Silly question, right? Not really. Many applicants believe that the purpose of a resume is to help them get a job. This is not true. The purpose of a resume is to help you get an interview. You will never be hired solely on the basis of your resume.


If you've ever sold something, you know that prospects often ask for something in writing, like a data sheet or a brochure, before they will agree to meet with you in person. Often its a way of telling the salesperson I'm not interested in talking to you now because they've got other things on their minds, or they just don't think they have a need for your product. But if you believe in your product, you'll feel compelled to make sure they know what your product can do for them - especially if you know their competitors are using it.

Like it or not, when you are searching for employment you are selling yourself. So you've got to think of your resume as a product brochure - of you!. So here's a problem: a static document (e.g., a brochure) rarely helps anyone understand what your product or service can do for them. A good sales person needs direct contact with the prospect to understand the prospect's needs. An outstanding salesperson agrees to deliver the brochure to the prospect - but in person, not by mail. This gives the salesperson the ability to explain how the product will solve the prospect's particular needs, while at the same time qualifying the product's fit for this particular prospect.

The same holds true for a person looking for a job. You don't want to send a resume unless you understand the position and tailor the resume to highlight your background relative to the job requirements. And ideally, you want to deliver the resume personally. But reality says you can't always be there in person. So you've got to be sure you present yourself in the most relevant light to the employer's needs. For example:

Let's say you want a customer service job. You review the job requirements and tailor your resume to speak of your customer service experience. If you have a lot of experience in outbound sales, that's great, but what's of real interest to the client is your customer service experience. How do you think it would be best to represent yourself in this situation?

Okay, now suppose you want an outbound sales job. You review the job requirements and emphasize your outbound sales experience and anything else that might help the employer recognize that you would be a good fit for them. You might even consider maintaining two separate resumes; one that focuses on customer service jobs and one that emphasizes outbound sales jobs.

One more thing - follow up - by telephone! How much junk mail do you receive every day? How much Spam do you get every day? Do you know how many resumes a hiring authority gets every day? Lots! So how are you going to stand out? Make 'em remember who you are!

A resume is great when it lands you an interview.

To get noticed, your resume should follow some simple, common sense principles:

1. Be honest. I cannot understate the importance of honesty. I recall an individual who "stretched the truth" by claiming that a college degree had been completed but in fact it had not. I would have hired that person regardless of the degree, but chose not to because they lied.
   
   Look folks, to be a customer service employee is to be in a position of trust. If you can't be straight about your qualifications, where the stakes are small, how will you react when there's something really important on the line? Put another way, if I can't trust you to tell the truth on the little stuff, how can I trust you on the big stuff?
   
   
2. Be accurate. This goes with rule one. Don't exaggerate your experience, your education or anything else on your resume. When you interview, the people quizzing you are experts on the subject and know when you are bluffing. Most of the time I spend in pre-qualifying candidates is consumed verifying that the resume is a good reflection of the person. When I find a discrepancy, it sends up a red flag.
   
   Some recruiters recommend creating a different resume for each job opening, tailoring the resume to suit the particulars of a job. I agree. This does not mean that you should stretch the truth. Instead, emphasize the parts of your experience that are important for the job and make you an ideal match.
   
   
3. Be concise. A recent study indicates that the average recruiter spends ten seconds looking at a resume. You have ten seconds to convey an initial message. Ideally, your resume should be one page long. If you can't fit everything on one page, use two pages, but no more. The time you spend to make what you want to say fit on one page will be appreciated. If you use two pages, be sure to put your name on the second page (use page header or footer); if the pages become accidently separated, your prospective employer will be able to tell what goes with what.
   
   Review your resume multiple times to eliminate fluff or busy words. Get rid of phrases like "due to the fact that".
   
   
4. Focus on the employer. When you talk about your accomplishments and experience, describe what you helped your employer accomplish. Here's an example of the difference between employee focus vs. employer focus:
   
   Employee focus: Responsible for a newly formed group of engineers that performed custom work for profit.
   
   Employer focus: Created a profit center from the previous financial liability of custom work and increased the bottom line by $1.5 million in the first year.
   
   A prospective employer is not just looking for someone to fill a seat. They seek someone who has a demonstrable record of success. When I say success, I mean that the employee's actions resulted in a measurable benefit for his/her employer.
   
   Don't include personal information unless it is somehow employer focused.
   
   
5. Be neat. When you fail to be neat, it sends the message, "I don't pay attention to details." Customer service people must be concerned about the details.
   
   Create your resume on a computer and print it on a laser printer. Try this simple experiment: print your resume on an ink jet and put it next to a resume printed on a laser printer. The difference is obvious.
   
   Print your resume on fresh, plain white paper. If the paper is wrinkled, don't use it. Some experts claim that choosing a special color or texture of paper is the key. Unfortunately, many employers throw such resumes away first because they assume the candidate is focused on style and not substance.
   
   Hold your resume up in front of you at arms length. Don't look at the words. Look at the shapes of the paragraphs on the paper. Ask yourself some questions about what you see:
   • Are the margins equal?
   • Is the spacing between paragraphs consistent?
   • Is the text straight on the page? When you print, take care how you load paper.
   • Is the page mostly words? Mostly white space? A pleasing blend?
   • Use the spell checker. In the minds of many employers, there is no excuse for misspellings. Spell checkers are ubiquitous. Failing to use one sends the message that you are sloppy and that you couldn't be bothered to take a few seconds to take of this important part of your resume.
   • Check for "trouble words." Trouble words occur when the spelling is correct but the context is wrong. For example, "your" is a trouble word. All too often, your is used when you're is intended. If you notice that you have special trouble words, keep a list of them and check for them.
   • Stick to a single tense within a paragraph.
   • Don't spill anything on a resume that you intend to send to a potential employer. If you do, make and send another clean copy. Throw the spilled-on copy away immediately so that you don't accidently send it by mistake.
   
   Now examine the resume at close range:
   
   • Check the end of each sentence for a period.
   • Check the end of bulleted items for consistent punctuation.
   • Check the beginnings of bulleted items for consistent capitalization.
   • Check margins and tabs for consistency.
   • Make sure the text is easy to read. Don't use a tiny font to try to fit more content on the page. 10 point is as small as it should be.
   • Don't use a fancy font. Fancy fonts are fine for a brochure, but not your resume.
   • Don't use quotes. Use italics instead. It takes less space and is subtle reminder of your attention to detail.
   
   
6. Get a critique. Ask someone you respect to review your resume. Even if its someone you don't know very well. And don't worry because they will be delighted to help. When you receive criticism, don't argue. Listen. Repeat, in your own words, what your reviewer has observed.
   
   If the reviewer is full of it, then don't act on the advice - and don't complain. But be sure. No matter how the criticism is conveyed to you, be sure that you understand it and consider it. If the criticism is deserved, take action to correct the problem. It may be painful to hear, criticism. But consider this:
   
   False praise is the enemy of your professional growth.
   
   It doesn't help you one hoot if someone is blowing sunshine up your skirt. In a resume, honesty is essential. Getting an opinion from an uninvolved person is a good way to get there.
   
   If your reviewer doesn't have any serious criticism for you, try asking a few questions to draw them out. For example: based on the resume, what do you think my greatest strength is? or what do you think my greatest weakness is? If this doesn't get some meaty criticism, consider using a different reviewer.
   
   
7. Revise. A recruiter once told me that a good resume is revised for each new job opportunity. This gets back to the introduction of this article. You should also revise your resume to keep it up to date with your latest experience. You also need to constantly improve the verbiage to more clearly convey your value to the employer.
   
   
8. Use a cover letter. The cover letter should introduce you and your resume, point out the things that make you ideally qualified for the job opening and give information about how you can best be contacted. As with the resume, be honest, concise, accurate and neat. Keep the length to two paragraphs.