Your Resume Must Be Sharply Focused

A sharp focus is an extremely important resume element. Given that employers screen resumes for between 2.5 and 20 seconds, a resume should show the employer at a glance what you want to do and what you’re good at. In a study by the former Career Masters Institute (now the Career Management Alliance), employers wanted resumes to show a clear match between the applicant and a particular job’s requirements. A “general” resume that is not focused on a specific job’s requirements was seen as not competitive.

In a more recent study by CareerBuilder.com, 71 percent of hiring managers preferred a resume customized for the open position. Learn more in our article, FAKTSA: An Easy Acronym for Remembering Key Resume Enhancers