Canadian Finance Blog

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Resume Psychology Posted: 11 Dec 2010 02:00 AM PST Psychologists say that we "know" in a split second (about 1/16 second, to be exact) whether anything that comes into our environment is going to help or threaten our instinct to survive. This split-second test of whether something is good for us or bad for us is a top task of our brains and nervous systems because it governs our very survival. Say that it takes only 1/16 second (what psychologists call a "slice") for us to tell this. Whether it's an object, a car, a person, climate change, or even a piece of paper like your résumé, it will be evaluated by your brain at lightning speed. Compared to 1/16 second, seven full seconds seems like an eon! Yet, that's all you have to snare the survival instinct of your reader and get her to salivate over the contents of your offering. If you miss that chance, you may never be able to recover it. During this critical "seven-second zone," the brain is bombarded with impulses whose only purpose is to determine one thing: is this (object, person, situation) going to pose danger to me or help me? You know yourself that a feeling of friendship, affection, intense dislike, or even "falling in love" can happen the moment you lay eyes on someone or something. We're going to capitalize on those powerful feelings in the next chapter with something that I call a power proposition. Your power proposition, which the reader will see in that crucial seven-second zone, will rivet her to your résumé. • With only the words in one powerful paragraph (about four to seven sentences), you will infuse the reader's nerve cells with energy and curiosity. In brief, you make the employer "fall in love" with you! So just how are you going to strike up a "romance" with the employer that has the potential of blossoming into a long-term love affair (your new job)? Well, as with most romances and even great friendships, it's essential, as we've said, to make a good first impression. • Recording and storing detailed and accurate information • Keeping customers and clients happy • Greater marketability and sales appeal for her products • Better public perception of her company and its services and goods The Key to Knowing about Survival Needs When you, by your efforts at work, increase anything that the employer sees as valuable and decrease things that the employer sees as dangerous, you are fulfilling his primal needs for safety, security, and well-being. • You show him that you can do this by writing a résumé that presents a variety of "tasty" hooks. Your power proposition contains the initial hooks. A power proposition is easy to write, yet deceptively attractive. Once you know what's required to spark an attraction in the employer's brain, you'll have a lifelong tool that will help you not only with your résumé, but also with your interview and other parts of your job search. How about moving on to constructing a paragraph that will rivet your reader's eyes to the page and, most important, fill her with a pleasant sense of anticipation? Related Posts: Lower Your Credit Card Interest Today With A Few Simple Psychology Tricks How To Write A Great Resume Trading Psychology Resume Psychology originally appeared on Canadian Finance Blog on December 11, 2010.

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