A while back I did a free LinkedIn and resume review giveaway and I got over 500 entries in 5 days! There was no way I could review 500 resumes so instead I decided to give everyone instructions on how to review someone’s resume and match them with one of the other participants.
I get dozens of requests on a daily basis to review people’s resumes so I decided to share exactly what I would do in a resume review to everyone so you can basically be my proxy. Grab a friend, a family member, a random stranger… or if all else fails a mirror, and do a resume swap!
If you’re more of a visual learner I also made a video of me reviewing a candidates resume and LinkedIn following these same steps. If this feels daunting for you, do a review along with me here:
Ready, set, go…
Step 1: What can you tell in 60 seconds?
Recruiters and hiring managers have to go through thousands of resumes and usually don’t spend a lot of time trying to read your whole resume. Put a timer on for 60 seconds and jot down everything you assume about this person from this resume.
This is your chance to finally guilt free — judge that book by it’s cover! Don’t hold back and don’t worry about generalizing or stereotyping. What kind of person do you think they are? What skills stand out to you?
Also note down stylistic things that are making it difficult for you to quickly understand — is the font too small? Are all the points stuck together? Is it hard for you to immediately identify what their skill set is?
Step 2: Does it seem like they can do the job?
Ask your peer for a link to the job description of their dream job. Read the job description and jot down 3–5 things that the company is looking for. I’d ignore arbitrary things like years of experience and field of study and focus on the more fundamental technical and soft skills the job is asking for.
Step 3: Identify gaps and strengths
