Modern, Eye-Catching Resumes

We’ve all heard the saying “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”

Research tells us that we only have about 15 seconds of interacting with a stranger before they form an opinion of us and approximately 70% of that impression is based on appearance.

We’re all familiar with these common sayings:

Books are judged by their cover.

Homes are judged by their curb appeal.

Whether we like it or not, appearance counts, and attractive packaging helps sell.

Think about it: if you are selling a product, one of the best forms of advertising is the packaging that holds your product.

I believe that the same is true about the eye-appeal of a resume.

In many ways, you can think of a resume as the packaging that advertises you, and an eye-catching, modernized resume will always promote you more effectively.

Now, we must also keep in mind that virtually all of us living modern lives today are absolutely overloaded with information.

• Did you know that 90% of all the data in the world has been generated over the last two years (as stated by IBM, in 2012)?
• How about this: today, we receive 5X as much info on a daily basis as we did in 1986, and…
• The average American consumes a total of about 74 gigabytes— that is the equivalent of about 9 DVDs worth—of data PER DAY.

We are being bombarded with information everywhere we turn! Emails. Texts. Tweets. Facebook. We are assaulted with facts and they come at us fast and quick.

And it is distracting, especially when you figure in our digital gadgets!

I was shocked to read that in 2015, the average office worker was spending 6.3 hours a day checking their email. We also check our cell phone every 10 minutes, adding up to 96 times each day!

All of this information is more than our brains can handle. It’s exhausting and it’s stressful.

Now add in the fact that humans’ attention spans are getting shorter. The average attention span is currently just 8 seconds or less according to a recent Microsoft study, and this is 30% less than similar research had found ten years prior.

Knowing this, with several hundred resumes coming in for a single job opening, it isn’t shocking that a study conducted by The Ladders found that on average, recruiters spend only 7.4 seconds reviewing each resume that comes across their desk

So, the question is, if we recognize these facts

• humans are overloaded with more info than our brains can process,
• digital technology is continually distracting us, and
• at the same time our attention spans are getting shorter…

What does this mean for your resume?

What can you do to get noticed with your resume?

Well, I really believe that one very large part of the puzzle is that you must write your resume very succinctly, edit it rigorously, and make every word count.

But of at least equal importance, I’ve grown to believe, is the visual presentation of your resume content. In other words, a modernized resume with eye-catching design.

Why is this? Well, the simple fact is that humans are visually wired.

Consider that almost 50% of our brain is devoted to processing visual information.

Graphics and other visuals help us with information overload.

Not only do our brains register graphics far faster than text, as much as 36,000 visual messages per hour, a rate which is 60,000X faster than text.

But graphics are also more memorable. Research has shown that visuals improve our ability to learn 400% and while we remember on average only 20% of what we read and 10% of what we hear, we remember 80% of what we see.

So, what is the impact of all of this?

As you might expect, using visuals in your presentation – especially visual elements that include color – have an incredibly positive impact when you are trying to convey a message.

For example, web pages with visuals get 94% more page visits and engagement than those that don’t.

Content and social media posts that include visuals are 40X more likely to be shared and articles that include graphics after every 75-100 words are twice as likely to be shared than those with fewer graphics.

Using COLOR in your visuals has an equally dramatic impact.

Color visuals increase our willingness to read by 80% and has been shown to increase comprehension up to 73%.

Color increases readers’ attention spans 82%. And people also appear to have a strong bias for color as they are 55% more likely to pick up a full-color direct mail piece first.

Consider what that might mean if you have used color in your resume.

Imagine your resume lying on a table along with other resumes, all text-based and black and white, which do you think a recruiter will pick up first?

Finally, a stat that I found especially interesting: using color to highlight info on a page improves the ability of the reader to pick out important info 39% faster than just using different font styles like bolding or italics. People were also 35% more likely to finish reading an article that used color rather than just black text.

How important might these facts be when we know that the average recruiter spends only 7.4 seconds reviewing each resume?

The research is clear…in a world in which we are busier and more distracted than ever, with information coming at us from all directions…

Including color and infographic elements to create an eye-catching resume will help you get the attention of hiring managers, will help you convey key information quickly, and ultimately, will help you to create a more positive first impression.

It is time to modernize your resume and transform it into an eye-catching, results-getting personal marketing document.

But, you aren’t a graphic designer and you have no clue how to redesign your resume. More importantly, you aren’t sure what is acceptable, what isn’t acceptable, or how to make sure your finished resume is ATS friendly too.

The solution is Distinctive Resume Templates.

Distinctive Resume Templates provide an easy way to recreate and transform a resume even if you have zero design experience. Check them out!