Job seekers should tailor their resume for 3 key stakeholders they meet during the hiring process.
Often when people are applying for jobs, they wrongly assume only the hiring manager cares about their resume and job experience, but in fact there are multiple people you are engaging with during the hiring process.
The various people involved in hiring for a position are looking at different parts of your resume and overall job experience so it’s important to be prepared to speak directly to what it is that each person is looking for to excel at the job interview.
To help you get inside the head of the people reviewing your resume, here are three key stakeholders you’ll meet along the interview process.
Person #1: Human Resources Manager or Recruiter
The first person is the human resources manager or the recruiter. After you apply for a job, someone in the HR department or a recruiter will decide if you should move along to the next step, which is normally a screening call.
At this point, they could easily be dealing with hundreds of applicants and more if they’re hiring for multiple roles. This is why they can't read every word on your resume or your LinkedIn profile and only have a few seconds to skim and scan your resume.
Though they’ll be familiar with what you do and key terminology related to your field or role, it's likely they haven't necessarily worked in your position or industry. This is why it’s crucial to use key phrases and key words that relate to the job you’re applying for. Refer to the job description to identify exact things the company is looking for and work those things into your resume.
Person #2: Hiring Manager
If you make it past the screening call with HR or the recruiter, you'll move into the interview phrase where hiring managers get involved.
At this point, there are fewer candidates, and as a result, you can assume people are spending a little bit more than a few seconds looking at your resume. This is why it’s crucial that your resume provide details of what you did. A resume with bullet points that all start with “I was responsible for” become repetitive, boring, and only speak to what you did but fail to explain how you did it and what happened.
Hiring managers don’t want to just
For example, if you are a researcher, don’t say “I was responsible for conducting customer research studies.” This only scratches the surface of what you did and in doing so, you are selling yourself short as a candidate. Instead, you could say “I planned, conducted, oversaw, and analyzed, quarterly customer research studies including surveys and interviews with 200 customers each quarter.”
Providing rich examples of what you did is more impactful than simply stating your experience as a list of responsibilities.
Person #3: The Team You’ll be Working With
If you make it beyond the first interview, you'll encounter people who may be your future peers or colleagues, as well as people from other teams.
This is meant to help the team and hiring manager gain further understanding and confidence in your hard and soft skills. People who are from the team hiring you or have the same job title as you want assurance and evidence that you can do the job, do it well, and that they'll enjoy working with you.
When they read your resume, they want to hear the details about what you've worked on and the story behind a project or two, to get a sense of the depth of your skillset, how you work, and how you think, and how you approach problems. Ideally, you want your resume to spark their curiosity about projects you’ve worked on and make them want to have a conversation with you about it in an interview.
Your resume is more than just an inventory of your work history. When written strategically, it can help you stand out to the junior recruiter or person in the HR department, get selected for a screening interview, and increase the chances that you stand out enough from other candidates to progress in the interview process.
When it comes to landing your next interview, keep in mind that people don’t care what you did, they care how you did it. Your resume is about showcasing not just your output, but also your process and outcomes.
