This test applies to resumes and often to job reviews. The principles are the same.
Right now about 5 resumes out of every 100 make it to the hiring manager. The average resume screener is NOT an expert in what you do. If you are lucky he will know half of the technical terms on your resume. The screener will decide in 10 seconds whether or not your resume comes close to being acceptable. After this speed test, the screener will give your resume a 45 second read through. If you pass that test you will finally get in the pile that the hiring manager gets to see. Your resume has to get past the screener or you will not get hired.
How do you test your resume? Find a screener of your own.
Ask a friend to look over your resume for 10 seconds. Time them. Snatch your resume out of their hands. Take it away and ask them what they read. What they tell you determines whether or not you would make the first screen test. If you pass that test, give it back to them for 45 seconds. Again, snatch it away and grill them about what they read.
If your resume passes this test with three different people, you have a resume that may work. If your screener can say what you accomplished, that’s outstanding. If he says what your duties were, that’s good. If you are going for a programming job and he says you worked with VB.Net and C#.Net, and by the way, what are they? You did well.
Every time you submit a resume, look at the ad you are responding to. Will your screener pick out the key phrases in the ad…..from your resume? Test it. Find out.
That’s how you get more interviews.
And think about those long, boring job reviews. Don’t you think the same test, altered depending on your circumstances, could be of help? Test what your manager’s boss will really read.