The Perfect Resume?

I’ll start with two comments:

  1. There is no perfect resume.
  2. If there was a perfect resume, it would only be perfect for a moment in time or a specific job. Tomorrow it would no longer be perfect; it might not work nearly as well for any other job.

We sent the perfect resume for the perfect job this week! We nailed it so perfectly! And we were aware, as we were doing it, that it was because the resume we were sending highlighted many facets of the job being offered.

They wanted an experienced technical writer – with an engineering background. But more, part of their solution involved the very technology this writer had worked with for more than 20 years. His writing experience during this time period was limited but when combined with the last 15 years of writing, his resume was just perfect.

We’ve done this in the past. We had a student who was an architect. She loved learning about alternative energy sources and technologies and her dream was to work with the very company where we placed her. A perfect resume, a perfect job – a perfect match.

How does this help us? The answer is that it doesn’t because, as I said from the start – there are no perfect resumes. While these two clicked in place, one several years ago and one just yesterday, most resumes don’t click so perfectly.

Instead, the company searches for the seeds of their need in the reality that is our lives and experiences. How you build your resume can expose these roots to the company; or hide them so they’ll never be found.

What programs you know are important – but what technologies you have documented are needed as well. What kinds of documents have you written? What kinds of jobs, fields, industries have had an influence on the skills you bring to a company? All this and more have to be found in that single page (or two pages at most) that describes you, your work experience, etc.

In this case, our writer was hired not only for his writing experience, which was certainly enough to get him the job, but equally as relevant were the key technologies in the earlier parts of his resume.

Something to consider as you explore potential jobs.  Don’t work to make the perfect resume. Make it, instead, the most comprehensive explanation of the many skills you can bring to whatever jobs are out there.