Part 1: WRITE A RESUME THAT GENERATES RESULTS
This award-winning guide
to resume writing will teach you to write a resume equal to one done by a
top-notch professional writer. It offers examples, format choices, help writing
the objective, the summary and other sections, as well as samples of excellent
resume writing. It is the most trusted resume-writing guide on the planet, used
by more than a million people each year.
Writing a great resume
does not necessarily mean you should follow the rules you hear through the
grapevine. It does not have to be one page or follow a specific resume format.
Every resume is a one-of-a-kind marketing communication. It should be
appropriate to your situation and do exactly what you want it to do. Instead of
a bunch of rules and tips, we are going to cut to the chase in this brief guide
and offer you the most basic principles of writing a highly effective resume.
Who are we to be telling
you how to write your resume? As part of our career consulting practice, we have coached
and advised Fortune 500 C.E.O.s, senior members of the last few presidential
administrations, thousands of mid and early career professionals, artists,
technical people and others in nearly every field of endeavor.
THE GOOD NEWS AND THE BAD
The good news is that,
with a little extra effort, you can create a resume that makes you stand out as
a superior candidate for a job you are seeking. Not one resume in a hundred
follows the principles that stir the interest of prospective employers. So,
even if you face fierce competition, with a well written resume you should be
invited to interview more often than many people more qualified than you.
The bad news is that
your present resume is probably much more inadequate than you now realize. You
will have to learn how to think and write in a style that will be completely
new to you.
To understand what I
mean, let's take a look at the purpose of your resume. Why do you have a resume
in the first place? What is it supposed to do for you?
Here's an imaginary
scenario. You apply for a job that seems absolutely perfect for you. You send
your resume with a cover letter to the prospective employer. Plenty of other
people think the job sounds great too and apply for the job. A few days later,
the employer is staring at a pile of several hundred resumes. Several hundred?
you ask. Isn't that an inflated number? Not really. A job offer often attracts
between 100 and 1000 resumes these days, so you are facing a great deal of
competition.
Back to the fantasy and
the prospective employer staring at the huge stack of resumes: This person
isn't any more excited about going through this pile of dry, boring documents
than you would be. But they have to do it, so they dig in. After a few minutes,
they are getting sleepy. They are not really focusing any more. Then, they run
across your resume. As soon as they start reading it, they perk up. The more
they read, the more interested, awake and turned on they become.
Most resumes in the pile
have only gotten a quick glance. But yours gets read, from beginning to end.
Then, it gets put on top of the tiny pile of resumes that make the first cut.
These are the people who will be asked in to interview. In this mini resume
writing guide, what we hope to do is to give you the basic tools to take this
out of the realm of fantasy and into your everyday life.
THE NUMBER ONE PURPOSE OF A
RESUME
The resume is a tool with one specific purpose: to win an
interview. If it does what the fantasy resume did, it works. If it doesn't, it
isn't an effective resume. A resume is an advertisement, nothing more, nothing
less.
It is so pleasing to the eye that the reader is enticed to
pick it up and read it. It "whets the appetite," stimulates interest
in meeting you and learning more about you. It inspires the prospective
employer to pick up the phone and ask you to come in for an interview.
OTHER POSSIBLE REASONS TO
HAVE A RESUME
·
To pass the employer's screening process
(requisite educational level, number years' experience, etc.), to give basic
facts which might favorably influence the employer (companies worked for,
political affiliations, racial minority, etc.). To provide contact information:
an up-to-date address and a telephone number (a telephone number which will
always be answered during business hours).
·
To establish you as a professional person with
high standards and excellent writing skills, based on the fact that the resume
is so well done (clear, well-organized, well-written, well-designed, of the
highest professional grades of printing and paper). For persons in the art,
advertising, marketing, or writing professions, the resume can serve as a
sample of their skills.
·
To have something to give to potential
employers, your job-hunting contacts and professional references, to provide
background information, to give out in "informational interviews"
with the request for a critique (a concrete creative way to cultivate the
support of this new person), to send a contact as an excuse for follow-up
contact, and to keep in your briefcase to give to people you meet casually - as
another form of "business card."
·
To use as a covering piece or addendum to
another form of job application, as part of a grant or contract proposal, as an
accompaniment to graduate school or other application.
·
To put in an employer's personnel files.
·
To help you clarify your direction,
qualifications, and strengths, boost your confidence, or to start the process
of commiting to a job or career change.
WHAT IT ISN'T
It is a mistake to think
of your resume as a history of your past, as a personal statement or as some
sort of self expression. Sure, most of the content of any resume is focused on
your job history. But write from the intention to create interest, to persuade
the employer to call you. If you write with that goal, your final product will
be very different than if you write to inform or catalog your job history.
Most people write a
resume because everyone knows that you have to have one to get a job. They
write their resume grudgingly, to fulfill this obligation. Writing the resume
is only slightly above filling out income tax forms in the hierarchy of worldly
delights. If you realize that a great resume can be your ticket to getting
exactly the job you want, you may be able to muster some genuine enthusiasm for
creating a real masterpiece, rather than the feeble products most people turn
out.
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