The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a resume as a brief summary of a person’s career and qualifications, typically prepared by an applicant for a position.
The reality is that when you create your resume, you are like an artist/painter. Your pen is the brush and the paper is your canvas. Create a masterpiece and it will sell! Paint a failure and your own resume will abuse you.
The main purpose of a resume along with the accompanying cover letter is to get you the interview, pure and simple.
The way to accomplish this is to showcase your strengths and accomplishments and minimize your weaknesses (we all have them). If you write your resume correctly, the strengths will appear stronger and the weaknesses less visible.
Remember, now is not the time to be modest: If you don’t tell the hiring manager how great he is and what he can do for your company, no one else will.
You have 5-10 seconds maximum to grab the attention of the person reading your resume for the first time, so your skills and abilities need to be seen quickly and be relevant.
Listed below are the ways your resume should be used.
What does a resume do?
– Your resume organizes your career by selecting and presenting specific events clearly and concisely.
– It forces you to take inventory of your achievements: the more you understand yourself, the more able you become to explain yourself to others.
– A resume should stimulate the employer’s interest in meeting you.
– Good resumes tell the company that they would benefit from calling you for a personal interview.
However, the bottom line is that their ONLY purpose is to get you an interview.
When the hiring manager first reads the resume, they should:
– make the reader want to learn more – a provocation.
– quickly convey how and why you are better than the rest of the candidates in the pile of resumes they have.
– Tell them what you did and how well you did.
– show that you are uniquely qualified to solve the problem the employer is having.
In the interview the resume:
– is a basis on which to start a discussion.
– serves as an agenda for a discussion, which means that you have determined the structure of the interview.
– Act like leave behind.
After the interview:
– The person(s) interviewing you can use your resume to strengthen your case with other team members.
– The resume serves as a general description for others in the organization.
See your resume through the eyes of the hiring manager:
– A resume reflects your image; Anything that doesn’t help you get an interview shouldn’t be on the resume.
– View a resume as your own personal ad.
– The past is relevant only to the extent that it shows your potential for the future.
– When in doubt, leave it out!
A good summary:
– focuses on the skills and abilities you have that are most relevant and important to the job you are seeking.
– focuses on your achievements and achievements, not only on the responsibilities you had in each job.
– reveal the results of your achievements.
– You must project your career as a series of progressive achievements.
– needs to be short on words and long on deeds.
– It is attractive to the eye and visually appealing.
Just remember, your past accomplishments and accomplishments are relevant only as it relates to what you can do now for the hiring company. No matter how good you were at a previous company, for the hiring company, it’s about what you can do for them.