Unbeatable Resumes (2 page)

This book is going to prevent you from making the mistakes that keep average job seekers from ever getting an interview.

(From a Guy Whose Living Depends on Using Them)

THIS WEEK
I sent 221 résumés of my candidates to different clients and helped three people find jobs. On average, I receive up to 40 résumés a day from people seeking my help in landing a job. I receive a lot of résumés, and I send out a lot of résumés.

I am a professional placement and recruitment specialist, and résumés are the tools I use to help my candidates get interviews. Since 1973, I have reviewed more than 32,000 résumés and have been personally responsible for placing more than 8,500 individuals in jobs, all on a one-on-one basis. That means I picked up the phone, called a hiring authority, got them an interview, helped with subsequent interviews, and negotiated an offer for them—8,500 times.

That's why I know what types of résumés are the most helpful for getting interviews that lead to job offers. In fact,
my livelihood
depends on that knowledge. The truth is that the vast majority of authors who write résumé books and articles have never found anyone a job, nor have they had to justify to prospective employers the quality of good candidates with poor résumés.

Most of the stuff written about résumés reflects those authors' opinions of what they imagine works. Instead, I tell you exactly what
does
work, based on the opinions of the hiring authorities I speak with every day. So, in this book, you're getting proven résumé knowledge about what works in the real world.

Here is a quick example. Some national “personal marketing” firms (i.e., professional résumé services) write résumés for fees of $150 and up. They recommend, and will write, a “functional” résumé for anyone willing to pay their fee. Unlike the traditional chronological résumé, a functional résumé lists all the duties and responsibilities spanning a person's career. Then, at the bottom of the résumé, are the names of companies the person has worked for, along with the corresponding dates. Usually there is little or no explanation of what each company does. Yet, here are the facts:
Most hiring authorities don't like or read these types of résumés
. (Résumé types are discussed in
Chapter 3
, where you'll also find the results of a survey involving more than 3,000 hiring authorities, which backs up this fact. Indeed, you will learn what they
do want to see
in a résumé.)

Does this mean that no one using a functional résumé ever gets an interview? Or ever gets hired? No, of course not. But it does mean that your chances of getting an interview are better if you
don't
use a functional résumé. And, after all, doesn't it make sense to stack the odds in your favor?

The reason hiring managers don't appreciate functional résumés is that the experience and accomplishments of the candidate are not set in the context of particular companies or job functions. That is, after all, the context in which they are hiring.

A functional résumé crossed my desk a few years ago, in which the candidate had written: “#1 salesperson in the U.S.” I went ahead and interviewed the candidate because I recognized the companies he had worked for, listed at the bottom. But I explained that he needed to write a chronological résumé connecting his experiences and successes to each job held. When he did so, it turned out that he had been the “#1 salesperson in the U.S.”
10 years ago!
That's why hiring authorities don't like this type of résumé. They hide the details. Unfortunately, this candidate had paid $5,000 to a “consulting firm” that had guaranteed the functional résumé it wrote would land him a job.
Guaranteed?

The primary reason people spend so much time, money, and effort in writing a résumé is that this is the one activity within the job search that they can control. Instead of picking up the phone and
calling
a prospective employer to ask for a face-to-face interview—risking potential rejection—people agonize over their résumés. It's true that agonizing over a résumé won't get you
rejected
, but spending hours on your résumé doesn't automatically mean it will be successful, either.

Here's the Truth: Nothing you think about your résumé matters unless it helps you get interviews that result in job offers! So, here's what I suggest. If anyone charges you money to write a résumé, tell the person you will
double
the asking price
after
the résumé gets you an interview, let alone a job. Yes, you read that right. Tell the agency or individual you will pay
contingent
upon the résumé's working for you. If the agency truly believes the résumés it produces are as effective as it claims, then it should have no problem taking this deal.

It is rare for someone to get hired by simply submitting a résumé—the purpose of the résumé is to help get you
an interview
. And at the interview, remember that 40 percent of a hiring decision is based on personality. The series of interviews is used to judge the compatibility of your personality with those of people in the company. That is, companies hire people they like; a résumé cannot communicate your personal traits.

It's that simple. Your résumé won't get you hired; rather, your résumé should help you get face-to-face interviews—so that your winning personality can convince your interviewers.

It is possible that you may be lucky and get an invitation to interview strictly by sending your résumé to a hiring authority. But in this market that situation isn't likely. You're going to have to do a lot of other things to secure the interviews, and I tell you what these things are in the chapters of this book.

If you Google the words
résumé magic
, you will get over 1.9 million results. If you Google
résumé secrets
, you will get 22.5 million results. What's so absurd about all of this is that there is no
magic
, there are no
secrets
to résumé writing. In fact, the process is not even mysterious. Writing an effective résumé is simple—as long as you have an effective résumé strategy.

You want to write and use the most effective résumé possible so that you can get as many interviews and job offers as you can. It's a simple statistical challenge. But this book will help you learn how to write a résumé that will have a higher probability of helping you get those face-to-face interviews.

You've come to the right place. Here, you will learn how to write a simple, straightforward, and
effective
résumé. But that's actually not the hardest part about getting a face-to-face interview. Your biggest challenge is knowing what to do with the résumé after you've written it.

How you use your résumé to secure face-to-face interviews is where the rubber really meets the road. The vast majority of people who call me to complain about their zero job responses think that their problems lie with their résumé. And while for some there may indeed be some résumé kinks, that is not the primary reason they're not getting interviews. Rather, the problem is a lack of technique and strategy.

In
Chapters 2
through
7
, I show you, step by step, how to write an effective résumé. Then, in
Chapters 8
through
10
, I coach you on how to use your effective résumé to get results—that all-important golden egg, the face-to-face interview.

MOST PEOPLE
assume that if they
write
an effective résumé it is going to be
read
by decision makers with great business acumen and experience. And that since these decision makers are so intelligent, they will naturally have the wisdom to interview and hire them.
Nothing could be further from the truth
.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), there are 7.5 million businesses in the United States with employees, and the average number of employees in those 7.5 million businesses is sixteen. The BLS also tells us that between December 2000 and November 2008, the monthly turnover rate for U.S. companies was 3.3 percent. This means that we are a nation of small companies, with 3.3 percent of our employees coming and going on a monthly basis.

The average job in the United States lasts two and a half to three years. In 2008,
every day
1,751 companies went bankrupt or closed. And each day they were
replaced
by 1,781 new companies. Even very large companies make poor business decisions and sometimes teeter on insolvency. Most of us are not aware of just how phenomenally erratic businesses are, even in the United States. We tend to think that most businesses are very successful—and that definition of success can be very broad. Yet the U.S. Department of Commerce reports that seven out of ten new employer firms last at least two years but only about half survive five years.

So, businesses expand, contracts are born, and companies die erratically. In 2008, 1.8 million businesses in the United States expanded or opened, creating 7.3 million jobs; meanwhile, 2 million businesses contracted or closed in the same year, eliminating 7.9 million jobs. This means that the hiring authority who might be interviewing you probably hasn't been in that job very long, either. Even “long-term positions” can be short. According to Crist Kolder Associates, roughly half of the CFOs of Fortune 500 and S&P 500 companies are in their jobs for fewer than three years—that's about the average tenure of an NFL running back.

Guess why hiring managers want to know “What can you do for me . . . right now, today?” It's because (1) chances are they won't be there long, and (2) they know they have to perform
now
to keep their jobs into tomorrow.

And with an economy that has been shaky at best, most business-people are operating more out of fear of loss than from a vision of gain. They are afraid of just about everything—especially the economy. They don't know how long this malaise will continue.

When a business is fearful about the future, it's difficult to make hiring decisions, but it's even more difficult for job candidates. With so many candidates to choose from, hiring authorities are compelled to seek out the “perfect” candidate. They feel that they can't afford to make a mistake. And they expect better candidates than they interviewed and hired just a few years ago.

If you are like most candidates, you think your résumé is being perused and considered by intelligent businesspeople who have a genuine sense of appreciation for what you can do for their companies. You imagine a wise hiring authority who is personally reading your perfect résumé. But the truth is, the chances are poor that your résumé will ever get in front of that person, let alone be read by him or her.

I have been a professional recruiter since 1973, and in that time, here's what I have noticed:

60 percent of résumés received for a particular opening are
never reviewed
by the hiring authority.

70 percent of résumés received for a particular opening are reviewed by a
third party
—that is, a human resources (HR) individual, internal recruiter, or some administrative person—who may or may not be qualified to interview a prospective employee. (A few years ago, we got a call from the CEO of a $40 million manufacturing company. He said he needed to hire a controller and that his daughter was going to do the initial interviewing—while she was home from college over Christmas break.)