I was picking the brain of my recuiter buddy this morning and I asked him what he looked at first on a resume…

“Gimme 5 seconds and I can pick out two or three things” he said.

“Well,” I pressed, “what do you look at first?”

I handed him a resume and he told me that work experience is the first thing he scans. He specifically looks for stability. “I don’t like to see a lot of jumping around. That tells me the candidate is a little…well, flaky.”

Don’t get me wrong, sometimes there is a good explanation for leaving a job: layoffs, transfers, and the like are more than acceptable. But, don’t make your resume look like you have been experimenting with career options. There is no better way to always start out at the bottom. Every time you change careers, it’s like starting over again.

A/B players stick and get the job done. C players are always looking for a way out when the going gets tough.