Page 30 - Marky Stein - Get a Great Job When You Don't Have a Job-McGraw-Hill (2009)

Fearless Résumés

• The inside of the hiring process and the interior of
employers’ emotions are exactly those untapped, “secret”
solutions to the problems of getting the interviews that
I’m going to share with you right now.

To grab your reader in the first few seconds, to get her to read
the whole page or two and then get her to take action, we’re going
to use the power of what I’ve named résumé psychology.

What Is Résumé Psychology?

Résumé psychology is the study and practice of using words in a
prescribed document (your résumé) to get a reader to
1. Feel something
2. Think something
3. Do something

To express this chain of events as succinctly as possible, you can
imagine the events taking place in this order and in a manner
such as this:
Phase 1 (three to seven seconds): The reader will first feel,
consciously or unconsciously, that you are going to help him.
Phase 2 (one to five minutes): He will then think that you are
going to make money (or its equivalent) for his company.
Phase 3: Finally, he will be compelled to do something
about it—that is, to discuss your résumé with his boss or
just pick up the phone himself and call you.

Phase 1 must work if you are to get to Phase 2. Phase 3 cannot hap-
pen unless Phase 2 is complete. Therefore, your first task is to
win the employer’s emotions and get her to feel that you are on
her side—that you are going to help her in some way.

Logic or Emotions?

One would hope that résumé readers would base their decisions
on logic or rationality, carefully weighing the qualifications written

17