1. Don't lie - Not even a "white" lie.
This sounds quite simple. But you'd be surprised at how many people alter the past, particularly if they feel it is detrimental to them. White lies invariably come back to haunt. Why take the chance? One small case history should, I think, prove to you the value of being totally honest. An eager young executive, about thirty, whom I counseled a few years ago, related this incident to me.
When he was twenty-three, the young executive secured a job that, shortly after accepting it, he found totally unsatisfactory for many reasons. He hated his boss. The work bored him to tears. And, not surprisingly, his boss didn't think much of him. The executive quit in disgust after only four months. (He decided to resign before he got fired.) Thinking of any reference to this sad four months as awkward, he decided to amend his past on a resume he wrote several years later. Thus, he left out this unhappy four months of his life and instead stated that his next job had started four months earlier than it actually had. The young executive figured no one would know the difference. In the back of his mind, he felt this little lie would avoid the possibility of someone calling the company where he had toiled sadly for only four months, and where he felt his reputation could be tarnished. As you might expect, in true tales of this sort, it just so happened that the personnel director at the very company the young executive was most interested in decided to check past history. In the search, the first thing the personnel director turned up was that the stated dates of employment did not correspond with the actual dates at the young executive's previous job. Needless to say, it didn't take much digging to find out about the four-month job that didn't work out well. The young executive was subsequently called in by the personnel director and confronted with the lost four months. He was indeed embarrassed by the situation. As it turned out, another candidate was selected by this company. The young executive who related this story to me felt that his white lie was the deciding factor in his not getting the job he wanted.
2. Don't think your resume couldn't be improved.
In ten years of counseling job-seekers, I've yet to see a single resume that couldn't be touched up in one way or another. And that includes my own. Periodically, I return to my resume. Each time I find a word here or a sentence there that could be changed to make a worth point stand out more quickly, seem clearer or more cogent. If you'll buy the idea that the first resume you put together may not be the most brilliant ever written:
a. Let your business friends read your resume before the final typing.
Ask them to look critically at its format, appearance, and content. Take their criticism to heart. They are your friends. Or get your resume to a professional in the field to have it critiqued for you. (Each year hundreds of job-seekers pay me forty dollars an hour to have me raise questions they hadn't considered.)
b. Asses your resume critically after you have had three or four interviews.
Ask yourself whether or not during the course of your interviews you talk about worth points that are not included on your resume. Ask yourself if there are any aspects of your resume that prospective bosses seem to want you to clarify. Revise your resume based on what you learned from these early interviews. Be sure your resume sells you on paper as well as you sell yourself in person.
c. Have your resume rerun if it isn't perfect the first time.
If you're thinking about changing jobs, or perhaps if you're out of work, the twenty dollars it takes to rerun your resume may seem like a lot of money. But twenty dollars is really small potatoes when you compare it to the extra money you'll make if your resume sells you harder than your competition. Don't be penny-wise and pound-foolish. If you think you can improve it, rework your resume. Have it rerun. Don't put twenty dollars between you and a better job.
At last there's nothing between you and the chronological resume format I promised. Copy it to your heart's content if you wish. But note you can change it, adapt it, flex it to suit your personal taste. Consider the building blocks and do's and don'ts discussed above. Following the format are several real-world resumes that utilize the basic format. They don't look the same! But the names of titles and companies pop off the page. Paragraphs are short enough to be read and there's sufficient white space surrounding them to make the resumes inviting. And most important, each reveals the scope of the candidate's background and his worth in each of his jobs. The resumes themselves reflect the personality of the candidate and the particular experience each has enjoyed. As long as you keep the critical points in your mind, you can modify your resume to suit yourself and it will still go a long way to open doors for you.
