My cousin came to me a while back upset about his resume. He had paid a professional over $300 to have a great resume written. But after sending out dozens of copies, he still had not been granted any interviews. He was blaming the resume and was disappointed with the person he paid to write it.
My cousin calmed down after I explained that the writer was not really the problem. The resume was well written, but a well written resume is not necessarily a great resume.
What a resume can not do, no matter who writes it, is guarantee you interviews. And the whole point of your effort is to get interviewed so that you can get a job offer. A great resume is one that gets you the interview you want.
The problem is that the definition of a great resume is completely different for recruiters and hiring managers than it is for most job seekers. A well written resume can help alleviate your anxiety that somehow you are going to lose an interview opportunity because your resume is not perfectly written. The truth is, you lose interview opportunities most often because your experience does not closely fit the job.
If your resume is clear, concise and without noticeable inaccuracies then it is sufficiently written from the perspective of style and form. But recruiters are mostly interested in content.
Here is the precious secret to a great resume. A great resume reads like the job description! That is it. That is everything. For a hiring manager or recruiter a particular resume is great simply because it matches the job requirements to a tee. Not because the formatting is perfect, or the grammar professorial or the syntax is flawless.
A great resume stands out like a Masai at a Pygmy party. You can not miss it. When reading your resume, if the recruiter does not see a close fit in the first third to half a page, they will not read too much further. However, if they see a good fit they will read it with glee, like it is a treasure map.
Put your resume to the test. Have some friends look at the job description of the position you are interested in carefully alongside your resume. Is there any doubt in their minds when reading both documents together that your background is a close fit?
Most likely your resume will not contain the exact sentences and verbiage as the job description. The key is that they are nearly equal in the very essence of the requirements listed.
If after reading your resume, your friends begin asking you for explanations or clarifications, then there is doubt. Perhaps you are not a close fit for that particular job. If you are a close fit but your resume does not clearly reflect this, then you will need to rewrite the resume.
You may have to customize your resume almost every time you send it out. Not to mislead anyone about your experience, but to emphasize the areas of your background which are most important in that particular job description. If you are paying a writer to do your resume, insist they create one that you can easily customize.
If you have a resume closely matches the job description, then for that particular position, you probably have written a great resume. If there is any doubt, then perhaps all you have is a well-written resume.
Herman Collins is an acclaimed executive recruiter and known around the globe as The Job Search Specialist. His proven job hunting strategies have helped 1,000's. Go to: http://www.realjobtips.com to discover how to put his
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