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.
A great resume
doesn’t just tell them what you have done but makes the same assertion that all
good ads do: It convinces the employer that you have what it takes to be
successful in this new position or career.
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.
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.
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.
MY JOB TARGET?
If you are
hunting for a job but are not sure you are on a career path that is perfect for
you, you are probably going to wind up doing something that doesn’t fit you
very well, that you are not going to find fulfilling, and that you will most
likely leave within five years. Doesn’t sound like much of a life to me. How
about you? Are you willing to keep putting up with pinning your fate on the
random turnings of the wheel?
point-1
Focus your
writing efforts. Get clear what the employer is looking for and what you have
to offer before you begin your resume. Write your answers to the above
mentioned question, “What would make someone the perfect candidate?” on
notebook paper, one answer per page. Prioritize the sheets of paper, based on
which qualities or abilities you think would be most important to the person
doing the hiring.
Then, starting
with the top priority page, fill the rest of that page, or as much of it as you
can, with brainstorming about why you are the person who best fulfills the
employer’s needs. Write down everything you have ever done that demonstrates
that you fit perfectly with what is wanted and needed by the prospective
employer.
You need not
confine yourself to work-related accomplishments. Use your entire life as the
palette to paint with. If Sunday school or your former gang are the only places
you have had a chance to demonstrate your special gift for teaching and
leadership, fine. The point is to cover all possible ways of thinking about and
communicating what you do well. What are the talents you bring to the market
place? What do you have to offer the prospective employer?
If you are making a career change or are a young
person and new to the job market, you are going to have to be especially
creative in getting across what makes you stand out. These brainstorming pages
will be the raw material from which you craft your resume. One important part of
the planning process is to decide which resume format fits your needs best.
Don’t automatically assume that a traditional format will work best for you.
More about that later