What is a Resume Anyway?

A resume is a marketing document. 

It is a formal document used by job applicants to list their qualifications for a position.[1] It typically contains, but is not limited to, your professional work history, education and a list of skills.[2]

Job seekers use the resume to market themselves, and to formally apply to target companies for employment.

What is the Purpose of a Resume?

People mistakenly think that the purpose of a resume is to get you a job. This is not quite accurate…

Your resume can help you get a job, but it does not get you the job on it’s own. Which is why trying to write a resume thinking that it’s objective is to get you a job is futile.

As with most marketing tools and documents, the resume has a very specific purpose. It helps you with only one of the many steps involved in getting a job:

The purpose of the resume is to get you an interview.

Meaning, you need to write your resume in a way such that you can maximize its ability to get you the interviews you want.

How Does a Resume Get You an Interview?

Functionally speaking, when an employer (i.e. HR gatekeeper or hiring manager) sees your resume, it accomplishes the following:

  1. Introduction to Your Prospective Employers: A resume is a formal introduction. It expresses your interest in being employed at a company. By accepting your resume, the employer will start to treat you as a candidate.
  2. Providing a Snapshot of Your Career: Your resume provides a view into how you want to be perceived, and what services or functions you want to offer a particular employer. 
  3. Matching Your Prospective Employer’s Needs:The most important factor in the effectiveness of a resume is its relevance to the target position. Does the resume match the employer’s needs and requirements for the job? Does it contain any evidence of previous experience relevant to the job? Does it highlight any skills or credentials necessary for the job? These are by far the most important criteria for a resume’s success.
  4. Demonstrating Your Communication Skills: As with all your correspondence with an employer, your resume showcases your communication skills. This is part of the reason why there is zero room for spelling or grammatical errors in a resume. Moreover, resumes that get interviews are easy to look at, easy to understand and well organized –  all of which are aspects of your communication skills.
  5. Telling Your Professional Story: The best resumes tell a story of a candidate’s professional history. And the best candidates have a professional story of career progression and growth. If your responsibilities, accomplishments and scope increase with every position, your resume signals to the world that you are a worthwhile investment.

Why Some Resumes Fail to Get Interviews?

Here are the top reasons why some resumes fail to get interviews:

  1. Mismatch With Target Job: If your resume is not a perfect fit with the job description, it is unlikely to work well. Keep in mind, employers aren’t good at connecting the dots when reviewing resumes: For instance, stating that you are a “master of spreadsheets” is not as effective as saying a “master of Microsoft Excel”, when the job description requires experience with Excel. Do not assume expertise or that the employer will connect the dots, especially since, initial gatekeepers or the software tools they use to filter candidates, can lack subject matter expertise.
  2. Trying to Impress the Employer: There’s a giant misconception that candidates are supposed to “impress the employer” with their resume. Nothing could be further from the truth. Your resume is intended to match an employer’s needs, not get them impressed with how much you can do or how credentialed you are. Trying to impress employers with your resume is losing game.
  3. Too Much Information: Many professionals want to showcase all of their abilities and highlight the fact that they can do more than just a few things that a job description might require. Unfortunately, the resume is not the appropriate platform to demonstrate the versatility of your skill set. When you put too much into your resume, it becomes harder to read, and it also generates a greater mismatch with an employer’s stated expectations. Remember: you get the interview by matching what the employer is looking for, nothing more, nothing less.

How Resumes Are Used

While the primary purpose of a resume is to get you an interview for the specific jobs you apply to, it can also be used by applicants as well as employers for a variety of other functions.

It is important that you understand these functions as well.

How Resumes Are Used by Professionals

Professionals use resumes for the following purposes:

  • Sending to Employers: Resumes are a standardized way to applying to both open as well as unadvertised positions. When sending resumes to employers, it is crucial that you tailor each resume to the specific job, or at the very least, the specific job type.
  • Introduction to Employers: While the use of LinkedIn has diminished this function, resumes are still used as a means of introduction. This is also why, it’s crucial that you provide clear contact information and availability signals for potential interviews.
  • Demonstrating Qualifications & Skills:  Resumes contain your work history and job-specific competencies. They can also highlight soft skills such as communication, teamwork, and problem-solving. On top of these, you can incorporate credentials, certifications, training programs, or ongoing education. All of these combined can in some circumstances, let you use your resume as a proxy for a diploma.
  • Record Keeping: Smart professionals use their resume strategically to document their achievements, and update them on an ongoing basis.
  • Personal Branding: Resumes can be used as a personal branding tool to complement professional portfolios, LinkedIn profiles, or personal websites. Incorporating relevant industry keywords, publications, or speaking engagements  into your resume  can establish you as a thought leader or an expert.
  • Career Planning: Updating, adjusting and rewriting your resume is a great career planning exercise. Try to create resumes for your desired positions in order to clarify your professional objectives and strategic direction.
  • Seeking Feedback: You can, and should, have your resume reviewed by your mentor(s) as well as trusted peers in your network. (See our events for more details) 

How Resumes Are Used by Employers

Beyond the basics, employers use resumes in the following ways:

  • Identifying Previous Jobs: Eye tracking studies show that resumes are skimmed through and processed by employers in very specific patterns. One of the key ways employers use a resume is to identify your previous positions, including title, company of employment, and duration of employment. This is, by far, what they look at first.
  • Identifying Specific Education: Employers use resumes to filter candidates around the educational requirements for their positions. (They look for your education section, degree type, name of institution, and the year of graduation.)
  • Identifying Specific Skills: Employers examine the skills listed on resumes to assess candidates’ proficiency in essential job requirements.
  • Identifying Specific Keywords: Many employers import applicant resumes into Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS). These systems allow employers to search thousands of resumes for specific keywords, and identify resumes for further review. Incorporating keywords related to job titles, responsibilities, and industry-specific terms will help your resume get selected within applicant tracking systems.
  • Determining Overall Career Progression: By reading through the progression of your roles, responsibilities and achievements, employers gain insights into your career trajectory and professional growth.
  • Assessing Stability: By looking through the number of positions you have held, and the length of those positions, employers assess your commitment to previous employers and potential longevity within their organization.
  • Interview Guide: Many employers will use the resume as a guide, very much like a teleprompter, to conduct interviews. The way you structure your resume allows you to shape the way the interview is conducted. (Note: this is an advanced but extremely useful technique for interview mastery.)
  • Analyzing Trends: By aggregating resume data, employers can identify emerging skills, certifications, or market trends relevant to their industry. Comparing resumes against industry benchmarks can also help employers gauge their own organization’s competitiveness within the job market.

Conclusion

Hopefully this article has provided you a broader perspective on how resumes are used and how you can make yours more effective.

A final parting tip: Your resume must answer some key questions in an employer’s mind related to your ability to do the job. But it shouldn’t try to answer every question…

It is much more productive to get an employer curious about you, and interested in asking further questions in an interview, then to clearly demonstrate all of your capabilities.

Showing that you can do the job, allows the employer to keep reading your resume rather than deleting it. Getting curious about you, however, gets the employer to call you.

You can learn how to demonstrate that you can do the job, and also, how to get employers curious about you (in excruciating detail) here.