How do employers review resumés?

Importance of a resumé

A resume tells the employer your story. Aside from highlighting your strengths, accomplishments, and experiences, a resume also reveals your identity and who you are. Most importantly, resumes help employers make hiring decisions and they open doors to opportunities, such as initial interviews.

This is why the structure of your resume, and what you choose to put on it, matters. Making it look neat, and organized, shows the type of person that you are and having relevant experiences mentioned, in an orderly fashion, gives a great first impression.

Why is a resumé necessary?

The employment market is one of the most competitive markets ever. A resume is the basis and first stepping stone towards landing a job. Resumes lead to job interviews, and successful job interviews result in employment. Resumes are necessary because they;

• Outline your relevant skills and past work experiences. Always make sure your most recent skills and experiences are reflected in your resume. A strong resume uses formatting elements, such as, color, appropriate margins, and design to ensure relevant work experience is emphasized.
• Show how you are able to contribute to the company, and work with your employer. Instead of saying generic phrases like, “detail-oriented” or “results driven”, use “achieved (X amount of money) of (type of product sold) in (Y amount of time).” It’s more specific, neater, and targeted.
• Make you stand out from the crowd. In the top quarter of your resume, describe yourself in a way that makes you the most unique person on Earth. Write something that is catchy and describes who you are while providing how you are perfect for this role.
• Can, potentially, lead to an interview. A good resume is a door to multiple opportunities. If all goes well, you’re on your way to getting that internship!

Making your resumé attractive

Harvard career experts give a detailed description of how you can make your resume attractive. Here’s a summarized and abbreviated version of the key points from the article:

• Tailoring your resume shows that you have actually studied about the role you have applied for. A resume should be tailored to the job and type of position that you’re applying for. It’s not mandatory to change every single detail, but make sure that the experiences you put on it are relevant and resonate with what your employer values.
• Be sure to include your contact information. The two most important components that fall under the “contact information” category are; your email address and your phone number. A link to your LinkedIn profile is a bonus, but make sure that it is up to date. If you have your own website that highlights your accomplishments, be sure to add that too.

• Make your resume presentable. Be consistent with spacing, underlining, italics, fonts etc. List your previous work experiences in reverse chronological order, meaning that you will put your most recent work experience first. Always convert your resume into a pdf file, this makes the formatting the same on all computer platforms. Last but not least, keep your resume to just one page. Since you’re an intern it is expected that you still have a lot of room for growth and development.

At AIP, we understand the value and importance of a quality resumé. An attractive resumé goes a long way and with our professional help, we are able to enhance your resumé and perfect it so that it stands out in the crowd. Students and young professionals around the world are constantly searching for internships. Making a good resumé is the first step in your professional career. Let us help guide you in this journey to success. 

Ways that employers evaluate resumés

Employers see thousands of resumes when there are job postings online. We’ve focused on how you can enhance your resume but what is the whole process like, through the eyes of the employer? How do they operate and evaluate your resumes?

The first way that employers evaluate resumes is through an automated system. With very accessible technology in today’s world, it’s better to take advantage of it and use it to sort out and organize resumes, right? Anyways, what happens when a resume gets submitted online, or sent to an email address, is they get stored in a database. Smaller companies and businesses may have a hiring manager to look over and “skim” through the stack of online resumes to find several that stand out. Bigger companies may send you a link to do a personality assessment, which is used to evaluate an applicant’s characteristics to determine potential work ethic.

The second way is the “manual” approach to reviewing resumes. What this means is the hiring manager will go through the stack of resumes (one by one) and consider which ones meet the standards of the company. Here is how the typical process works:

• Does the applicant have relevant work history? Employers tend to read and check out the bulk of the resume--your work experiences--right away. Employers do this to evaluate if you’ve had proper work experience in your field and most importantly, a strong career background with the potential to improve. If none of this is relevant, employers will move on to the next resume. If relevant, then the employer will check for...
• Adequate skills, which translates to your personal skills as a valuable employee. Your employer will scan through your resume, searching for keywords that resonate with the job you’ve applied for. If none of your skills are irrelevant, they will move on to the next resume. If your skills are relevant, then your employer will…
• Scan to look for your educational degrees. For internships, applicants should be attending college, or recently graduated from a certain institution. Getting, or having, a bachelor’s/master’s degree in your field of interest, really does come in handy and puts you in a strong position.

Apply for an internship with AIP!

AIP offers to help enhance your resume in whichever way possible. We are here to help you grow as a professional individual and we believe that every single one of you has the ability to succeed. Allow us to help jumpstart your professional career by applying for an internship with AIP.