{"id":4855,"date":"2016-12-22T11:34:49","date_gmt":"2016-12-22T11:34:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mauriziolacava.com\/?p=4855"},"modified":"2026-01-20T15:16:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T15:16:14","slug":"slidesume-hiring-managers-will-never-choose-resume","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mauriziolacava.com\/en\/slidesume-hiring-managers-will-never-choose-resume\/","title":{"rendered":"Slidesum\u00e9: Why hiring managers will never choose your r\u00e9sum\u00e9 presentation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Have you ever heard the word slidesum\u00e9<\/strong>? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Probably not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m used to designing slides for my clients, but recently something unexpected happened. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A client asked<\/strong> me to redesign <\/strong>his professional r\u00e9sum\u00e9 <\/strong>presentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I organized a briefing session<\/strong> and I asked him what was his goal<\/span> and what he meant to achieve with this request.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem was that he had a traditional<\/strong>, self-made r\u00e9sum\u00e9 <\/strong>in Microsoft Word, which looked normal and boring<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you search for the word \u201cr\u00e9sum\u00e9\u201d on Google<\/strong>, Wikipedia<\/a> comes up with the following definition:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A r\u00e9sum\u00e9 is a document used by persons to present their backgrounds and skills. The r\u00e9sum\u00e9 is usually one of the first items, along with a cover letter and sometimes an application for employment, which a potential employer sees regarding the job seeker and is typically used to screen applicants, often followed by an interview.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

He asked me to redesign the r\u00e9sum\u00e9 to make it more appealing and to turn it into a more impactful document for hiring managers.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I went back to my desk and spent some time brainstorming several layouts<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once I found one that I liked, I started sketching it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From there to Adobe Indesign, it didn’t take very long to professionally recreate, and the redesigned r\u00e9sum\u00e9 presentation was quickly ready for the client.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I scheduled the delivery meeting and presented his new r\u00e9sum\u00e9<\/strong>. I was very satisfied with my new design, and the client liked it a lot.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, he felt something was missing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new r\u00e9sum\u00e9 was much easier to read, the information was organized in a smart and impactful way, but it had something in common with the original, boring<\/strong> version: you needed to read it.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This new r\u00e9sum\u00e9 included all the information <\/strong>to describe the professional life of my client. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore, based on his seniority, we ended up with a 3-page document. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This design would surely simplify the life of a recruiter<\/strong>, reducing the time to go through the 3 pages, but it wouldn\u2019t have brought any major changes in the boring screening process. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The client, who felt something was missing, asked me to find a way to summarize the r\u00e9sum\u00e9 <\/strong>into just one slide and to select the most relevant information about himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was the point where I realized that, with the right design, we could have achieved much more than just simplifying<\/strong> the design of the r\u00e9sum\u00e9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/span>What\u2019s the objective of a r\u00e9sum\u00e9 presentation?<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s think in a <\/strong><\/em>lean way<\/strong>. What\u2019s the objective<\/span> of the brief the client gave me? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea is to impress the hiring manager<\/strong> with a r\u00e9sum\u00e9 presentation that really stands out among thousands of other r\u00e9sum\u00e9s so that she advances to an interview meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/span>Traditional r\u00e9sum\u00e9 screening process<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The opening position is posted online somewhere and the hiring manager<\/strong>, at his desk, is ready to be inundated by r\u00e9sum\u00e9s<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to the fame of the hiring company (good employer branding), thousands of r\u00e9sum\u00e9s start flowing to the hiring manager\u2019s <\/strong>desk instantaneously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It would be impossible to filter them all<\/strong> efficiently, so there are HR tools<\/span> which help hiring managers perform a pre-screening, based on general quantitative achievements, e.g., the graduation score. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many r\u00e9sum\u00e9s are killed at this stage<\/strong>, and the others are personally analyzed by the hiring manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The HM needs to read<\/strong> the remaining r\u00e9sum\u00e9s document by document<\/strong> and absorb only the most important highlights of each profile. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It often happens that companies do not even have the pre-screening tool<\/span><\/strong>, so the HM receives loads of r\u00e9sum\u00e9s to read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this process, he reads first and then takes out the main highlights later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the highlights do not correspond <\/strong>to the hiring requirements, he discards the r\u00e9sum\u00e9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

However, reading r\u00e9sum\u00e9s can quickly become a very boring<\/strong> and tiring task. All of them look very similar, albeit in different formats, so the HM needs to carefully read them one by one.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A drop of attention often happens at the very beginning<\/strong> when the HM begins to read the r\u00e9sum\u00e9 presentation<\/span>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did you know that people decide whether to read an article<\/span> or not based on the headline?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Copyblogger<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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80% of your visitors will read your headline \u2013 but only 20% will go on to finish the article. We can say the same for r\u00e9sum\u00e9s.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

People love reading by hooks<\/strong>, to be led through deeper levels of detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When first approaching a document, people look for the title<\/strong>, which gives them an indication of whether it is worth reading the contents<\/span> in detail or not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the article<\/span> has subtitles or highlights keywords<\/strong>, people will first read those and finally will decide whether to read it all or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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People love skim reading \u2013 Every reader skims. Whether you’re reading web content, a newspaper article or a book, skim-reading is something everyone does to decide whether it’s worth devoting time to reading the piece thoroughly. Listicles are particularly brilliant because, unlike with traditional long-form articles where skimming might cause you to miss important information, the content on each section of a list is usually concise and self-contained<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

When a hiring manager faces a r\u00e9sum\u00e9, the title is often the name of the person and only in the best cases, the job title<\/strong>, so this does not provide indications on how to proceed. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The HM needs to read it all, line by line, being unable to judge if that r\u00e9sum\u00e9 fits the hiring expectations<\/span><\/strong>. This process is frustrating and extremely time-consuming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, when the hiring manager <\/strong>decides on the right person to call for the interview, he needs to have a complete<\/strong> framework of detailed information <\/strong>about his professional life. So, what to do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/span>How did I come up with the idea of the slidesum\u00e9 r\u00e9sum\u00e9 presentation?<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The traditional screening process<\/strong> is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Read r\u00e9sum\u00e9<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Identify key highlights<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Call the chosen person<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n
    \n
    \"r\u00e9sum\u00e9<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

    What if we could swap<\/strong> the steps, giving the highlights to the HM at the beginning of the process? Would this save him the time to scout for highlights reading all the documents?<\/p>\n\n\n

    \n
    \"r\u00e9sum\u00e9<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

    As you can imagine, analyzing highlights takes much less time than reading the whole r\u00e9sum\u00e9<\/strong>, so it allows the hiring manager to read faster and to come to the decision much quicker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Ideally, the hiring manager could decide whether the r\u00e9sum\u00e9 is interesting in a few seconds. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Based on that, he would choose to proceed reading the entire document.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/div>\n\n\n\n

    <\/span>What information exactly should the slidesum\u00e9 include?<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    At a higher level, we can say that the HM will look for two main things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
    1. Does the candidate fit in?<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
    2. Does the candidate stand out?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      Nowadays, qualifications, degrees and masters have become very popular<\/strong>, so they become a basic requirement for most of the \u201cintellectual\u201d jobs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      We call “fit in<\/strong>“ <\/em>all the minimum requirements<\/strong> needed to access a specific job position. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      If you want to become an accountant in a Big-4 consulting<\/strong> company like Deloitte, EY, KPMG or PWC, you <\/strong>most likely will need <\/strong>a degree in Economics<\/strong>. As you can understand, this is a must-have requirement. We call this fit in<\/strong>. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      According to The Atlantic<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n

      The problem, it seems, is the proliferation of B-grade B-schools. Universities are now conferring 74 percent more business degrees than they did in the 2000-2001 school year. Much of that torrid growth has been driven by part-time and executive MBA programs at less-than-prestigious institutions looking to cash in. And while the supply of business grads has continued to grow, the WSJ finds that pay for young MBAs has dipped 4.6% since the recession, reflecting both the slow job market, and the fact that the degree seems to have lost some of its cache<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

      At this point, your r\u00e9sum\u00e9 would be in a pot with many others that fit in. <\/strong>The question is, which of those stand out<\/strong>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Normally, you stand out because of personal traits<\/strong> or special achievements <\/strong>that you earned in your professional or personal life. The stand out<\/strong> <\/strong><\/em>part is something that really leaves the HM astonished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Finally, we need to include fit in <\/em>and stand out information<\/strong> in such a way that we can communicate main highlights to the HM to speed up his choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      <\/div>\n\n\n\n

      <\/span>The R\u00e9sum\u00e9 Presentation Question: What can you do for me?<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

      If you have said that you have the minimum requirements to be taken into account and you are also the special one between your peers, there is one more thing missing\u2026 I need to know if you understand my problem and if you can solve it<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      I hate when, every time I hire a consultant<\/strong>, they start talking about themselves<\/strong>. It seems they love talking about how special they are and about the uniqueness of their achievements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Have you ever seen the sales pitch of a top consulting firm<\/strong> when they propose their services? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      It\u2019s incredible how they can create long and boring presentations talking about their companies. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      What you really miss is the \u201cWhat they can do for you” part, but<\/strong> if they don\u2019t even mention it, how likely do you think they have really understood it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Tell the client or the hiring manager which problem you solve<\/strong> through the services you offer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Every job position is filled to solve specific problems<\/strong>, and this is what you want to be: the right problem solver at the right time!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      So first and foremost, showcase your top services<\/strong> that address your client\u2019s main problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      This way you\u2019ll tell him that you clearly understand his challenges and that you are there to solve them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      <\/div>\n\n\n\n

      <\/span>Slidesum\u00e9: let\u2019s make it!<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

      A slidesum\u00e9 is a one-page document<\/strong> that leverages the visual power of a slide to showcase the highlights of a r\u00e9sum\u00e9. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Do you like it? If you do, why don\u2019t you just leave a comment below?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n