If you think preparing a resume is a chore, consider the poor person who has to read it. Remember, you have only one resume to worry about, but a typical job opening advertised in the Sunday paper might draw as many as five hundred applications. And the typical personnel executive for a large firm has to screen for dozens of jobs at any given time, not to mention all the other headaches related to his or her job. Once asked the director of personnel of a major cosmetics firm how much time in an average day he spent reading over resumes. "As little time as possible," he said.
You can't blame him. I sat down with a calculator and estimated that if one thousand personnel executives did nothing else but read and evaluate all the resumes currently in circulation, it would take each of them an average of seventy-one years, and that's figuring on no more than four minutes per resume. I also figured out, based on my estimates, that if you took all the resumes in circulation at the present time and laid them end to end, they would circle the circumference of the Putting "Sell" into earth nearly fifteen times.
Now we come to your resume.
It's out there (presumably) with hundreds of other resumes, maybe on a desk somewhere in the middle of a pile of three hundred. You may have spent the better part of a week sweating over it, asking advice, getting people to read it, changing the format, shifting around words-and it may not even get read. Somebody might just give it a brief once-over and toss it into the pile marked "Reject." That quick!
So now you know the enemy: numbers. Your resume against all those other resumes out there. How do you make sure it gets a reading? How do you keep it from being tossed into the reject pile?
Let us look into all of these questions, but first I want to emphasize that for all the resumes out there and for all the displeasure personnel people and other executives in hiring positions have in reading them, you need a solid resume. It's your admission ticket into the job race. True, you may not need it all the time. In some situations, you may even try to get along without it. But most of the time, you're going to have to produce one. And while a resume may not necessarily get you the job indeed, it usually won't, on its own -a poorly prepared resume can knock you out of the running. And the worst part of losing a job because of a weak resume is that the resume is the one aspect of your job search over which you are in complete control. If your resume doesn't show you off in the best light, it's nobody's fault but your own.
Resumania
A resume is more than a list of particulars relating to your job experience. It is an advertisement for yourself-a selling piece that has to shout out to whoever reads it: "I am somebody who warrants your serious consideration. You'll be making a big mistake if you don't give me an interview."
Sounds simple enough, doesn't it? Yet most of the resumes that have come across my desk throughout my career-and I couldn't begin to estimate how many-haven't done this. Indeed, more than a few of the resumes that have crossed my desk have had the opposite effect. They have warned me against moving the candidate along to the next step. Here are some choice examples from my private file of what I call Resumania:
Besides keeping my wife and five kids happy, I enjoy a good game of chess, a good symphony and a good dry martini . . .
I am impatient with quibbling over minor details. I am stubborn on matters of principle and major objectives. I dislike routine, ultra-conservative or defensive thinking, unnecessary jobs, inefficient systems and Republicans.
My hobbies are solitaire, chess, music, golf, golf, and more golf.
My objective is to find a position with an organization beset with a variety of problems while simultaneously beginning to stir with the fever of acquisitions and diversification. As the nature of the job declines in the hierarchy of preference, so obviously would come into play the decisiveness of compensating subordinate factors.
The company I am looking to work for must be willing to put a new man into its organization who will step on toes and make many management people mad. However, they must be looking for a man who makes friends easily.
My diploma register number is 9579; my employee number was 16982 at Denver. My employee number in Des Moines is 882431.1 was staff sergeant E-6.1 instructed course 70c20.
Each of the examples above came from actual resumes. They gave me something to chuckle over, something to add to my Resumania file. They didn't help the cause of the job candidate responsible for them.
I have scores of other resumes on file from candidates who probably had no idea their resumes were knocking them out of the running. Resumes that run for five pages; resumes that consist of one short paragraph; resumes that are filled with misspellings; Resumes that are sloppily typed and filled with little chicken scratches impossible to read; and resumes that are simply incomprehensible.
Your resume should never end up in this file-not if you follow some of the simple suggestions I'm going to offer you:
How Good Is Your Current Resume?
If you already have a resume, get it out. Read it through. Then answer the following questions:
- Is it letter-perfect?
- Is it photo offset on a substantial-looking SW X 11" bond paper?
- Does it look good (not too much material jammed together)?
- Is it easy to read and follow?
- Is it easy to understand? (That is, does it make its points clearly and concisely?)
- Do you get a feeling, when reading it, of accomplishment?
- Does it reflect the tone and the feel you want it to reflect?
- Is it the best possible resume you could prepare?
What Your Resume Must Do
First, the basics:
A resume" has to be letter-perfect, neat, and easy to read. It should generally be no more than two pages long. It should be well organized.
So much for the easy part.
The hard part is putting that resume to work, making it do as much as a resume can do. Making it a successful sales device. I don't care how well organized, how neat, how smoothly written your resume is, if it doesn't have any "sell" in it, it's not doing its job.
And what is a "selling" resume? It's a resume* that gives the person who reads it a reason to call you in for an interview. It's a resume" that showcases everything you have to offer in the most positive light, yet without strain. This is a tricky balance to achieve, but you can do it.
Professional Help: Is It Worth It?
If you want, you can find people who specialize in helping job seekers to prepare resumes-who, in fact, do the actual preparation. Some of them charge several hundred to several thousand dollars for the service.
The temptation to call up on such a service (particularly if you can afford it) is obvious. After all, why risk things? Why not turn the whole burdensome matter over to a "professional"?
Resist the temptation. Forgetting the money (which, by the way, might be better spent on a new suit or dress), there isn't too much a resume "specialist" can do that you can't do for yourself-with a little thought and effort. If you can think logically and if you are of average intelligence, you can prepare your own resume, and do it probably as well, even better, than a professional.
I have other reasons, apart from the money, for steering you away from the professional resume writing services. For one thing, professionally written resumes often have an assembly-line look. I can usually spot them at a glance, and so can any experienced hiring executive. Some personnel directors as a matter of policy automatically eliminate from consideration resumes that look to have been professionally done.
But there's an even more important reason for working on your resume yourself. Doing so forces you to examine yourself, helps to give you a sense of just what you have to offer a prospective employer. It prepares you, in other words, for many of the situations you're going to run into when you go to inter-views. Putting together your own resume helps you to appreciate aspects about yourself, or your job background, that you may not have been aware of before. You get to know the product better. You become a better salesperson.
If you want to consult with an employment adviser or a counselor who's been recommended to you, fine. If you want the resume professionally edited, that's okay, too. And, by all means, have your resume professionally typed and run off- offset, if possible. But do the actual preparation and the writing of the resume yourself.
The Basics
We'll get to the writing in a moment, but first let's look at some of the general principles of resume preparation:
- Be brief and to the point. A resume is not an autobiography, nor a forum for your personal philosophies. Stick to the facts. Never express in four or five words what can be said in two or three.
- Avoid the pronoun "I." The resume is obviously about you, so you don't ever have to mention yourself in the first person, except perhaps in an objective statement at the end, or where it becomes awkward to leave it out.
- Include only relevant information. Your spouse's name, the names of your children (and your dog), the name of the grammar school you went to-none of these things has anything to do with your ability to work for the company you're applying to. Omit them, and anything else that isn't directly connected to your employment experience, your education beyond high school, and personal information that would be of interest to an employer.
- Stress what you've accomplished. It isn't enough to mention the position you held in previous jobs, or even your responsibilities and duties. Give the person who reads your resume a sense of what you accomplished and what you contributed to the success of every company or organization you've worked for.
- Don't be cute or chatty. A resume is not the place to get folksy or cute. Keep the tone on an even, straightforward, business like level.
- Keep your sentences short. Express yourself in short, concise sentences. A good rule is to start as many sentences as possible with an active word.
- Toot your own horn-but softly. Maybe you did "save the company from going under." Say it more diplomatically. Example: "Created financial plan that helped increase productivity."
- Don't list salary or references, and don't include a photograph. You can talk salary in your covering letter. You can give references on request. You can show the company what you look like when you get interviewed.
- Don't mention anything blatantly negative. Candor is an admirable quality, but don't go overboard on your resume. Don't lie, but don't get bogged down for example in the reasons you had to leave a particular job.
- Don't mention race or religion. Or membership in organizations that might indicate race or religion it's not that you're hiding anything, but why take a chance that the person who first gets your resume is a bigot?
Putting It Together
Now you're ready to put together your own resume; but don't rush the process. You're going to need a few days. And when you've put together what you think is a good resume, you should keep it aside for a day or two, then come back to it for the finishing touches. It may take you as many as six different drafts to; get it right. This doesn't mean that you're slow. Some of the world's best writers sometimes spend an entire day on a single paragraph. A good resume is worth whatever time and effort takes.
The Form
Resumes can take different forms, but I recommend the most familiar of them: the chronological. In this form, you list your work experience in reverse chronological order. The so-called functional form groups your experience according to specific categories, not according to time. Another form-known in some circles as the hybrid-combines the two. I am not entirely sold on the functional form because some executives assume, when they see it, that you're trying to hide something (perhaps the fact that you've been out of a job for a long time).
Personal Data
Most resume specialists suggest you list personal data at the top, near your name, address and phone number. It's certainly not an important feature, but as long as most readers of resumes expect to see it there, I recommend you put it on top. However, if you believe that some of that data can't help you, and might hurt you, insert it near the end. Keep this section very brief. Put down your birth date and your marital status. Forget your spouse's name, mention your children's ages, but leave off their names, too. I've never understood why most resumes include information about health but virtually every resume I've ever seen describes the health of the candidate as "excellent." So you might as well include it.
Education
The education section of the resume should generally follow the personal data section. But if your education is not as adequate as you would like it to be for the job you're looking for, and then show it after the experience section. If your resume is two pages, make sure that your education appears on the second page. If your education is the highlight of your career, always insert it under personal data, but make sure there's enough room on the first page of the resume for the most current job to be described.
Mention your higher education background only, and start with the highest level. Indicate the degree you earned, the subject you majored in, and the year you graduated. If you were an honor graduate or a Phi Beta Kappa or earned any similar distinction, mention it, but don't elaborate. If you have to describe an award in detail, it probably doesn't belong in your resume. Any business-related training or special licenses should also go in this section, but skip the three-day seminars. And whatever you do, don't mention the fact that you've been to one of those human potential therapy courses. This section of your resume should take up no more than five or six lines at the most.
