Based on psychological research that I can’t cite off the top of my head, the human mind has some hard coded programming limitations. If you have a list with less than three items, then the mind tends to dismiss it as “undifferentiated”. If you have list with more than seven items, then the mind tends to dismiss it as “too complex”.
The study came out a study of the Roman Legions which originally was based on ten. Hence the name centurion for a hundred men. Ten cohorts of ten. However, rather quickly, early in Roman history, it got redefined to 8 (a leader and seven soldiers). From that, these smart guys tumble to the hard coded programming in the brain.
After reading that, I began to focus on the rule of thumb “five plus or minus two”. In resume lists, I look for an optimum of five. No fewer than three. No more than seven. Out side of those bounds, the recruiter’s brain glazes over.
So after, I was infected with this meme, I told one turkey to try it. In the alternative form we were trying, the resume only had three sections — objective, selected work accomplishments, and education. It only put down his last three jobs with five bullets each. The resume imho looked “sparse”. We ran two different tests. 80 targets. Testing against his chronological and functional resume that he was using with what we thought was good response rates. The sparse one scored a solid 50% response rate. Far exceeding all my preconceived notions.
After that I was a believer in FPMT!
Note: In morphing this from a turkey’s email, I think that there’s a follow up that says the max size of a business unit should be 150. I’ll have to be on the look out for all that back up material.
After all, no one should believe me, whadda I know, I’m just an ingineer!
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Reinke Faces Life 