How well do you know your resume? Try th
How well do you know your resume?
Try this: picture your dream job.
Got it?
Now, write down 5 essential qualities for it. When you have them take 10 seconds (yeah, 10 seconds) and find those qualities in your resume.
Could you do it? When I first tried this I couldn’t. I can do it now, but that’s not because I memorized my resume. But more on that in a moment.
The purpose of this exercise is that the people you’re sending your resume to don’t have any more time to spend with it than you just took.
“Sure, but they do it every day. They’ve gotten better at it through practice.”
Well, practice can only take you so far. There’s a variety of formats out there ranging from the easily read to the impenetrable. Even with a document that’s easy to read definitions of things like what’s a skill and what certain terms mean vary from industry to industry, company to company or even person to person.
That’s one big ugly mess. But it’s not the hiring manager’s mess to fix, it’s the applicant’s. The hiring manager has to fill a slot. She’s got plenty of options to choose from. If she doesn’t immediately see that a person is qualified, she goes on to the next.
The applicant, on the other hand, needs to prove his qualifications and has 10 seconds to do it. That resume and cover letter need to work harder than most people ever do. A document that outlines work history, education, skills and a enough about you to whet someone’s appetite for an interview.
I said that I can find my qualifications in my resume in under 10 seconds. Anyone can find them because I have a ResumeGuru resume.
