Writing a Great ResuméIn a perfect world, no one would need a resumé.
The candidates most suited to a particular job would simply be summoned forth to interview, based on their reputation and word of mouth referral.
Employers would carefully make their hiring decisions based on the candidates’ verbal account of their past performance, without regard to any kind of written documentation.
And companies would grow and prosper, having selected only the best and brightest from a large pool of qualified talent.
Right. And now the reality:
Employers are so inundated with resumés, it often takes weeks, or even months to sort through them all to identify the candidates they deem qualified.
Despite the administrative headaches and delays caused by processing resumés, companies rely heavily on the resumes they receive to screen for potential candidates.
Given the choice of two candidates of equal ability, hiring managers will always prefer to interview the one with the most artfully constructed and attractive resume.
For that reason, candidates with superb qualifications are often overlooked. And companies end up hiring from a more shallow pool of talent; a pool made up of those candidates whose experience is represented by powerfully written, visually appealing resumés.
Of course, many of the best candidates also have the best resumés; and sometimes, highly qualified candidates manage to surface through word-of-mouth referral. In fact, the referral method is the one I use to present talented people to my client companies.
But unless you can afford to rely on your “reputation,” or on the recommendation of a barracuda recruiter, you’ll need more than the right qualifications to get the job you want — you’ll need a dynamite resume.
In today’s competitive employment market, your resume has to stand out in order to get the attention of the decision maker and create a strong impression. And later on, when you meet the prospective employer face to face, a strong resumé will act as a valuable tool during the interviewing process.
