Your Resume: Your Ad
It's all about tailoring!
A good menu makes you want to order because the words on the page suggest the experience of the meal to you. The words not only address the need you have to eat but they do it in a way that makes you want to order. In that way a good menu is a good advertisement. It is focused on you: leading you to the best decision for your immediate needs.
A good resume does something similar for an employer. The employer has a specific need. Your goal is to address that need directly, specifically, and without needless detail. Your aim is to stand out so much that the person reading resumes wants to forget about everyone else, and hire you.
Before computers, resumes were necessarily a one-size-fits-all proposition. However, today we can easily tweak our resumes and send them without the labor of retyping. Unfortunately most people don't take advantage of that power. That fact favors anyone willing to spend a few minutes to speak directly to an employer. A good resume is focused on the employer and his needs, just like a good menu is focused on you and your needs.
What does that focus mean? Eliminate anything from the body of your resume that is not related to the position you're seeking. Unrelated detail clutters and confuses. Imagine you were the person sorting through a stack of resumes. The resume that stands out is the one that speaks directly to that person. Making their job easier is a key to your success.
The extra effort you put into it just might make that person stop looking and want to hire you.
Here's some specific tips for customizing your resume:
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member of our staff, Sheila Dela Cruz, comes to us from the wine industry. She's a Cal-State Northridge grad. Sheila joined us last month and she's responsible for assisting job seekers with our application, on-boarding and employee orientation process.
