What Is A Resume?

 

Depending on whom you ask, a resume may be viewed as the single most important vehicle to securing your next job, or it may be viewed as an unnecessary nuisance.

In both cases, this is incorrect. A resume is a professional introduction meant to encourage a one-on-one interview situation - the opportunity for communication that can lead to a employment  job offer.

It is a rare candidate who is hired by his or her resume alone. It is just as rare to be offered an interview without one.

A resume is often the first line of contact. It establishes a first impression of a potential job candidate's skills, background and hiring value. If written well, this impression can be a positive one, offering the reader a sense of the candidate's "fit" for the  position and company being targeted. If written really well, it may convince the reader that the job candidate is ideally suited for the career job. When coupled with an effective cover letter, the resume can be a very strong marketing tool.

Preparing a resume may be seen as a nuisance, but having a well-constructed, well-designed resume is an important part of your job search. Consider that for each available job opening there may be as many as 100 to 1000 resumes submitted. If your resume fails to adequately and accurately convey your hiring value (for the specific position), fails to establish your hiring value over competing candidates, or is difficult to follow, your ability to compete against those 100 to 1000 professionals vying for the same position your are will be greatly diminished.

If your resume secures an interview, it has done its job. If it sets you ahead of the competition in the mind of your interviewer, then it has given you a distinct advantage, and has gone beyond its job.

A great resume does what all good marketing pieces do: it sells the "consumer" (the potential employer or hiring manager) on the "product" (you).

Like it or not, the job of looking for employment is a job in sales and marketing. The product you are "selling" is you, and the "customer," who has unique needs and interests, needs to be sold on the fact that you have what it takes to get the job done and to meet the needs of the position. He or she is going to want to know how you are going to solve his or her problems, and he or she is going to give your resume about 15 seconds, or less, to sell this. 15 seconds is the average time a hiring manager will allot to a new resume - before giving it a potential "yes" or "no" response.

Will your current resume succeed under these conditions? 

By Sue Campbell