The purpose of your r\u00e9sum\u00e9 is to get you an interview. You want people to look at your r\u00e9sum\u00e9 and think, \u201cI really got interviewed by this person!” Remember that your r\u00e9sum\u00e9 does not get read, it gets scanned. People think, \u201cOh, my r\u00e9sum\u00e9 gets read!\u201d No, it doesn\u2019t. It gets scanned and the people who scanned them are looking for a few key things: how long you have worked at the companies you\u2019ve worked for, i.e., exact dates, what you did for them, in very clear terms, and how well you performed. It\u2019s that simple.<\/p>\n
You have to remember that these people are reviewing 180 to 200 r\u00e9sum\u00e9s a day. They don\u2019t read any of them. They scan them to look for some of the things they are looking for. So, this means that you have to, when you write the name of your company on the r\u00e9sum\u00e9, explain what that company does. There are 7.1 million businesses in the United States and I guarantee you the people looking at your r\u00e9sum\u00e9 don\u2019t know what 98% of them do. I get r\u00e9sum\u00e9s every day from candidates who write down “ACME INC. 2015 \u2013 present” and never explain what Acme Inc. does. So, make it real clear, if it\u2019s not obvious, in parentheses next to the name of the company what the company does.<\/p>\n
Then make the title of what you did very clear in terms that anybody can understand. A title of Analyst I can mean hundreds of different things. Change the title on your r\u00e9sum\u00e9 if you have to make it clear what you\u2019ve done. Sometimes candidates say to me, \u201cWell, that\u2019s what my title was.\u201d Okay, fine, put it down if you want to, but if people don\u2019t understand what the hell an Analyst I is, you\u2019re screwed. I\u2019ve had numerous candidates over the years who had titles like customer advocate, customer liaison, client specialist and a few other esoteric inventive titles that really meant \u201ccustomer service.\u201d So, in writing a r\u00e9sum\u00e9, simply write the title \u201ccustomer service.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last, and probably most important, right down how you performed in as many concrete terms as possible. Remember, stories sell and numbers tell. If there\u2019s any way, put in your r\u00e9sum\u00e9 statistics or some kind of figures \u2013 that you bold \u2013 so they jump out at people. Increased profits 23%. Decreased department costs 10%. Was 120% of Sales quota. Decreased turnover 12%…The more you can express your performance in measurable terms, the better off you are.<\/p>\n
The statement you are making with your r\u00e9sum\u00e9 is this:<\/p>\n
And, by the way, your r\u00e9sum\u00e9 needs to be in chronological order. Ninety-five percent of functional r\u00e9sum\u00e9s (the kind that have paragraphs about all of the things you\u2019ve done and then the list of who you worked for at the very bottom) get pitched before they get scanned.<\/p>\n
I forgot to mention, 60% of the people that are going to initially scan your resume don’t really know what they are looking for, professionally. They are usually some underlying, albeit they are nice, sincere and well-meaning, they really don’t know anything about the profession that you are in. They were instructed by one of their superiors to, “look through those resumes and find me a few that I ought to interview.” They may be qualified to know what they’re looking for, but most of the time they’re not.<\/p>\n
So, look at your resume and ask yourself, “is someone who really doesn’t know what they’re looking for looks at my resume are they going to see the quality of person that I am?”<\/p>\n
If a r\u00e9sum\u00e9 \u201cscanner\u201d likes what they see, they simply pick up the phone and call you about an appointment. That is exactly what you want<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The purpose of your r\u00e9sum\u00e9 is to get you an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n