Get that Interview

The Importance of Being Noticed

Imagine this scenario. You have applied for the job of your dreams. Your resume has been painstakingly prepared. Spread Stover four pages, you have put down full details of your education and experience. You have dispatched your resume and you wait for the interview call with bated breath!

At the receiving end, the personnel manager wades through 300 other resumes before wearily picking up your 4-page magnum opus. It is already 7 O'clock in the evening. What do you think will happen to your resume? You guessed it! It will suffer a quick and unceremonious journey to the waste paper basket! Bad news!

But there is good news for you in this! The good news is that you too can write arresting, riveting resume that will stand out amongst the pile and will call attention to it. The skills are not difficult to learn after you have shed some of the old notions of what a resume must be.

This book will guide you as you acquire that killing edge, that little extra, which almost guarantees an interview call. You will unlearn some old and outdated tricks, learn many new ones and most important, acquire the skills to identify the jobs that truly match your abilities. You will learn to market yourself attractively without deviating from the truth. Read on for an exhilarating and rewarding experience!

What is a Resume?

Let us begin right at the beginning. A resume has just one objective, to make sure that you get called for the interview!

You are trying to enroll the reader of your resume, not to educate him. The interview will give you all the opportunity you need to convey information about your education, experience and special skills. The resume is to make sure that you actually get this opportunity. A resume is an advertisement of yourself, disguised as the story of your professional life. Like the trailer of a suspense movie, a resume whets the appetite. A trailer is successful only if the audience come back to see the actual movie. A resume is successful only if you get called to the interview. It is as simple as that.

What a Resume is Not

It is a mistake to think of your resume as a history of your past, as a personal statement or as some sort of self-expression. No doubt, most of the content of the resume is focused on your job history. But, you must train yourself to write with the intention of creating interest. Your aim is to persuade the employer to call you. If you write with that goal, your final product will be very different from just a catalogue of your education and the jobs you have held so far.

If you realize, that a great resume can be your ticket to getting exactly the job you want, you will be able to muster genuine enthusiasm for creating a real masterpiece. This is your key to the creation of a masterpiece rather than the feeble product that most people turn out.

Most people write a resume because they know that they have to write one to get a job. They write their resume grudgingly, to fulfil this obligation. In the hierarchy of worldly delights, writing your resume is considered only slightly more exciting than filling out your income tax form! That is the Wrong approach!

The "Killer" Edge

Research has shown that depending on the level of the job applied for, only one interview is granted for every 300 to 500 resumes received by the average employer. Research also tells us that your resume will be quickly scanned, rather than read. 10 to 20 seconds is all the time you have to persuade a prospective employer to read further. What this means is that the decision to interview a candidate is usually based on an overall first impression of the resume. The quick screening must so impress the reader that it convinces him of the candidate s qualifications and an interview results.

To write an effective resume, you have to learn how to write powerful, but subtle advertising copy. Not only that, but you must sell a product in which you have large personal investment: you. Given the fact that most of us do not naturally think in a marketing-oriented way, this is not easy. Even more difficult is to shed your natural reticence and to sell anything, least of all, yourself. But, if you want to increase your job-hunting effectiveness as much as possible, you will have to learn how to write a spectacular resume.

The top half of the first page of your resume will either make you or break you. By the time he has read the first few lines, you have either caught the reader's interest, or your resume has failed. Remember that you do not need to use hard selling tactics. Certainly, you will not make any claim that is not absolutely true. However, you do need to get over your modesty and unwillingness to toot your own horn. In real life, it is important to remember that people often buy the best-advertised product rather than the best product!

If you put in a little extra effort to create an excellent resume, you will find that you will get a better response from prospective employers than people with better credentials. This is why it is worth your while to master the tools and the techniques that you will meet in this book. Give us your undivided attention and we promise to give you that "killer" edge in the job market.

The Bad News!

The bad news is that your present resume is probably much more inadequate than you now realize. You will have to learn how to think and write in a style that will be completely new to you.

Pitfalls to Avoid

You should not include any negative information in your resume. Remember that a resume is a marketing document, which should focus on your strengths and achievements! Read through the section below to get a flavour of how you must adjust your style to avoid pitfalls in writing your resume.

Periods of Unemployment

What did you do while you were unemployed? If you took training courses, mention it in your resume. Probably, you were self-employed or working part-time. If you have been unemployed for only a few months, use full years on your resume.

Too Little Experience or Education

Probably, you have some vacation or unpaid job experience that supports the job that you seek. If your work experience is not related to the position you are applying for, focus on your educational achievements. Draft your resume to present your strengths first.

Too Old

Avoid displaying dates. Instead of a detailed list of all the jobs held, focus on the ones that strengthen your candidature for the job you are applying for. Avoid a long chronological listing.

Too Young Again, avoid displaying dates. Display information of your summer jobs or in-house training experience in the same format as your permanent job positions. Provide details of your responsibilities and achievements. Consider using a resume format that will focus on your skills rather than displaying information chronologically.

Integrity

While pitfalls like these are to be avoided, please be very sure that the information you provide never deviates from the truth. You are allowed only to represent facts in a favourable light, but not to invent them. As in a game of cricket, you may apply a positive spin, but you may not "doctor" the ball!

Emergency!

Let us assume that you have to mail your resume tomorrow. You have no time to go through this book before writing the urgently needed resume. To cope with such an emergency, given below is a "bare-bones" outline for the last minute resume-writer. It will not generate the best resume, but it will probably get you off the hook this time! If it does not work, then read this book right through and begin again. Your next effort will be a great deal better.

A Last Minute Guide Book

• Write what the employer wants to hear. Put yourself in his shoes and try to imagine what he is looking for in the ideal candidate for the job. Be truthful, however. You will have to backup your claims in the interview!
• Focus on those points in your education, skill or employment that support your candidature for the job you are applying for. You may have spent a short time doing a similar job and much longer time doing something else of a different nature. Make sure that the relevant job is displayed more prominently than the less relevant jobs.
• Focus on your strengths and achievements. Dwell on scholarships, awards or honorable mentions. Speak of problems solved, targets met, goals achieved.
• Priorities the information. Give priority to achievements or events most relevant to the job, you are targeting. It may be better to dispense with the chronological approach in order to bring to the forefront some past achievement without creating the feeling that nothing noteworthy has happened thereafter.
• Keep your resume 1-2 pages long, unless your job is of highly scientific or technical in nature. As we have already seen, the first 15 to 20 seconds of reading will seal the fate of your resume. The key messages must be conveyed in the top half of the first page of your resume!
• Make it easy to read. Use bullets, white space and short sentences. Use active rather than passive voice.
• There must be absolutely no spelling or grammatical errors!
• Ask your friend to comment on your resume. However, it is your resume! Make the suggested changes only if you are one hundred percent certain that the suggestions will improve your resume!

A Second Look at this Book!

If the suggestions given above help you to land your job, then congratulations! You need not read this book any further, for now. However, it is not the end of your career. Time will come again to put another resume together. Before you do that, may we suggest that you read the rest of the book right through?

Words of Wisdom

If you are reading this section, it means that you have decided to read the whole book and not stop after going through the last minute guide book in the earlier section.

Before plunging deep into the art of resume writing, we may wish to stop and recapitulate what we have discussed so far. Here is a summary.

Do Not be Modest

Many of us are hesitant to put down just how much we have done, or how good we are. We grow up being taught not to brag, but this is your chance! A resume is like a sales prospectus, and you are the product. The resume gets you the job interview, and then it's up to you to close the sale and land the job! Therefore, make sure you do not leave out any of the relevant good stuff from your resume!

Select Statements with Impact

The statement: "Effectively managed a diverse population of 30 computer professionals to become a cohesive working team" is effective; "Am excellent with people and have great managerial skills" is not. "Consistently exceeded production quotas by 30 to 50 %" is effective; "Am very good at getting a lot of work done" is not.

Keep it Honest

You want to say as much as you can that's positive about yourself, but remember, if the resume works, it will get you an interview with someone who will probably be looking right at it during that interview. Do not ever put in anything you cannot defend, justify or comfortably explain.

Presentation is Important

While the content of your resume is a very important thing, the visual appearance can also make a big difference. If your resume is packed with great information, but appears crowded and hard to read, a busy executive might just not take the time to go through it with the care it deserves. Unfair? Of course, but this is the real world! Use indentations, bulleted points, and lots of white space. Put two or three short or medium sized sentences with bullet points, although sometimes, one key statement with real impact should stand alone, by itself.

Writing an Effective Resume

In the sections that follow, we will plunge right into the art of resume writing in earnest. To give you a preview of what we will encounter, here are some more tips on writing an outstanding resume. See also the tips in the previous section titled "Words of Wisdom" for a complete picture.

Use the Appropriate Amount of Space

If you've been in the work force for five years, and are applying for your second job, using a two-page resume would not be helpful. No one wants to look through a lot of padding. On the other hand, if you've been working for twenty years and have lots of experience and several jobs, trying to compress it into one page will never do you justice. In that case, forget the so called "experts" who recommend only one page, and use the space you need to get the job done right (and get the job!). This is especially true if you have a difficult situation to contend with, such as changing careers, or a scattered work history. About half of all resumes ever written could be fitted on one page without losing any punch. Another half does require two pages to do the material justice. Top executive level jobs (we are speaking of CEO's here!) may even merit 3 or 4 pages.

If you do use more than one page, use the top half of your covering letter to convey the punch. The covering letter will do the attention getting and ensure that your resume is read.

Functional Versus Chronological

If you're on a simple career path, and your last job provides the most relevant experience for the job being applied for, a standard chronological resume is generally best. Here you list your employment from the last to the first, and insert details of your experience under each employer. However, if you are changing careers, going back to something you used to do, or have a scattered work history, then a functional resume will probably serve your needs better. This kind lists your achievements first, dividing them into two, three or four categories. Append your employment history afterwards with relatively little comment. If your resume is more than one page, as most functional resumes are, be sure that the information most relevant to the job are all fitted on the first page itself.

Avoid "Buzzword Mania"

Most fields have some professional "jargon", and it's important to include enough technical terms to let your future employer know that you're familiar with their industry. This can be especially important in high-tech fields like computers or engineering. To an extent, it is also true in industries as diverse as insurance, construction, nursing, etc. However, avoid resumes that are little more than a collection of buzzwords, and while these may show familiarity with the industry, they do nothing at all to set you apart as an employee from anyone else in the field. An effective resume gives some sense of who you are (at least as far as your professional life is concerned), and what your future employer can expect you to accomplish for him. Let's face it; your value to your future employer is the bottom line for him.

Make Sure of Your First Impression

As the old saying goes, "you never get a second chance to make a first impression!" If your prospective employer receives hundreds (or even thousands) of resumes, unless you can get his attention, he will never get to know you, even if you are the most qualified. Even if you do get the interview, if your resume is mediocre, that interview will start with you fighting an uphill battle to counter a weak first impression. So, take the time to get your resume right! In exceptional circumstances, seek assistance from a professional who can give you that extra edge. Many successful, talented, and creative people, who are excellent in their professions, still choose to get help for their resume. They know that their talents lie in other directions, and want every possible advantage for their careers. That is one big reason why they're successful in the first place! However, do read this book thoroughly first, before calling in an expert.