Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What’s a sundial in the shade? (Franklin)
Walking on the flat, open plains, an Apache claims he can disappear from sight. There is no place to hide, so the Army officer backs off to a safe distance and turns his back for a minute. Sure enough the Apache is gone, but there is no place to hide. After the officer searches fruitlessly for awhile, the Apache erupts from the ground.
In the book Life Among The Apaches, John Cremony gives example after example of Apaches hiding where it should be impossible to be out of sight.
Do YOU hide inside your resume?
Another example: Be honest. Do you read every insert in every medicine package you buy? Every word? Why not? You may open it up and take a few seconds to look for something obviously important, then you throw it away. Critical information is on those inserts, but you don‘t read them.
Is your resume as bad as that insert?
You’ve got 2 or 3 sheets of paper for your resume. How much do you hide in plain sight? Are the most important facts about you hidden in long paragraphs? Are they hidden at the END of bullet points?
In school you were required to write in paragraphs. Opening sentence, 3 arguments saving the best for last, and a closing sentence. Guess what? It does NOT work for resumes. No one reads paragraphs in a resume. No one gets to your best argument.
Use bullet points that are effective.
- A bullet should be less than one line
- Power words at the beginning
- Never give the whole story
- Make readers want to call you
- Your most important word should be in bold in a set of bullets
A resume’s job is to get you an interview. Nothing more. It is not a job interview. It is not a medicine package insert. It is not an essay.
Does your resume get read? Does it get you an interview? If not, change it.
Here is the QUICK FIX
This is an exercise that will help you fix your resume and get job interviews.
- Make a copy of your resume
- Cut your longest paragraphs down to three lines
- Do not split paragraphs, mercilessly shorten them
- Make every bullet in your resume less than half a line
- Do NOT split paragraphs
After you have done this, look over the two resumes.
Which is most likely to be read?
Now that you have hacked with an axe, go in with an editors pen and make your resume more readable. But don’t make it longer or you’ll be like that Apache again, hiding in plain sight.
One more idea? Go to www.grab-me.us and check it out.