Page 35 - Complete Idiot's Guide to The Perfect Resume

03 0028633946 CH02 12/21/99 12:25 PM Page 17

Chapter 2 ➤ A Resume for All Reasons

➤ What makes you think you’ll do well in this new job?
➤ What achievements are you proud of that relate to this new position?
➤ Why do you think you’d fit into our company culture?
➤ What do you consider to be your biggest strengths and
weaknesses?
➤ How has your previous work experience prepared you for this position?
➤ What kinds of challenges have you faced in past positions and how did you handle
them?

Don’t worry if you don’t know the answers to these questions right now. You’ll have a
handle on them by the time you finish writing your resume, with the help of the exercises
in Part 2.

Bonus Check

A side benefit of developing a functional resume (frequently used by career changers)
is that you’ll be forced to define your transferable skills, which is a must for effective
interviewing. See Chapter 5 to learn about functional resumes.

Write Your Own Recommendation

After you’ve had a successful interview, your interviewer may need
to get hiring approval from someone higher up the ladder. If
you’ve armed your interviewer with a dynamite resume to pass on
to the higher-ups, the interviewer’s positive recommendation has
a better chance of being approved.
Job-Hunt Hint
Let the Bargaining Begin Write your resume with the idea
that it’s a marketing piece for
Believe it or not, salary negotiations start with your resume. Even your future (instead of a boring
though you don’t include monetary expectations on your resume,
description of your past). This
the bargaining begins by the way your resume presents you. Here is
marketing approach is the surest
some information that prospective employers can gather from your
way to convince an employer
resume:
that you’re a promising candi-
➤ How much experience you have date for the job. (There’s more
➤ How old you appear to be on this concept in Chapter 3,
“Winning Resume Wisdom.”)
➤ How focused you are in your career objective

An effective resume highlights information that answers these
questions to the reader’s satisfaction.

17