Rate my résumé

1. What is your first impression of the résumé? Do you want to continue reading it?

Carolyn Shea-Morrone of Boston Scientific: The candidate's résumé presents and reads well. Yes, I would continue to read it because it's an easy read — easy to follow by employer, dates of employment, and position/title.

Randy Stevens of R.L. Stevens and Associates: Clean, crisp, and easy to read. Good use of white space surrounding all copy, verbiage indent from outer corners of page are wide, and good use of bullets that ensures fast readability and digestibility of information.

Yes. Recruiters have only 5 to 10 seconds to determine when reading a résumé (really, skimming) the viability of a candidate. First impressions must communicate non-verbally, professionalism, information authenticity, and inherent respect for a recruiter or decision maker's time.

Radhika Rana of the Professional Staffing Group (PSG): At the first glance, the candidate's résumé needs to be cleaned up. The first impression leaves me indifferent about reading the résumé or not.

2. In general, how important is the first impression?

Shea-Morrone: First impressions are very important. A good first impression will means that the time will be invested in reading that résumé.

Stevens: Most recruiters and decision makers, as well as their screeners use intuition to determine in a matter of seconds, whether candidate is worthy of their time.

Rana: The first impression of any résumé is very important because it represents the individual and many times the way they represent themselves. As a recruiter, the résumé is what makes our decision to want to bring the person in for an interview.

3. What do you think about the design of the résumé?

Shea-Morrone:

• Font style/ size - good font size
• Margins - good margin size
• Bulletpoints v. long paragraphs - bulleted format
• Colors - no colors - appropriate choice
• Number of pages - 2 - appropriate based on experience
• Overall presentation - good; clear, crisp, easy read

Stevens: There is excellent use of white space, and the bullet points in this résumé enable the reader to quickly distinguish each thought or point. The résumé was kept to two pages, which is the preferred page length. Good use of summarization not only of achievements but also education, awards, and publications.

The overall presentation is precision-like which is suitable for the types of recruiters and decision makers for this market. In addition, centering the address is great choice for faster readability versus what many candidates use. It adds a nice visual balance to rest of document which has such good, wide margins.

Rana: In regards to the design of the résumé, it certainly needs a makeover. The first thing the candidate should do is align the margins and justify the text. By adjusting the text and margins, it will definitely make the résumé look a lot better.

4. In general, how important is a résumé's design?

Shea-Morrone: See question 2.

Stevens: Résumé design is critical to ensuring a positive impression is made. Unless in creative fields, a résumé design should be conservative in appearance like this one.

Rana: In general, the design of a résumé is helpful. The more organized the résumé is the easier it is to read.

5. After reading the résumé, what is your impression of the candidate?

Shea-Morrone: The candidate has good qualifications and has a very stable employment history.

Stevens: I'm left with many questions on the "how" of what made this person successful. He has detailed many awards he has won, but the résumé doesn't paint a deeper picture of what differentiates him from his competition that gains him these awards. Thus, while the résumé is crisp visually, it lacks substance to differentiate the candidate from any others with similar qualifications.

Rana: My impression of the candidate is that he is much appreciated at the one firm he has worked for since 1990. He gained a lot of experience at the biotechnology firm.