The Hire Seven or Why a Resume?

#1 To market yourself to prospective employers. An effective resume works like advertising copy. Think of your resume as your personal brochure and one you can live up to. You don’t have to make “hard sell or make any false claims, but you do have to get over your modesty and toot your own horn a little bit. If you don’t, who will?

#2 To win an interview. A resume provides your basic contact information, and facts about your achievements on the job to prospective employees. It’s what thy want to know about you, in a format that’s easy to read and glean knowledge from quickly. A concise, accurate, powerful and truthful resume establishes you as a professional person, someone a potential employer can’t afford to ignore.

#3 To keep track of your achievements to date. Even if you aren’t looking for a new job, a stellar opportunity might present itself—or downsizing could rear its ugly head. Be ready for either possibility with a strong and current resume.

#4 To tell the truth. If you fib about your education, job experience or any other elements of your work history, you will probably live to regret it. True stories abound of professionals achieving the highest levels of success, only to have their careers ruined when research revealed that their resumes were fabricated. If a job title you had does not adequately reflect the work you really did, be sure the description of the job makes your duties clear… but don’t gild any lilies.

#5 To demonstrate what you’ve accomplished on the job. Employers are concerned bout one thing---how an employee can contribute to their bottom line. Quantify how you’ve saved the company money, and give prospective employers numbers to prove it. A powerfully written resume conveys how you can be an asset to the company’s profits and productivity.

#6 To act as a covering piece or addendum to a part of a grant or business proposal, or as an accompaniment to a graduate school application. A resume is a versatile document that is required in more situations than just the job-seeking process.

#7 To hit the highlights, not serve as a biography. Remember your resume is only one element of your job search strategy. A resume is needed to get you in the door,. Yet cover letters, email, and telephone interactions will extend the conversation and add further evidence of your ability to do the job. Be prepared to give more detail later, live, to a real person.