Former Amazon Prime Gaming VP Ethan Evans has reviewed over 10,000 resumes and conducted over 2,500 interviews in his career, so he knows what recruiters and hiring managers want to see on a resume — and what mistakes can cost candidates the job.
Former Amazon Prime Gaming VP Ethan Evans has reviewed over 10,000 resumes and conducted over 2,500 interviews in his career, so he knows what recruiters and hiring managers want to see on a resume — and what mistakes can cost candidates the job.
"I often see six mistakes. The first three are the most damaging, and 90% of resumes contain at least one of them. Recruiters and managers are under a lot of pressure and usually look through resumes as quickly as possible. Your resume should be optimized to quickly grab their attention. The goal is for them to look at it and decide that it's worth inviting you for an interview," Ethan Evans told Business Insider.
The former Amazon vice president emphasizes that the first three of the six mistakes are the most common.
“This is the most common mistake I see on resumes. People write what they did by saying ‘wrote code,’ ‘managed people,’ or ‘worked on project X,’” says Ethan Evans.
You can rewrite almost every bullet point in your resume in a way that describes why your work is important and shows how your presence has made a positive difference to the team, the product, and the bottom line.
Here are a few techniques to help you do this:
“Without an objective, the recruiter or hiring manager has to guess whether you want the job. An objective clearly states what role you are looking for in your next job, and a good objective is formulaic and short enough to be read at a glance. Don’t talk about yourself in purely subjective terms,” notes Ethan Evans.
An example of a formula for a Senior Engineer role might be: “Looking for a Senior Engineer position where I can apply my proven abilities to deliver scalable services to drive valuable innovation for the business.”
The first part simply states the role you are looking for. This is especially important if you are looking to do something different from your last job. The second part is where you can list your highest qualifications for the role. The third part shows that you want to help the manager and the company, that you are interested not only in yourself, but also in helping your new manager.
As an example, Evans listed his own goal on his executive coaching resume: “Goal: Extensive professional development, guiding transitions to executive leadership. Proven track record of leading multiple businesses worth over $500M in games, video, apps, and music. Global experience leading over 800 teams. Technical inventor; 60+ issued patents.”
“The mistake is that we write what we want to write about, not what the reader needs to know,” explains the former Amazon vice president.
The rule of thumb is to “show, don’t tell.” If you’re a fast learner, add bullet points to your resume that reflect that. For example, “Learned and applied X to project Y, going from first attempt to client delivery in nine weeks.”
The purpose of your resume is to present your top three accomplishments to the hiring manager. If you write too much, they will miss your biggest accomplishments. It's best to keep your resume under 1,000 words.
"My resume is 700 words long and spans a 30-year career, and I created it in Microsoft Word in two hours," added Ethan Evans.
Many resumes try to cram keywords at the top to get through the candidate tracking system.
There are two significant problems with this approach:
The ideal approach is to write your resume for human eyes and then use your connections to get it into the hands of whoever will read it. If you want to include keywords, write them at the end of your resume in the “skills” section.
If you are a recent graduate, the expected resume format is to have your education listed at the top. If you have work experience, your education should be listed below your work history.
Another element of the education section is your GPA. If you don't include your GPA, the reader will assume that it's low. It's better to include it if you've done well in school. While you can safely delete your GPA after 10 years of school, if you graduated with honors, it might be worth keeping it forever.
There are two benefits to ending your resume with a little information about your hobbies, charitable activities, and interests. These interests make you more human. If someone reads your resume to the end, you've caught their attention. A little personal information at the bottom will help you be remembered and
create emotional contact.
In addition to these six points, Ethan Evans also reminded us about LinkedIn and the need to fill out a profile there. “This way, recruiters can find you while you sleep,” said the former Amazon vice president.
