"Resume Basics" - Helping You To Get Your Ideal Job

Resume Basics Are Frequently Misunderstood By Job Seekers

Most candidates labor under the misconception that employers read resumes to find someone to interview and hire.

This idea is completely false.

In today's competitive job market employers screen resumes for one purpose only ... to screen out job seekers.

For particularly well sought after positions an employer may literally receive hundreds of resumes-for one open position.

Resumes and Screening Tools

In order to assist them in wading through stacks of resumes, many employers utilize a screening tool. This tool is used as an aide in the process of determining who will be called for interviews and who will not.

The resumes that are left after the unworthy resumes are trashed are the ones that receive interview calls.

In order to win an interview, the real purpose of a resume, the savvy job seeker must think like the employer when writing resumes. They must keep the employer's objectives in mind and make it past the screening tool.

Employers' Objectives - What They Look For

Obviously, there are a few resume basics employers look for. Neatness, spelling and grammar, work experience and skills; are certainly important. A messy, wrinkled resume containing a host of typos, spelling and grammar errors will always end up in the trash.

Above and beyond these resume basics, however; employers look for education and requisite job experience; often in terms of a minimum number of years. Employers also look for an indication that the prospective employee has an ability to get the job done better than anyone else.

Screening tools also serve one other very important purpose, particularly in middle management.

Managers are usually just like everyone else; they report to someone. When screening prospective employees, the thought that they must be able to justify who they interview and ultimately hire is always in the back of their minds.

Your goal as a job seeker is to make sure you don't give them a reason to screen out your resume. One mistake on your resume, no matter how small, will accomplish just the opposite of what you hope to gain. Beat the trap by sticking to resume basics.

The Twenty Second Review

All of this must be accomplished in the resume and it must be conveyed in a very short amount of time.

Many job seekers believe that nemployers read every word of the resume they toiled over.

This is also quite wrong.

At most, employers spend twenty seconds scanning a resume. Many job seekers waste valuable time and space on lengthy paragraphs in a resume, waxing on about every detail of their past.

When facing a stack of hundreds of resumes, the weary employer does not want to strain their eyes on paragraphs of text.

The winning resume is the one that grabs the employer's attention and is concise.

Unfortunately, many people believe their resumes cannot be both attention grabbing and concise. True, accomplishing the combination of the two is a bit of a trick to master; but when an interview is on the line, the rewards are well worth the effort.

In addition to the points already discussed, the following resume basics are key ingredients of a sucessful resume ...

• Resume Objectives
• Resume Format
• Resume Outline
• Resume Layouts
• Resume Wording
• Job Resumes