Reflecting on Round Robin Resume
Round Robin Resume
October 28, 2009
1:30-4:30pm @ MBC 2290-2296
Please RSVP on Symplicity.
Ting! There goes the bell again and it is time to start my experience at Round Robin Resume. Time to move on to the next table! As I sat down, my eyes raised up to him, the nicely dressed guy with an award-winning smile on the other end of the table. Since I only have 8 minutes to impress him, I presented my materials right away and waited for his neck muscles to make a nodding gesture. “Great start!” he said to me, and that, gave me a relief.
He was from a reputable finance company and although I was not a Business student, or Economics, or anything related to it, he didn’t budge. He ran through my resume quite quickly; his eyes scanned through it and put it down on the table as he expressed his thoughts about my resume. He said it’s not something he sees everyday and mine was not ordinary, because it was not plain black/white with Times New Roman size 12, but that’s what caught his eyes. He had seen thousands of resumes in his career, and he only remembered a handful of those that are really extraordinary. He admitted though, my resume is not suitable for the positions his company offer, but he was glad to see something like this and being an expert in this field, he told me tips of how to make my resume even more striking.
Ting ting! Is it really time to move on again? I was about to complain, but yet again, I realized in real life, one resume will only be given a chance to shine for a few minutes before it will get piled up under the other resumes of the same fate.
It was indeed a great opportunity to understand the employers’ thoughts and process of thinking while he goes through each resume. It sparked my mind of how I would like to design (text, format, and graphic elements) to save my resume from getting thrown off to the sides with the rest of the REJECTED pile. I want it on the shortlisted stack, where all the other fancy resumes boast themselves. I began to think: How do I make sure it gets there when I’m not there to convince, beg, and kneel to the employer to get it on the shortlisted stack?
That night, I came home motivated to improve my resume even further so that next time I go to Round Robin Resume, I’ll score “Wow” all around and feel so much prepared and confident that, yes, my resume will end up in the shortlisted stack, where it belonged the first place.
I’m coming to this year’s Round Robin Resume session to collect those “Wow’s”, you should too! Watch the employers’ reaction to your resume (and/or cover letter), and let them tell you what they think. They don’t lie, that’s for sure, why would they anyway? They would love to see great resumes everyday. They want to feel challenged to separate resume to the two stacks instead of going “meeehhhhh” every time.