A major objective of the resume is to get you a job interview. Once you've achieved this objective through an interesting and positive resume, an interviewer will have ample opportunity to probe your background and test your skills more thoroughly. Facts that may detract from your positive image should definitely be omitted from the resume. Such planned exclusions or intentional omissions should not be considered unethical unless the information you omit does, in fact, have a direct bearing on your ability to perform effectively. As an initial sales presentation, your resume should help you get that interview by capturing attention, building interest, and creating desire.
Once in the interview, you may be asked to clarify some item in or an omission from the resume. If a question is raised about some point, you then have the opportunity to personally clarify that point and resolve the problem. If, however, your mailed-in resume contains a number of very questionable points, it is highly likely that a reader will immediately form a strong negative first impression about your credentials that could very easily get you screened out of an interview. The advantage of selecting only positive credentials should be clear to you: to earn you the highest possible initial impression.
You do not have to place all your qualifications in a job resume. Instead, try to slant your resume to communicate special capability and potential for the job of your choice. Remember, how well you sell yourself to a company in your job search is a very good indication of how well you will represent the company to others if hired.
How do you choose resume items?
The use of the Personal Inventory Form (PIF) provides you with a simple and rapid method. By filling out a set of PIF's (in Appendix B], you document many personal achievements that might otherwise have been forgotten. With this reservoir of key information physically before you on a table or desk, you can then "pick and choose" those items you want to use and emphasize in your resume.
What kind of resume items are particularly impressive?
Those items that show past excellence in responsibility and through specific accomplishments, contributions and achievements are most desirable. The employment representative prefers employees who have records of excellence, for he or she believes that past excellence is a strong indication of future excellence with the organization.
You can enhance the persuasive impact of your resume credentials in at least two ways: (1) by phrasing them in action verbs and (2) by providing quantifiable or statistical measures of your success.
Present your resume items topically rather than in full sentence form. Very simply, each item takes up less space on the page when written in phrases. In addition, phrases can be tabulated or listed in easy-to-read and attractive ways. In general, a resume should be as brief as possible without sacrificing any important information. Using phrases instead of sentences helps to eliminate a great deal of unnecessary word clutter caused by unimportant punctuation and filler words.
The Use of Resume Captions
The resume has two types of captions: title and section headings. The title is the lead-off caption to the entire resume, whereas section headings highlight specific themes of the various resume sections. Realizing the importance of a strong lead- off thought, you should make a special effort to create interesting, descriptive, and attention-getting captions. By preparing title and section headings that ''communicate positive and descriptive information," you will be setting yourself apart from most people who submit resumes with very vague and worn-out captions. In the key resume spot, your resume title should quickly engage the reader with interesting and important information. This means featuring such information as your name, the type of work you're seeking and the name of the firm or field for which you are interested in working.
For economic reasons, one may save a resume body, leaving the introductory sections blank. As a job lead is followed up, the applicant opens a copy of the partially reproduced resume on their computer and completes the resume using information tailored to that job. This approach helps to give the impression of an individually prepared resume and to gain the obvious advantages of time, effort, and financial economy.
If you've prepared a good title, you may want to boost its visibility. Even though it occupies the resume lead-off position and has natural eye-catching power, the resume title can be given greater visibility by the use of ruled line drawings to frame its message.
Section headings are the resume's landmarks, drawing the reader's attention from section to section and revealing key areas of qualification. Because of a section heading's prime position, it is noticed before any item within its section. This fact can only lead to one conclusion about the importance of the section heading: it requires special attention by the resume writer. A good section heading quickly reveals the most positive aspect about the contents of a section.
Without a doubt, the well-stated section heading can influence the reader's initial impression about a particular section of credentials. If the heading is a positive and descriptive short statement, a reader's opinion about the section will be favorably influenced. Most resumes prepared by unskilled resume writers, however, contain dull and drab section headings, such as 'Personal," "Experience," "Education,” and "References." These typical headings lack originality and positive tone and are vague.
Stating a section heading effectively is simple. For example, why call your marketing-oriented experience "Experience" when you can say "Marketing Experience"? Also, why not go a step further and improve your first attempt by adding more descriptiveness with "Professional Marketing Experience" or "Progressive Marketing Experience"?
