Is Your Resume on the Cutting Room Floor?

What happens if a candidate sends in their resume for a specific Third Party Collection Manager role and when reading it, the hiring manager finds that there is no third party experience? Does the hiring manager bother to continue reading to the end of the resume? When reading on to the bottom of the resume, the hiring authority sees that they candidate actually did have several years with a 3rd party agency early on in their career. But as recruiters or hiring managers, do we continue to read all the way to the end of the resume, looking for some information relative to the position?

How many resumes end up on the cutting room floor?

Is your resume preventing you from being considered by not addressing how your previous experience makes you qualified for the position based upon the requirements set forth by the hiring entity? In today’s competitive market it is important to stand above the rest. As professionals looking for a job change you must clearly state an objective and summarize experience in the beginning of the resume. This includes even the most senior candidates. How else do you expect the reader to understand the message you are looking to convey? Resumes are broken down in separate sections and the structure might vary; however the overall premise is to list your achievements chronologically and honestly. But most important is to offer what you have achieved and what you would like to achieve in the future.

Let’s say you are a collections sales executive applying for a commercial sales role and have not worked in a B2B environment for several years. You need to initiate the resume with an attention grabber. It doesn’t even have to be elaborate. For example, you can simply state:

"15 years of Collections Sales experience in a consumer and commercial capacity looking to settle into a Commercial Sales role."

An excellent opportunity to provide this information is in the objective or career summary portion of your resume. Providing this information tells the hiring manager that you have what takes to get the job done!

In essence a resume is a like a personal advertisement and any good advertisement should be tailored to a specific audience. Honesty is equally important when creating a resume. Never claim that you are something you are not. In a personal ad, if you try to attract someone by stating that you are athletic and like to climb mountains, you had better be prepared to strap on the climbing gear and prove it.

It works the same in the workplace. Don’t call yourself a "Collection Manager" if you have never managed a group of employees. If this is something you are striving towards, you can state that you are a candidate with 10 years as a collector looking to step up into a management role.

There is also an importance for keeping a standard chronological format. This provides the reader with your most current position working down through the years. A resume that does not follow this progression can be misleading. I also advise candidates to realize that they do not have to limit themselves to just one resume. You can adapt your resume for different roles that you are looking to apply for.

A quality resume is clear, concise, and without error. By stating what job you are looking to achieve early on, you will entice the reader to focus on how your experience qualifies you for consideration. This will give the hiring authority the desire to read on. This is the first step to catching the attention of a recruiter or hiring manager. After that, you can close with a great interview.

Susan Burden is a Vice President at Executive Alliance. Executive Alliance, an international recruitment firm, is the leading provider of human capital (recruiting) services to the Credit, Collections and Call Center Management industries. Our clients-major financial institutions, telecommunications companies, utilities and service organizations-have chosen to partner with Executive Alliance because of our proven ability to attract, identify and recruit exceptional talent. Additionally, clients and candidates alike can expect the highest level of industry knowledge, customer service and ethical conduct. Executive Alliance is the exclusive staffing partner of insideARM.com.