Resume Looked at for 6 Seconds by Job Recruiters

TheLadders.Com

A recent study by TheLadders provides some interesting revelations about what a recruiter looks at on your resume. When you receive hundreds, or thousands, of resumes on a daily basis, you don't have time to read them all verbatim.

Eye-tracking software was used to determine where the recruiters' eyes were looking, what was there, and how long. As it turns out recruiters were able to decide on call-backs in as little as six seconds in most cases. Reportedly, recruiters did "little more than scan for keywords to match the open position." This amounts to hardly more than cursory patter matching.

Recruiters spend most of their time looking over 6 main points: Name, Current Company & Job Title, Start and End dates at your current job, Prior Job Title and Company, Start and End dates at your last job, as well as your education. The details of your resume and cover letter became little more than filler.

Does this change the way we should be building our resumes? Putting the more relevant information near the top to be easily spotted by a recruiter, is there a such thing as Resume SEO, will there be? Soon I imagine that the paper resume will be obsolete and we'll be relying on electronic versions. With employers and recruiters already running resumes through a scanning machine to toss out the poor matches (based on keywords found by the program in your resume) before they even land on a recruiter or HR person's desk, it's beginning to look more and more like we'll be crafting our resumes even more. One thing is for sure, no matter what, keywords in your resume are a determinant in whether or not you even get a phone call, or an interview.

Related articles

• Recruiters Look at Resumes for 6 Seconds; Here's How to Impress Them
• Recruiters Barely Look At Your Resume
• Recruiters Only Look at Your Resume for an Average of Six Seconds and This Is What They See [Resumes]

Less than 100 Days Until London 2012 Olympics

London Wheel - London (Photo credit: @Doug88888)

The NGO (National Gymnastics Organization) has started blowing up Twitter for the commencement of the 100 Days Ceremonies. Soon the torch will begin it's journey to London where it will be greeted by the future King and Queen of England. I'm crazy excited for the Olympics, this being the only major sporting event I take time out for every four years, though I do try to keep tabs on the Gymnasts since they're my favorite event throughout.

Greece has offered to provide a replica ancient Greek war ship to bear the torch to London but committee organizers have declined the offer, and Greece has taken offence. The Greek has canceled a dinner event aboard the vesse

Ancient Greece (Photo credit: freeasinfreedom)

l to which English dignitaries were invited next month.

The IRA has seemingly decided to use this year's Olympic Games in London to build their platform, most people having forgotten about the small groups of rebels. They're expected to make bomb attempt during the Torch's procession through Ireland. Since the routes are mapped and planned well in advance this is expected to be a tactical fiasco for Irish police forces. This is reminiscent of the 2004 Greek Olympics when security was at an all-time-high after the September 11th hijackings in the USA and other political uncertainties of the time. Can't we have one Olympic cycle where everyone doesn't want to murder each other? The games are supposed to bring our nations together, even if they didn't start that way. Back when Ancient Greece was just Greece, the games were far less extensive and were held as a means to resolve disputes between Sparta and Greece.

I plan to attempt to cover the Olympic Games this year, mostly to show my support and cheer on Team USA, besides this is the most patriotism I can manage to eek out every 4 years.

Related articles

• Olympic countdown: 100 day to the games
• Dummy run for Olympic torch relay
• London 2012: It's almost here - but are we ready?

14 Year Old Voice Actor Goes Viral

This kid is absolutely brilliant, his only problem is he hasn't been discovered yet, but given time he could be. Fortunately he lives in a time where launching a career via YouTube is entirely possible.

Mac Users Looking to Point Fingers Over Malware

Apple marketed its operating system software as "Mac OS", beginning in 1997. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There has long been this idea that Macs simply "Don't get viruses." It's long been the most popular argument that Mac users love to bust out when they're backed into a corner during a Mac Vs. PC debate. I've been warning my friends for years that this myth is just that, a myth, and they need antivirus software, some went out and picked up some good software, the rest didn't listen to me, and now they're complaining about their Flashback infection.

The Hunger Games Vs. Ender'sGame

I'm not going to lie, I suck at reviews, whether it's because I devour books and don't take notes so I can touch on key points or something else, I do not know. I can sit and talk about it with you for hours though, if you want, but good luck on getting a decent review from me. But I continue to do them, it seems, maybe, in practice I'll find success.  

The Modern Business: We’re Not in Kansas Anymore

This is Rogelio Rivas trying to learn his guitar lessons. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I had a very interesting discussion with a friend of mine who, like me, works in the technology industry as an Electrical Engineer (I develop software). He told me a story about a music shop that does a bunch of stuff from selling instruments to giving instrumental and vocal lessons. This place has a Web site too, set up by the owner's son. It's a JPEG, or image. No text, keywords, nothing, just the graphic.
I'm only writing about this because I feel the guy who owns this shop should be a lesson all business owners can learn from: You need a Website for your business, and chances are your nephew shouldn't be designing it unless he actually has some HTML skills; honestly for a static page suitable for most businesses HTML is all you need.

The Location-Based Brain

door 212 (Photo credit: Aunt Owwee)

Ever forget to grab your keys from the living room, but when you go to grab them you end up forgetting what you were forgetting in the first place, your car keys. As a waiter, and a human being, this interesting phenomenon happens to me all the time. Interestingly enough, there's a reason behind it, and it has to do with the door, well mostly just he location, but the door appears to be a trigger.

We store information in our brains not unlike the way computers store information in folders. For us though, each room is a folder and when you leave, or walk through the door your brain is wiped and you load up data about the new room.

This explains why often when I leave the dining room at work with a drink order and enter the pantry, I “blank” and make the walk of shame back to the table to get the order again. Writing the order down in the first place would be a de facto solution, but it makes me look amateur and I've been around the scene long enough for the comparison to be offensive.

Apparently there's little I can do other than saying what I need out loud as I walk through the door. This isn't a problem with my memory itself as you might think. I don't really mention it (mostly because nobody believes my scores), but I've taken IQ tests (real ones) and a big ticket item on many are wrote memorization (aka short-term memory) and I generally score over-high on those portions.

So, the next time you change rooms and can't remember what you've forgotten, go back to where you work, because you probably didn't forget, your brain just loaded a different chunk of data and unloaded the chunk with the important stuff you've forgotten but can't remember.  

My Take on the Modern Relationship

A young woman and man embracing while outdoors. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I don't really write the "Sex and the City" style articles often, probably never, but I recently read this article about myths surrounding cheating. One of the myths that stick out is of those that cheat, only a handful reported it was because they had fallen out of love, or felt the relationship comming to a close. On the contrary they merely wanted to have sex with someone else, the "same old sex" can get kind of boring it would appear. Reportedly, trying to spice up the sex life can be self-detremental, leaving you feeling like the end of the relationship was your fault.

Disastrous Easter

Easter eggs (Photo credit: StSaling)

Easter for me was crazy as hell and as usual way too much stress to celebrate a Pagan-turned-Christian holiday when I don't hold with either clan. My family are all still Christian and for them, the food, and the chance to spend time with those people I don't get to see often, I participate. Since my family is so large, shopping for each person is impossible so every year my sister and I put together a small, individual arrangement of homemade confections (yes, we do make them by hand). This Christmas it was truffles (over 150 were made) and chocolate peppermint bark.

Better, Greener Coffee? (On the cheap!)

For me there has always been only one way to make coffee, and it's the time-honored, tried-and-true French press. It's a simple contraption: a cylinder holds your coarse coffee and hot water and the lid consists of a plunger with a screen on it that pushes the grounds down to the bottom after they have been steeped.

You don't really need the Kzata...
(Photo credit: DavidScherer)

So, Wait, It's Not A Girly Drink?

Cocktails: "Lecker." Included notes (left to right): Tequila Sunrise, Erdnüsse, sind hier Standard (in the bowl), Mai Tai, and a receipt for €4,50 und €4,75. (Mallorca, exs100, cocktails, canpicafort, Spain, spanien) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Happy Hour blog over at GIZMODO has an interesting article, a rather well-developed approach that analyzes a few of those alcohol-related rumors. The one that interested me most pertained to mixed drinks, you know the ones that don't make you choke, gag, or barf. Coincidentally they're also the drinks that put on the receiving end of the jests from friends, joking that you can't handle the "rougher" stuff, or making you out to be the "bitch" or "pussy." Not all is as it seems.

Quitting Smoking: Day 2

i quit! (Photo credit: stallio)

A few days ago I began to get an inkling of the idea to quit smoking, it would drastically help my daily run (I could actually, you know, breathe while I ran for once). Today is day 2 without a cigarette. The literature packaged with the Nicorette gum I bought says the first few days are the hardest. I seriously hope that's the truth because honestly it hasn't been that hard yet.

I've had a few rough moments but I take a few deep breaths, decide if it's a craving or me just wanting a cigarette and either chew some gum or try to occupy myself. This seems to be going well as of yet and if it gets easier after the first few days then this shouldn't be too hard. 

I've never tried quitting before, and statistically people don't usually succeed their first time, but I'm hoping I can.

Tired of Spending Money on Diet Pills, Programs, and Gimmicks?

Are Bananas Much Better Than Cookies? Foods That Keep You Full and Prevent an Energy Crash:

I came across this in my Google Reader and I thought I should share it. Every day I see a new commercial for a workout system, diet pill (drink, food, candy bar...), or diet plan. You know what I'm talking about, and if you've tried them, or those around you have, you're familiar with how they work out: Sometimes you loose some weight, but then you gain it back almost immediately; more often you simply don't bother to do the work. You end up "cheating" so much it's not even cheating anymore, you're just binge eating. We wonder why diets don't work, and the answer is there, swatting you in the face, but the commercial weight-loss industry has everyone believing they need a pill to loose a pound (or fifty).

You want the secret to loosing some weight, and then keeping it off? I'll tell you, I'll tell you 100% of it and I won't charge you a dime, I won't ask for your E-mail, and this post is certainly not a limited-time offer just for you and the first 23 others who get exclusive VIP access. No. Read on and I'll do my best to explain how to loose weight in a healthful way, that won't have long-term health implications that may yet be unknown because of the lack of any quality studies performed on the safety of diet pills and supplements.

How Companies Like Apple are Destroying Our Economy

Linked from Apple, Inc
Supplier Responsibility page.*

America has a deep rooted problem with our economy. Our Middle Class has almost entirely disappeared as our exports are now our imports. More and more we're becoming a provider of services, instead of goods. I recently read and article that used Apple, Inc. as an example to demonstrate what exactly has gone wrong. I rarely agree completely with something of this nature, but alas, I found myself compelled to read the whole thing and found myself agreeing on nearly every point.

The article reveals that manufacturing jobs have been shipped overseas not entirely because Chinese workers are much cheaper than American workers, in fact it pointed out that it would only cost ~$60 USD  more per device to make iPads in the USA. The problem, however, is that Chinese factories have surpassed the capabilities of their American counterparts astronomically.