What Is a Resume?

By definition it is:

• • • a brief account of one’s professional or work experience and qualifications.
• • • a set of accomplishments.
• • • a brief written account of personal, educational, and professional qualifications.

But That Doesn’t Begin To Explain It.

• • • A resume might take you from a job where you feel unwanted and unappreciated to one where you’re the star of the show.
• • • A resume might be the catalyst for a promotion that allows you to afford the new house you’ve been wanting, or the vacation to Italy (where else?) you’ve waited years for.
• • • A resume could even put you into a new start-up where you are part of an exciting technological breakthrough that leads to…who knows where?
• • • A resume could be your ticket to a new life. It might whisk you across the country, or even to a new country.

A Resume Is The Potential To Fulfill A Dream

Think of the people that got in early on a few of the hugely successful start-ups: Google, Twitter, Facebook, and many, many others. Think of the thousands of people who applied for some of those jobs—and never got called for an interview. I know some of them, and a few of them could have made fantastic contributions, but they didn’t get the interviews. Later, when I saw their resumes, I understood why. They were terrible. Worst of all, they reeked of boilerplate resumes. Not in format, don’t misunderstand about that. I believe that all resumes should look damn near identical in terms of format. Like a good clean suit. It’s content that matters. And the only way to get impressive content is to tailor your resume for each job. Every one!

I don’t have hard-core statistics to back this up, but from what I’ve seen during 30 years of recruiting, I’d venture to say that 99% of all resumes are not tailored for each job. Most people put their resume together, and they hate the process so much that they never want to do it again … so they don’t.

Think About This

Every time you submit a resume for a new position, it’s like slipping a key into a magical door. Close your eyes and imagine the wonders that might lie behind it.

With all that a resume could be, don’t you think it’s worth a little of your time? Don’t you think you could write a separate resume for each of those magical doors to somewhere else?

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