30 seconds between success and failure
March 2nd, 2007Rands In Repose: A Glimpse and a Hook
On the surface, this post about writing good resumes has little to do with marketing or branding. But it does. A seasoned hiring manager gives us a crisp overview of how he forms his opinion of an applicant in “the first 30 seconds”.
That’s not a lot different from the amount of time we’re likely to get from our prospective customers, now that time is the scarcest commodity
Two points I lifted from this post:
- In reviewing the resume, Rand glosses over the bits that we all assume he would be very interested in: “Skills” and “Summary of Qualifications”. Essentially, he doesn’t believe it and it doesn’t differentiate one resume from the other…His focus is on the jobs they have had before, how long they were there, what the achieved. Even what they do in their own time. But not skills and qualifications.
Back to marketing: have a look at most sales pitches, websites, brochures and you’ll find that there is great focus on “Skills” and “Summary of Qualifications”(read Services or Products) and not nearly as much on “what we have done” or “what we are doing”. Even less on what makes us different.
- Second point; if you have 30 seconds, how you say what you say counts. Take some time and strip out all the superfluous words you use in describing your value proposition. Make it authentic and personal. It’s amazing how the little things matter when you have 30 seconds.
