What’s wrong with my resume?
Is a resume really that important?
Yes. Your resume speaks for you when you can’t.
But I’m a creative; I get hired from my portfolio.
In this market, a recruiter may not even look at your portfolio unless she already has a compelling reason to do so. Your resume has to not only speak for YOU – it has to speak for your portfolio. Does it? If the recruiter isn’t bowled over by your resume, she may not bother to look at your portfolio.
What’s wrong with my resume?
To answer that, ask yourself these questions:
- Is your summary good enough to get the recruiter to read on?
- Is your resume organized “functionally,” strategically by importance, or is it arranged chronologically, with your most important human-resource equities hidden way down the page?
- Does it demonstrate your initiative, problem-solving skills and methods for addressing issues in the workplace?
- Does it vividly illustrate how you’ve affected the bottom line with dollar signs, number of hours saved, percentages of efficiency, productivity and/or creativity enhanced?
- Does it capture the person behind the data? Is it creative – like you?
- Does your resume contain the right keywords, the kind of language a computer would match against a job listing?
Is it articulate and literate? Is it immaculately proofread? Does it fit elegantly on one page? Can you maintain an objective perspective on your skills, experience and personal traits?
Still wondering what might be wrong with your resume?
