your resume stronger as a data-supported document.

Resume Writing Challenge #5: Understanding Responsibilities vs. Accomplishments

There’s a big difference between responsibilities and accomplishments, and you need to understand how each is used appropriately on the resume. Responsibilities are just your duties. For example:

Answered phones and spoke to customers
Reviewed key metrics and provided financial reports
Updated customer information in SalesForce

It starts to sound like a job description, and isn’t what employers want to see. They want to see what you’ve accomplished. Let’s take the previous bullets and turn them into accomplishments:

Improved customer service after identifying procedural issue leading to delayed deliverables for clients, and implementing additional touchpoint with productions team.
Secured buy-in with C-suite leadership on project roadmap by leveraging in-depth data analysis and robust experience in project development.
Led initiative to integrate Salesforce-centered solutions, enhancing business processes by 40%.

If you aren’t sure where to start, you can just use the STAR method:

Situation - What was the problem or situation? This is the context needed to understand your example.
Task - What did you have responsibility for in completing the goal?
Action - What actions did you take to complete the task?
Result - Here is where you discuss positive outcomes or results that you influenced.

The STAR method is a structured way of answering behaviorally-based interview questions that walks you through what interviewers want to hear. I recommend practicing your response to common behavioral interview questions, as they’re a great way to identify achievements for your resume.

Accomplishments still provide context (responsibility), but they also illuminate your strengths, provide a history of success, and demonstrate growth to potential employers. You’ll want to understand the difference because it is a large part of what gets you noticed by a recruiter or hiring manager. Even more, resume accomplishments are the most impactful when paired with numbers, so make sure to quantify them whenever appropriate.

Resumes without tangible accomplishments are boring, and rarely stand out amongst the thousands of applicants. The Wilbanks Consulting Group is highly skilled at pulling out achievements to highlight on your resume from 1:1 conversations with one of our career coaches or resume writers. We can work with you to identify how you’ve been impactful, and strategize on the best way to demonstrate it on your resume.

Resume Writing Challenge #6: Tailoring Your Resume to Each Job

You could say I saved the best for last because this is a point I make sure to make with every client I meet. Just like t-shirts, the one-size-fits-it-all approach does not work with resumes. Yes, it will work sometimes, but is sometimes good enough for your job search?

It is crucial to spend between 15-20 minutes tailoring your resume to each position, reviewing your document against their job description for keywords and phrases. Ask yourself, “is this resume answering the job description?” You should pull out keywords and phrases, matching them to your qualifications and highlighting them appropriately. It’s that little bit of extra effort that recruiters and hiring managers notice, as it helps demonstrate your interest in the position.

I like to tell clients to create a master resume, which is a resume that details your work history regardless of length. It’s not a document you would often share, as it isn’t tailored for anything specific, but it is your working document to build tailored resumes.

The Wilbanks Consulting Group offers tailored resume writing services, conducting research to identify keywords and phrases in job descriptions matching your interests. Our ATS-friendly formats allow for you to continue to tailor your resume towards desirable positions in the future.

The Easy Part: Hiring WCG

It goes without saying that resume writing can be difficult, challenging, overwhelming, and something many of us struggle with. Let the team at the Wilbanks Consulting Group design a resume for you and tell your story in a way that leads to interviews. We offer both design-focused and ATS-friendly resume services. Book a free 30-minute consultation today!

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