The Hidden Step
www.bestjobsmagazine.com/ths
achieving clarity
There was a time a simple newspaper ad in the clas-
sifeds cost $1,300 and yielded at most 12–15 resumes.
Today any online ad averages about $100 per ad, and
can yield 500–5,000 resumes a day. Today the ads cost
far less and the
volume of resumes received is overwhelming.
Following traditional formats can “blend you in” with
the thousands of others who are following the same
outdated methods.
Some say this has made it harder
to fnd employment. That having too many applicants
applying for the same jobs is making it diffcult to be
noticed. But the opposite is true, and this gives you the
edge.
Pretend for a moment that you have 5,000 sheets of paper scattered
on your desk. If there was a bright red paper shuffed among them,
how quickly would you pull out the red one? Of course the red one is
noticed more quickly. If you had only ffteen resumes, and fve posi-
tions to fll, you would scrutinize every resume very closely. But when
there are 5,000 resumes and the same fve positions, you only look for
those that stand out.
Think about being caught in a blizzard. You look up and all
you see are snowfakes. How do you distinguish one fake
from another? You don’t.
Eventually you are tempted to give up trying. Now imagine
that suddenly from among the fakes, a bright
yellow
tennis ball falls directly in front of you. Your eye is automat-
ically drawn to the tennis ball
—
it is instantly distinguished
from the fakes.