Does Resume Format Matter?

I sat down with long time friend Carissa Wilcox to answer some questions about Resume Formats. What ensued was a heavily caffeinated conversation about the use of the resume and what format says about your personality.

First; Carissa thanks for interviewing today and let me introduce you to my readers for the benefit of the blog. You're a CEO and Recruiter at your own firm, how many employees do you have?

Clarissa: Thanks for interviewing me Jack! We have 13 employees, and half of them work from home.

Me:  *snorts* I'm old school, I think recruiters should earn their wings in sweat shops with a Rolodex and Bake-light phone. 

Clarissa: *laughs* we get more work done from home now days as recruiters. I work at the office because I have to.

Me: So tell us, how much augmentation and formatting do you end up doing to a candidate's resume before you schlupp it off to the client?

Clarissa: Wow, a lot. Even Doctors are known to have terrible resumes. In certain job sectors professionals have this attitude that they're in such high demand the CV doesn't need to "look good."

Me: Yeah, it's the old "They'll call me regardless" cockiness. 

Clarissa: Yup. But it matters a lot, I mean; you never really know how many employers have passed you over based on the look and feel of your Resume. 

Me: Exactly, you don't know until you get the phone call. Tell us more about why formatting is critical.

Clarissa:  What others have neglected to understand is that regardless of the possibility that you apply for a position online that eats up your resume you will still need a flawlessly organized form to impart to HR once they've connected with you. Whether they request a "spotless" form or not, generally send it after they on-board you with with a card to say thanks saying you value the call and their time. It's one additional preferred standpoint throughout the process that the following individual before you DIDN'T think to do. 

Me: Okay so, you submit a resume to a place like Glass Door and it looks fancy with cool doo-dads and what not, is this the best place to exhibit your artistic skill?

Clarissa: No, it's not. You should upload a PDF that utilizes Boolean String Keywords. Save the frills for the resume you submit to HR.

Neat arranging gets the attention, it makes the provisional manager really read a resume. In addition, great resume organizing can underline those expert aptitudes, individual accomplishments that you need to be seen first. 


Poor and straight forward resume designing, particularly on at least 3 pages just skips the scanner's consideration.

Me: What's your "can rate" ?

Clarissa: *laughs* My what?

Me: We used to call it the "can rate" in my old firm; the percentage of resumes you toss in the trash...

Clarissa: Well, it's different of course depending on the job position but if I had to come up with a running average it'd probably be 60-70%.

Me: That sounds about right; so nearly 3 in 4 people won't make the cut.

Clarissa: That's correct.

Me: How much of that is based on skill or experience?

Clarissa: Actually we are very keen on communication skills, so that's the first thing we look at. Our clients grow more selective by the day, so even skills and education can't save you if an employer can't communicate with you well. 

Me: How deep do you get into Resume keword mining with a small firm like yours?

Clarissa:  Parsing is a vital capacity for organizations who computerize their selecting procedure and utilize web based enlisting devices. Thusly, writing a resume in an organization that the Applicant Tracking System can naturally import the best possible data in the resume is essential. 

At any rate, your computerized framework should have the capacity to concentrate all content from a resume for looking later, paying little heed to its record organize (i.e. Microsoft Word®, PDF, RFT, HTML, and so on). Most mechanized frameworks that bolster continue parsing will likewise have the capacity to remove the contact data from a resume, and this alone can be an enormous help. As opposed to having to re-key the contact information from the resume into your database, you will as of now have the individual's contact data from the resume. 

Propelled ATS frameworks have resume import systems where you can import feed aggrigators that you can further filter from mass hopefuls. You can transfer continue records 
on the other hand even messages you get from hopefuls with resume connections into the framework. All resumes are consequently parsed and the applicant's contact data is removed naturally.

Me: Break down the key elements that job hunters need to stick to when formatting a resume.

Clarissa: Need for resume organization follows the basic 4 rules:

1. Visual Appeal 

2. Displaying content important to peruser/scanner

3. Taking out an area that wastes time or has little substance. 

4. Keeping up design measures expected by industry standard professionals.

Me: And it still depends on the industry, right?

Clarissa: Absolutely, there are different resumes for different skills even; you can break down niche jobs to the wording and color if you wanted to. That sounds ridiculous but for instance; Accountants or Comptrollers never use red letters in their resumes. Those are things you'd know if you were in that line of work.

Me: Anything else that could be of value to someone that isn't having luck with their job hunt?

Clarissa: Yes, remember every day millions of people change jobs, so that means by and far people are getting hired en-masse. Don't become cynical of the industry or at yourself. Don't think there is something wrong with you personally; the internet age has made it more competitive than ever to get noticed by the good employers. If you want to work for these awesome companies you need to stay competitive and that means hiring a recruiter or resume writer at the very least. 

Me: Thanks for that plug 

Clarissa: Well, resumes are essential, I wish people; young people especially millennials understood that. There is a huge misconception that resumes are not as important as they used to be. That's completely wrong. They are like virtual landing pages now. We even offer SEO optimization for your Resume so it gets noticed by web crawlers at our firm.

Me: SEO is very important. Resume databases are also very important.  I want to also say that people wrongly assume if they submit their resume to multiple websites it increases their chances.

Clarissa: Yeah, that's only partly effective. Google will index your resume and parse it into their algorithm. This means one resume will get parsed just once. Flooding the web with one resume does nothing for you because it's still the same document with the same keywords, nothing changes. 

Me: Tell them what parsing is.

Clarissa: So think of parsing like selective key word query done by a search engine; the programs that recruiters and Fortune 500 companies use basically strips down millions of resumes to their bare bones and dissects the wording to fit their needs.

Me: And why do they do this?

Clarissa: Mainly because they are inundated with a non-stopping flow of resumes. 

Me: Okay Clarissa we're going to roll the rest of this into a more in depth article for my readers. This is the Thursday bonus peak but more of our conversation along with the screenshots of your top ten resumes of the week will be included. Thanks for chatting with us.

Clarissa: Thanks Jack