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• Classic-Fiction

1. They want to get you off the phone

2. They’re not sure you’re right for the job

3. They want to delay making a decision

4. They’re unauthorized hiring authorities with no power to hire you

Our focus is not to make your resume suitable for framing, but simply to get you an instant interview.

No reason to rest. Not when you’re this close to your goal.

Resume Dos for Interviews

Use your resume to step you straight into the offeror’s office.

These ways:

1. Keep the resume short. No more than two pages. Readership drops 80 percent with every additional page.

2. Make the font size at least 10 point. Better yet—12.

3. Use black ink on white or ivory stock. Gray text or paper is often difficult to photocopy. Any other color combinations are o-u-t.

4. Leave a one-inch border. That makes it easier for the offeror to write comments.

5. Bullet—but only for a few important points.

6. Double-check. Did you leave out your contact information? Is a number wrong? Did you check all of the spelling?

7. Follow up. Regardless of the employer’s instructions for sending resumes (e-mail, fax, or pasted in to an online form), always follow up by mailing a hard copy. Why? Just in case. And to stand out, because your average jobseeker won’t bother.

Resume Don’ts for Working Won’ts

1. Don’t use the word resume with the accented letter e. The only exception is if you’re applying for an old-age home position as a patient. HR (stands for “happy rejector”) types have been screening those out for decades.

I don’t know why anyone would even use the title Resume on a resume. Would they shuffle into an interview with Post-it notes on their eyeglasses that say Glasses?

2. Don’t update anything in your own handwriting. It draws attention and looks like you didn’t take the time to correct an error.

3. Don’t include contact information for references. Why let offerors wiggle out of an interview by calling them? Say instead: Personal and professional references are available upon request.

4. Don’t state salary at all, even by implication. Not desired, not current, and not past. The probability of your missing the amount an offeror has in mind is 100 percent. Save this for our negotiation prestidigitation.

5. Don’t give an objective. If you’re answering an ad or know the job being offered—and don’t want any other—it’s okay to repeat whatever the offeror says.

6. Don’t use a cover letter. A letter to an unidentified offeror can RSVP “Will not attend” before you even receive the invitation. The only time to use a cover letter is when you know exactly what the offeror wants. Since the offeror doesn’t, this is an accurate footshot. Foot-shots have you infirmed, not interviewed.

7. Don’t include a photo. Doing so shows you completely reject a half-century of equal employment opportunity laws. You’d be happier if your envelope was misaddressed, since you wouldn’t receive a rejection letter.

8. Don’t state vital statistics (sex, height, weight, marital status, and so forth).

Racing from Resume to Interview

The best way to instant an interview is with the most seemingly focused but generically written resume you can develop. Leave enough out so they must talk to you. Make them want you to fill in the blanks through an interview!

There’s a Spanish word that says it all. It rhymes (almost) with resume. It’s andale (ahn da lay). It means to move or to work.

Andale!

You move. You work!

Do 6: Getting Your Resume Scanned

Getting your resume scanned favorably really increases the number of interviews!

ATSs (Applicant Tracking Systems) are now being used by almost every major employer. With them, companies can draw on a huge database of candidates without paying advertising or placement fees. The candidates have already applied, and in some cases have even been interviewed. So they tend to be more qualified and interested than ones who are sourced on the Internet.

Keyword Indexing of Candidate Files

If your resume