With job seekers far outnumbering openings, there’s already enough pressure on those looking for work to make sure their resumes shine. Now a new survey by OfficeTeam offers another reason: executives spend more than six minutes on average looking at each resume they receive.
The national staffing company said executives are paying more attention to application materials these days because they fear making mistakes in hiring, particularly in tough times. In the survey of 150 senior executives at large companies, the average time respondents said they spent screening resumes was 6.4 minutes.
Since most resumes are just a page or two long, OfficeTeam said the findings suggest that job-seekers should work especially hard on them.
The company said some important things to do when writing a resume are putting significant accomplishments high up, customizing phrasing to include the same keywords found in the job description and using simple language and design.
Click here for more on the survey.
