TCB Report: The Importance of the Resume
Most positions, above the minimum wage level, will require you to submit a resume in order to be considered for the position. I have received up to 300 resumes for a single opening. Resumes are first used as a way to weed out unlikely candidates. Believe it or not, the "No thank you" pile was first created with resumes that had spelling errors and/or appeared sloppy in appearance.
Next, we looked for those resumes that were not a near perfect fit for the advertised opening and added them to the stack. Those resumes that made the first cut were then scrutinized for reasons to interview the candidate. Things we looked for included: Education, additional training, community involvement, life experiences, and anything else that might indicate that this is an outstanding candidate. We knew that we wanted to interview at least five and no more that ten candidates. So what ever we had to do to get to a workable number, we did it.
I am sure that we lost some very good candidates over the years using this method, but the ones selected to be interviewed were good candidates as well. The purpose of the resume is to get you to the interview stage of the hiring process. If you are serious about wanting that interview, your resume must:
- Be neat and clean
- Be well written
- Emphasis your strengths as they relate to the job description
- Detail your employment (educational) history
- Include experiences that made you a better person (military, volunteering, service orgs.)
- Have a cover letter that states why you would love to work for this company and why you would be a perfect fit
- Kept it three pages or less
Good Luck! -TCB
From the Author:
I am a life long learner, with decades of experience and wisdom to share. I am here to help, field questions and stimulate discussion. Comment on my posts and I will reply promptly.
-Thomas C. Barry
Career and Education Correspondent for CareerSearchToday.com
