Today, in this age of specialization, looking as strong as possible on paper in essential when competing for a job. There are three things that are out of your control when applying for a position:
- Who will apply and thus be your competition
- How many people will apply
- Who will read your resume and when will they read it
Because of these three factors, appearing strong on paper is critical. How do you appear the strongest that you can be on paper?
Whenever a position is posted for which you feel qualified, there is a technique for ensuring that you are submitting the strongest resume possible to the company. The first thing that you should do is take a detailed reading of the posting. If you encounter something that is in the posting that you can definitely do but that is not on your resume, place it on your resume, but DO IT IN YOUR OWN WORDS. You do not want the company representative thinking that you lifted certain phrases or keyword from their posting to make yourself sound better.
By the same token, there is bound to be something on your resume that is irrelevant to the posting. You should take that off of your resume. This helps your resume maintain balance and fortifies your chances of at least meriting a phone screen. Because you do not know who or how many people will apply, you want to be at the top of your game on paper.
The other factor is who will see your resume. If you know who that person is and you know something about that person, you may elect to “slant” your resume in such away to appeal to their perspective. And because you have no idea when they will read it (for example, 4:30 on a Friday afternoon is a horrible time to have your resume read IF your resume is even 10% less than the best presentation), you do not want to take a chance that your resume will be overlooked by a recruiter who is ready to leave the office.
Tailoring your resume is imperative in today’s employment marketplace because the days of one resume can cover it all are well behind us in the rear view mirror.
Philippians 4:6
