Unbeatable Resumes

America's Top Recruiter Reveals
What
Really
Gets You Hired

TONY BESHARA

FOREWORD BY DR. PHIL McGRAW

This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional service. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Beshara, Tony, 1948–

Unbeatable résumés : America's top recruiter reveals what really gets you hired / Tony Beshara ; foreword by Phil McGraw.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN-13: 978-0-8144-1762-1 (pbk.)

ISBN-10: 0-8144-1762-0 (pbk.)

1. Résumés (Employment)—United States. I. Title.

HF5383.B4335 2011

650.14′2—dc22

2011006635

© 2011 Tony Beshara

All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America.

This publication may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in whole or in part, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of AMACOM, a division of American Management Association, 1601 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.

About AMA

American Management Association (
www.amanet.org
) is a world leader in talent development, advancing the skills of individuals to drive business success. Our mission is to support the goals of individuals and organizations through a complete range of products and services, including classroom and virtual seminars, webcasts, webinars, podcasts, conferences, corporate and government solutions, business books, and research. AMA's approach to improving performance combines experiential learning—learning through doing—with opportunities for ongoing professional growth at every step of one's career journey.

Printing number

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Foreword by Dr. Phil McGraw

Acknowledgments

Preface
        The Top Ten (BIG) Mistakes of Résumé Writing

Chapter 1
    Straight Talk About Your Résumé (From a Guy Whose Living Depends on Using Them)

Chapter 2
    Surprising Facts About Your Résumé Audience

Chapter 3
    The Résumés 3,000 Hiring Authorities Want to See

Chapter 4
    Key Features of the Most Effective Résumés

Chapter 5
    The Basic Résumé and Some Résumé Makeovers

Chapter 6
    Sample Traditional Résumés

Chapter 7
    Nontraditional Résumés

Chapter 8
    E-Mailing Résumés, Cover Letters, and Attachments: Increasing the Chances Your Résumé Will Get Read

Chapter 9
    Leveraging Your Résumé

Chapter 10
  How to Handle Common Résumé Problems (Too Many Jobs, Employment Gaps, Changing Careers, Relocating, etc.)

Epilogue
     The Top Ten Rules (You Now Know) of Résumé Writing

Index

On
The Dr. Phil Show
, we strive to bring our guests the best of the best in every category of resource during and after the show. Tony Beshara is just that—the best of the best! Given these tough economic times, more and more of our guests find themselves in social or economic distress, often recently unemployed with the challenge of having to reinvent themselves and find a new career path. Tony is one of the top placement and recruitment specialists in the United States, and with him in your corner you have an incredible advantage. He has developed one of the most successful systems for finding a job or changing careers ever devised. It is specific, action oriented, and above all, “doable.”

We asked Tony to intervene with a husband and father, who was out of work for eight months through no fault of his own. Tony began with a dynamic and scientifically based rewrite of his résumé. Within thirty minutes, the transformation had begun. The simple but effective changes that Tony made are here in this book.

The guest implemented Tony's system, including the newly shaped résumé, and despite being in California with its terrible job market, a new job was created. Now, it took nine months of hard job-searching work; it wasn't easy, but it was “doable.” There was nothing mystical or magical about what he did—just good, solid, well-executed planning and work.

A résumé is one of the most important tools you can have in a job search.

Tony's first two books,
The Job Search Solution
and
Acing the Interview
, were bestsellers because of Tony's practical, in-the-trenches strategies for how to get a job. He knows what works. Tony taps into everything he knows from decades of job-placement experience when he shows job candidates how crafting their résumés differently can make all the difference in finding a job. When it comes to looking for a job and creating the most effective résumé, Tony's
Unbeatable Résumés
is of the highest standard. Some people are going to get the jobs that are out there. With Tony's system in the mix, your chances are clearly going to go way up. Good luck, and God bless you and your family.

Dr. Phil

Greatest thanks go to Chrissy for her prayers, time, and spiritual support. A great deal of thanks goes to the “team” at AMACOM: Ellen, Erika, Carole, and Kama . . . you all are the best! Thanks also go to Pam Williams, who kept these chapters straight revision after revision, and to Vernelle Fugitt for her research. Thanks to Phil McGraw, his organization, and their spirit of service. And a special thanks to the thousands of candidates I have worked with over the years who contributed to this book's contents.

Dedicated to God's greatest blessings,
My wonderful wife and best friend, Chrissy, and our family.

I personally
receive
200 to 300 résumés each week. I personally
use
200 résumés each week to find people jobs. Being on the front line, in the trenches, when it comes to résumés, I know what works and what doesn't. This isn't theory; this is
truth
. Here are the most common mistakes people make regarding their résumés. In this book, I debunk résumé myths and give you all the inside info you'll need to get the edge in obtaining job interviews.

So, here are the top ten BIG mistakes people make when preparing their résumés:

1. Overestimating the value of a résumé.
Suffice it to say, the value of your résumé in getting you a job, let alone an interview,
isn't what
you think!
Yes, of course there are valuable things to learn about how to craft your résumé, but it's also good to have accurate expectations. I explain in depth the reasons people overestimate the impact of a résumé.

2. Overestimating the attention paid to résumés.
The average résumé gets read in ten seconds! Most people imagine that someone will systematically and carefully examine, dissect, and digest the résumé in front of them. The truth is that interviewing or hiring authorities only glance at résumés. They look for companies they recognize, the longevity of jobs held, and maybe a few other things. That's it! They then determine whether to read it in-depth at a later time. If your résumé doesn't grab attention in ten seconds, it's over.

3. Underestimating the odds.
People underestimate the number of résumés that interviewing or hiring authorities receive. It is not uncommon for them to receive 200 to 300 résumés for every job opening. With the appearance of the “send” button, these people get overloaded with résumés even when they aren't looking to hire.

4. Overestimating the qualifications of the people who will screen or pass along the résumé.
If you think the “right” people are reading your résumé, you're wrong!

5. Including the wrong content.
Even the most experienced professionals put the
wrong
content into their résumés. They make the mistake of including material that
they
understand, instead of information that will be understood by the people who matter—the ones who can grant you an interview. If a high school senior, who doesn't know you, has problems reading your résumé and understanding exactly what you have done, who you have done it for, and how successful you were, just imagine what the hiring authorities will think! You have put the wrong content in your résumé! For instance, people routinely list the names of companies they have worked for, without explaining what the companies do. They assume that since they know who their company is and what it does, everyone else does, too. Oh, boy!

6. Using distracting résumé formats.
This seems elementary, but most résumés don't get read because of formats that are distracting rather than helpful. Though these graphic formats are often recommended by “professional” résumé writers, they don't work! Now that most résumés are read on a computer screen, you need to take into account the way technology has taught us to read résumés.

7. Overestimating the value of the cover letter.
Cover letters are as overrated as résumés. Most of them actually destroy your chances of getting even a good résumé read.

8. Assuming one size fits all.
People send the same résumé out to all of the people or job opportunities they are pursuing. No! You should know how to “dumb down” or highlight different parts of your résumé and how to customize it for success in different environments and for different opportunities.

9. Flubbing the basics.
It is amazing how often people mess up simple résumé matters such as length, objectives, summaries, dates of employment, and titles. The sheer length of most résumés, for instance, ensures that they will
never
get read. On the vast majority of résumés, including an Objectives statement will
eliminate
candidates right off the bat. And a Summary paragraph can kill your chances of being interviewed.

10. Having the wrong résumé “strategy”—if you have any at all.
Ask the average job seeker what his or her strategy is for ensuring the résumé will get attention
and yield an interview
, and you'll get a blank stare. Beyond the “send” button, there's no strategy! Big mistake! There are strategic activities you should do
before
you send your résumé, as well as
after
you send it—and this book will give you the lowdown on each.