Let’s start at the very beginning – the purpose of a winning resume. Understanding your purpose is critical when crafting your resume, and clearly understanding the objectives of the resume document is the foundation of a winning resume and will help you avoid mistakes and pitfalls that will restrict you from advancing in the job search process.
What a interview-winning resume is not:
- A full story of your entire career.
- A one-size fits all snapshot of your professional brand.
- A list of job descriptions of past jobs you’ve had.
- The thing that gets you a job.
Relevance:
The resume that you submit for every job posting should be relevant and specific to the role you are applying for. Creating a one-size “master” resume that will win you an interview in all situations is not practical, as it doesn’t tell your best story that the hiring manager or recruiter needs to hear to advance you in the process. You have just a few seconds in an initial resume screen to capture the interest of the reader and immediately communicate your fit for their needs. This is why expensive professionally written resumes can be ineffective – you may spend hundreds of dollars on a well-written resume that tells your story, but does it tell the story the hiring manager needs to hear for their specific needs? This is the same reason that your resume should NOT be an incredibly detailed recap of your entire career, rather a tailored offering specific to the job at hand. Taking time to adjust your resume for each opportunity is critical to ensure you’re highlighting the most relevant experience and skills to immediately capture the attention of the reader, create interest, and help you advance to the next stage of the process.
Capturing Interest
With just 5-10 seconds (first glance) that your resume will receive from a reader, it’s critical to immediately capture interest and keep your reader reading! Utilizing an easy to read format, effective key words, and aligning your experience to the needs of the job post, you increase your odds of further review by the hiring manager. Avoiding resume formatting red flags and other mistakes that may create bias hindering your ability to advance as a top candidate is equally important.
Secure an Interview
Reminder – A RESUME DOES NOT GET YOU A JOB. A RESUME GETS YOU AN INTERVIEW. All caps for emphasis as it’s easy to forget this, leading to information overload as you craft your resume. If your focus when crafting a resume is to win the interview opportunity, by capturing interest and showcasing your relevant experience and fit for the role, you will avoid the common mistake of creating a messy, overloaded, irrelevant resume that gets tossed because it is overwhelming to the reader. Each stage of the job search process leads to the next, and keeping yourself grounded knowing that your resume doesn’t need to communicate absolutely everything about you (you’ll have an interview opportunity for the hiring manager to get to know more about you!) is an incredibly important perspective to keep throughout your writing process.
Now that you understand the foundational purpose of the resume, you are ready to dive in to the nuts and bolts of crafting your own winning resume!