The Sole Purpose of Your Resume

March 10, 2011 - PRLog -- Do You Know The Sole Purpose of Your Résumé?

D. Wayne Bogue
Pro Résumé Writer

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There was a time when I treated my résumé like a tell-all autobiography.

I believed that I needed to include every work experience, every skill-set, every company I’d done a day’s work for, my hobbies and interests, every association I belonged to, everything—even my favorite foods (well, not the last one).  But of course, I was way off the mark.

Nice Guy Résumés

Somewhere I had the idea that if a potential employer saw all that I’d done, he or she might recognize me as a well-rounded, multi-faceted person. They’d see that I was a nice guy.

I’ve met a great many nice people who think this way about their résumés. But this is a path to closed doors and missed opportunities.

Face-to-Face

Your résumé has one purpose and one purpose only. And every word in the résumé must serve that purpose. That purpose is to get you an interview. That’s it. Nothing more; nothing less.

The job of your résumé (and cover letter) is to get you face-to-face with someone who can make a decision about offering you the position you want.

Stiff Competition

Now, getting an interview is no small task. It’s also what every other hopeful soul who has submitted a résumé wants. So, the competition is stiff.

3 Seconds

When human resource folks and business owners advertise a position, they received scads of responses. That means they must slog through a mountain of paperwork or file after file of e-mail submissions.

They simply don’t have time to read every résumé in-depth to uncover the blast of experience of skills all over the page that you’re a hard-working, multi-faceted, nice person who ought to “get a shot” at the position.

Instead, they scan each résumé for no more than a few seconds, some say 3 seconds. That means if you don’t grab their attention in a few scant moments, your résumé goes into the shredder or is deleted into cyber-oblivion.

What Are They Looking For?

The first aspect of a résumé they notice is the appearance of the document. Does it look professional or does it appear to have been tossed together? Are there typos or blatant errors that show a lack of preparation? You may have exactly the skills they need, but they’ll figure that a sloppy résumé means sloppy work. No interview.

The Pickiest Person You Know

You must scour your résumé with a discerning eye, or have someone, preferably the most annoyingly detailed person you know, proof read it for you. You and they must be ruthless.

Second, employers scan for keywords, exact keywords that tell them that the person behind the résumé may be someone they want to talk with by phone or in person.

Laser-Focus

That means your résumé must be laser-focused on the particular position you’re trying to gain an interview for.  To accomplish this, you must emphasize every skill and experience that relates to the particular position. Everything else is either de-emphasized or left off that résumé entirely. And your objective statement must be a narrow, lean, and razor sharp.

With this in mind, take a look at your résumé. How does it match up to the job you’re seeking.

If you want someone to do a résumé assessment, e-mail or call me. We’ll set up a time to talk.

Until then, happy job search!

Sincerely,

D. Wayne Bogue
www.dwbresumes.com

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