The news reporter stood in the reception area of the company in front of a box with the notice “ Drop Resumes in this box.” She said that in the first hour of business, 173 resumes had been dropped in the box.
The Human Resources manager said that in sorting though the many hundreds of resumes, she never went beyond page one in the first round of sorting and never spent more than 10 seconds on any single resume. In the second round of screening, she usually limited her view to 30 seconds.
It wasn’t until a third pass that she would spend more than 60 seconds. My point is that you have 5 to 10 seconds to capture the eye of someone looking through a stack of resumes.
A recent report stated that the average time of unemployment today is 42 weeks. Some of you have been out of work for longer. Some have just given up. One friend said he sent out over 500 resumes a month for a year before he had his first interview, for a job 3 steps down from his last.
Looking for work? Tired of mailing out hundreds of resumes without any response? Try this fresh approach. You probably will not get a job next month anyway. Might as well be showing your capabilities to someone! Knowing that you will get a 5 second scan of only the front page of your resume, Place the following notice in the dead center, with a few one line statements regarding your qualifications for the position:
One Month Free Trial
Yes!
Let me work for you
FREE
For one full month
Try me out and see if I am the right one for this opening
I am willing to spend an entire month showing you that I am.
No Risk! No Obligation!
