Newsletter Article
Member Benefit
Published Fri May 06 2022
If you’re one of the millions of folks who find themselves looking for new employment opportunities, you’re likely polishing your resume, sharpening your interview skills, and reworking your cover letter. These are all good things, but it’s likely you’re missing some blind spots. One of the worst, according to Lauren Gardner, head of global talent acquisition at Microsoft, is approaching job applications with a one-size-fits-all mentality. “They’ll send out a thousand resumes and hope that one gets a hit,” she explains. “I wouldn’t recommend sending out only one or two applications, but when you send out too many, people will start to question what you’re truly passionate about.” Another issue, she says, is that folks tend to sing their own praises in their resumes, which can drag on too long. Imagine your resume as your elevator pitch, Gardner says. If you only have 30 seconds to capture someone’s attention, what would you say? “I’ve seen some fantastic resumes where people not only capture their skills and experiences, but they include a short ‘interests’ section highlighting their hobbies and passions, and they cover it all in under a minute \[of reading time\],” Gardner says. “That’s about as much as people have an attention span to review—you want to call out the things that are most unique to you, fast.”
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