Resumes and Honesty

Let's begin by understanding what a resume is not and is. Understanding that will be critical to you success.

A resume is NOT an detailed and accurate history of your education and your business and life experiences...surprised?

A resume is a MARKETING TOOL that should be designed to achieve the goal of obtaining an interview, period.

Now does that mean that you should invent your resume just so it will match the job you are seeking? The answer is a simple NO. That said, what you the job seeker need to do is to select those items out of your education, career and life history that best support your candidacy for a given position and eliminate all irrelevant and negative items.

For example, let's say that you have had numerous jobs with varying lengths of employment over a 20 year period. In that case, only 10 or so years should be reflected. No matter your age, in general 10 years is the most you should show.

Another example of an inappropriate listing of past jobs is to show a particular job from which you were fired just because you were proud of the work you had  done..forget it! If the job doesn't show you off in the best light then it should not be included. Yes, you may have a time gap to explain but that is a far better alternative than having to deal with a termination. Some would argue to just leave it on the list and and provide a good explanation but that is not what I have found to work best.

Speaking of time gaps on your resume, if you have had many jobs, some with realtively short employment periods, then begin by eliminating the starting and ending months and years of employment. Instead just show the years..From-To. Given this type of presentation, the employer will not be able to differentiate between two years of employment and two days of employment and as a result is not likely to cause problems during the intitial review of your resume. There are other ways to fill significant employment gaps as well such as child birth, a family illness or education for example. Using these reasons is appropriate and should not set off any alarms. There are many more creative ideas as well.

Again, your resume must not contain any information or lack thereof that would cause the reader to place your paperwork in the NO PILE. Your paperwork must be well presented always including a cover letter and containing exactly what the employer is seeking. If you are able to do that, then your paperwork will most likely be placed in the YES PILE for further review by the hiring manager. So far...you win!

Also, be aware that every company listed on your resume is fair game to the employer meaning that he/she can call for references whether on your reference list or not so for gosh sakes, don't list any one of these puppies and then admonish the employer not to call them. That is sure resume death.

The key word here is flexibility. By that I mean that if you resume is not yielding somewhere around a 40%-50% positive hit rate it suggests that something about your paperwork is causing a problem and thus needs to be changed. Don't be stuborn or be limited by "Pride of Authorship" or by how much you may have paid for professional help, for the special paper or for your hours of effort. Review the guidelines I have presented and with an open mind, determine if you are on or off the target and then FIX IT. You will see a marked improvement starting from your very next mailing.

One final thought...if you are feeling a tad uncomfortable about "spinning your resume to your own benefit", please be aware that the company you will be interviewing with is likely doing the very same thing. As an example, the company will not readily share its employee turnover rate or how difficult the work environment might be, the status of sales revenue and profit (if a privately owned company) and its progress and plans related to cost containment and quality and a host of other facts that might turn you away from them. What to remember here is that a company may want you as much or more than you want them and two can indeed "play the game". In other words both you and the company will be putting their best foot forward in order to impress the other not unlike a first date. Some might call this dishonest but I am suggesting that such is the way of life so get in the game and win.