The Ten-Second Story, or How Personnel Departments View Your Resume
When you mail your resume in response to an advertisement what actually happens to it? With only minor variations, there is one pattern followed. To illustrate, let's follow a typical candidate's response to this ad for a product manager.
Product Manager, Entrepreneurial Specialist, Growth-oriented consumer package goods manufacturer, headquartered in suburban northern New Jersey seeks a seasoned marketing specialist to assume a key decision making position. We seek a "hands-on" strategist, capable of assuming total responsibility for marketing, promotion strategy, packaging, budgeting, copy, media, forecasting, as well as new product development. The individual we are seeking will be capable of combining creative strength with organizational ability. This is a highly visible opportunity for an innovative, implementation-oriented specialist with 3-5 years related experience. We offer a generous salary and competitive benefits package. Forward resume including salary history in confidence to Y9274.
Since this is a "blind" ad, that is, the organization has chosen not to identify itself, the candidate must forward his response to the box number, "Y9274," to the mailing address of the newspaper, magazine, or journal in which it appeared. Even if he responds the day he sees the ad, it will take several days to reach the publication. It will then take two to six business days for the publication to forward his response to the person in the company who placed the ad.
Insiders' Tip: Responses to blind ads take about seven to ten days longer to reach the organization that advertised than do open ads, which identify themselves by company name and address.
Ads are usually placed by personnel ("human resources") people. If the advertisement is fairly large and appears in the financial or business section of a major newspaper, it can generate more than eight hundred responses. To appreciate how one resume is treated in this kind of avalanche, let's continue.
The resumes and letters are opened as received by a secretary or personnel assistant, stamped with the department's name and the date received, then placed on the desk of the person screening the responses. Depending on his or her schedule, this pile of papers may be reviewed right away or left untouched for a week. Receiving your response to an ad, particularly an ad that generated upward of three hundred to five hundred resumes and letters, is not the most important event in the workday of a typical personnel person. Responding to telephone requests by senior managers, handling a sticky employee termination, meeting with union delegates, and directing subordinates all take precedence over a day's mail. That's why it always seems an inordinately long time between your answering an ad and getting a response, be it positive or negative. Companies run behind ads so they do not have to respond to your resume. Sending out five hundred or more "Thank you, but no thank you" letters becomes an extremely expensive and time-consuming ask.
Pretend you are the personnel representative for this job at Company X and have decided to review the first two days' mail. Almost all of the responses consist of a resume with an accompanying cover letter or just the resume.
Fewer than 8 percent are "action" letters. This is the first time you are reviewing responses to this ad, so you read the cover letter and the resume in their entirety. You do realize that you will tire of being so thorough. It will take you too long to do it this way. In 2 hours you have read only 36 resumes and you still have 108 to go! You now learn to do what all personnel recruiters do: skim. But, when skimming, what do you look for? Most personnel professionals use what we call the ten-second story, a method used to match resumes against specific criteria.
Are you a "job hopper"?
If you have spent two years or less in each job held (particularly your most recent two or three positions), you are considered a job hopper. Holding seven or eight full-time jobs in fifteen years is not acceptable, no matter what the reasons.
Is there a progression in your job responsibilities and titles?
If your resume fails to show a progression in job titles and responsibility, you will not he considered. Though experienced in one given area, you will be viewed as not being vey aggressive or promotable.
Is there progression in salary throughout your career?
The most meaningful form of recognition in private industry is financial reward. Salary (in dollars) should not be mentioned, if upward title changes are shown. From this the reader knows that your salary was increased. Some companies reward performance with perquisites other than salary or bonus but if "rewards" are not reflected in steady increases, your real value to any organization is marginal.
It takes a personnel professional only ten or fifteen seconds to review a resume for these three indicators. If your resume is found wanting it ends up in the "circular file."
To accomplish a successful switch, you must pass the ten-second story with good grades. This may be difficult if you have deficiencies in some or all of the above criteria. However, you can overcome these weaknesses by being able to answer the following questions:
Are your marketing materials (resume or letter) logical and well thought out? Or do they tell the reader that you haven't spent much time or effort in developing them?
Does your action letter and/or resume give evidence that you are a generalist or a specialist?
Does your action letter or resume contain information that can be viewed as negative? Are you providing too much information? (A common error often made when writing resumes. This is not true-confessions time.)
Developing strategies to overcome any ten-second story objections will be discussed later in this chapter. At this point, let's review what a resume is and what it is not.
The Resume: An Introduction
A resume is a series of carefully selected facts, deliberately arranged to create impressions and conclusions about you. In short, it is a marketing tool, your advertisement for yourself.
Profit: The Language of the Person Who Will Hire You
Though few people in business will directly say so, the primary purpose of a business organization is to perpetuate itself. To achieve this all-important objective, an organization must make a sufficient profit to meet its current obligations and to plan for the future. Everything else an organization does must take a back seat to profits. This is why "lye" employees-sales, marketing, or production people-have greater risks and rewards than "staff" employees-those in personnel, administration, auditing, et cetera. The message for the person changing jobs is clear: show how your past experience can contribute than employer's future profits, and the number of job interviews you get will increase dramatically. Always remember that businesses exist to make profits.
The Resume as a Marketing Tool
Two existing strategies can be adapted to help you, the serious job hunter, in your job search. One is used to market consumer products; the other is for getting writers published.
To switch jobs successfully you must remember that you are marketing a product and that the product is you. Look at this job more closely; we'll show you how consumer companies market their products to the public.
Product managers, whether they work for giants like Procter & Gamble, General Foods, or smaller companies like Hudson Pharmaceutical Corporation, all use the same five methods to market existing consumer products.
Marketing, an Existing Product-Five Steps
- Identify the current market competition for your product.
- See if the advertising and promotion budget allotted for your product is being well spent and how it is being spent.
- Ask yourself: To whom is this product marketed? Do you have the right audience for this product? How well targeted is your buyer? (Too sophisticated? not sophisticated enough?)
- Develop incentives for the sales force to promote your product more effectively.
- Check with manufacturing to see if the product is being competitively produced and priced. Maybe it's too costly compared to its competition. Should you repackage the product? If you keep the existing packaging, can it be less expensively produced?
1. IDENTIFY CURRENT MARKET COMPETITION. There is no accurate way to determine who will compete with you for a particular job. But one important assumption can be made. The job will be offered to the person who is best at getting that job (the person who did the best marketing, both on paper and at the interviews), not the person who necessarily has the best work qualifications for the job. Therefore, you must "out-market" your competition regardless of who they are, how many there are, or how well qualified they may be to perform the job. In the final analysis, what counts is whether or not you or someone else does the best selling job to the prospective employer.
2. PROMOTION BUDGET FOR YOUR PRODUCT. YOU don't need to spend a lot of money in order to switch jobs. Don't waste your dollars on expensive job counseling (although some job counseling may be valuable), resume preparation services, or professional typing or mailing services. Successful job hunting is based on personal effort expended, not dollars spent. You must ask yourself, "How much time have I really spent promoting my product?" As mentioned in chapter 3, men typically spend four hours a week looking for work; women, three. When you use the techniques described in this book, you will not only spend time more productively promoting yourself than 99 percent of all other job hunters; you will get results. These will be more job interviews granted and more job offers received. You'll be working smarter, not harder.
3. To WHOM IS THE PRODUCT MARKETED? The problem of determining who should receive your resume or action letter is not insurmountable. Our want-ad analysis technique, described in chapter 5, turns this problem into one of the strengths of your job campaign. Through systematic but simple analysis procedures, using the want-ad analysis forms, you can easily determine what kinds of jobs are being advertised and who's looking. This will greatly improve your ability to target your resume and action letters.
4. DEVELOP INCENTIVES FOR THE SALES FORCE TO PROMOTE YOUR PRODUCT. Your "sales force" will be personnel departments and other people who read your "product" literature (resume or letter) and who bring you in for an interview. If you're the person who can fill their job (contribute to profits), their lives are made a little easier. They can save time, effort, and money by not advertising again and not having to interview for weeks or months to select a candidate.
These readers need to know if you (1) are credible, (2) have a good, dependable "product," and (3) can solve their problems. Later in this chapter the P-A-R format and its use in your resume will show you how to achieve these goals.
CHECK WITH THE MANUFACTURER. Consumer products are never sold nationally until extensive test-marketing is done. This test-marketing should be done for the materials you use in your job campaign.
Do you know how to test-market your resume or action letter? Most people send out five to a hundred resumes, with cover letters, either in response to ads or as part of a mass effort to "cold-canvass" various employers. They receive negative responses or, worse, none at all. Conclusion ? "It's a bad job market." It's not the job market but the resumes or letters they use that are not making the sale.
Or the resume is often sent to the wrong person at an organization.
Insiders' Tip: If you're not certain to whom to send your resume (when cold-canvassing), send it to two or three different people within the same company who hold significant positions in areas that you wish to work in.
Most job hunters fail to be persistent enough. This relates directly to the second major strategy that can aid you in overcoming other ten-second story deficiencies.
Insiders' Tip: Before doing a mass mailing of your resume or action letter, ask friends and business associates whose opinions you respect (particularly if they hold higher-level positions than you do) to criticize your materials. Have them pretend to be the employer to whom you've sent your resume.
Benefits from a Writer's Experience
All professional writers, including free-lancers, follow five rules to get published. After you examine these rules, you will be able to apply them to switching jobs, in general, and in overcoming any of the deficiencies of the ten-second story in particular.
Five Rules for Success in Writing
- You must write.
- You must finish what you write.
- You must refrain from rewriting (until it's been field-tested).
- You must place what you write on the market.
- You must keep what you write on the market until you sell it.
Apply these rules to the job hunt and see how they work. The size of the work for the both reported by the federal government and those who work off the books, is approximately 100,000,000 people. At any one time, about 40 percent of this population is looking for m w jobs: 40,000,000 people.
Nine out of ten people who say they are serious about looking for a new job never really get around to doing a viable job campaign. Most are trying to elicit sympathy from friends and business associates. That leaves 4,000,000 people.
Only about one in ten of this 4,000,000 who begin to write their resumes and cover letters ever completely finish them. (By "completely," we mean in the proper format, typewritten and printed without error, on one side of a piece of paper, and one or two pages in length.) That leaves 400,000 people who are serious.
Of those people who do finish their resumes, 90 percent won't leave well enough alone. They will discuss their prospective job hunt with anyone within earshot and constantly redo their resumes and letters. They rewrite and polish and, most important, they will lose interest in sending them out. This brings the number to 40,000 serious job hunters at any one time: people who actually send their marketing pieces out in search of a new position in a consistent fashion.
So, off goes the resume in response to an ad or to cold-canvass a specific company. Forty to 60 percent of these 40,000 people will get the usual reply: "Thanks, but no thanks'" A flow of rejections hard to tolerate, particularly on a continuing basis. Sometimes a job hunter feels relieved when there is no response to the resume or letter. At least it wasn't a rejection notice (very painful to the ego).
The average job hunter stops sending out resumes after one or two months of rejections or after having several unproductive interviews. Many become so discouraged that they put away their resumes and letters and become resigned to making the best of their current position; doing so is commonly known as settling.
Experience shows that only a small handful of determined job seekers (and of these "determined" people many are unemployed and must find work) will continue to send out their letters and resumes (usually in response to ads). But ads represent only about 15 percent of available job openings. Our persistent job hunter is overlooking 85 percent of the positions really available. Yet this small handful will keep sending out their materials, as many times as necessary, until one "sells" (gets the interview).
For you will get some interviews. If your work history has any merit at all (almost everyone's does), and you keep trying, eventually someone will request to see you face-to-face. To get these interviews, it is necessary to be stubborn, to continue to keep your resumes on the market, lack of perseverance alone has probably eliminated 90 percent of the remaining job hunters.
These remaining survivors are spread over a wide range of job titles and levels. In actuality, the number of people who can compete and qualify for one particular job opening is probably less than four to five hundred nationwide. Geography is important too. Five hundred may qualify but only seventy-two of them may want to live in the part of the country where the job is located.
These figures are substantially accurate. In late 2000, Lloyd Feinstein was asked to recruit a senior level marketing and sales executive for one of Cadence's operating companies. The original ad is shown below.
PLANNING AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT EXECUTIVE
Fortune 1000, NYSE conglomerate seeks a top executive to develop corporate wide marketing and sales objectives, policies and programs. Play a key role in our continued growth by developing long- and short-range marketing and sales strategies which maximize impact on the "bottom line." Recommend new products and sources of distribution through development or acquisition. Reporting to the CEO, this highly visible position requires an aggressive, highly energetic degreed individual with extensive marketing, sales and P&L experience.
If your objectives include the opportunity to directly impact on an organization's growth and a competitive compensation package, send your resume including complete salary history to: Box M
SEASONED MARKETING/SALES PROFESSIONAL
Fortune 1000, NYSE corporation seeks an experienced "person" with entrepreneurial flair to develop marketing and sales (short- and long-range) in a consumer package goods environment. Reporting to the CEO, this position will play an active key role in our continued growth. Expertise in selling to various distribution channels required (independent retail, wholesaler, and mass merchandisers). Knowledge of new product introduction via acquisition or development a must. If your background includes a strong mix of sales, marketing and P&L,
This ad pulled 275 responses. What is fascinating is that 9 percent of the same candidates responded to both ads, but not one of them modified his resume or letter at all.
Resume Formats
In choosing a resume style, keep one important thought in mind. Regardless of your title or length of total employment, you must be able to demonstrate tangible results to the reader. To accomplish this, we suggest you use the P-A-R format .
How many types of business resumes are there, and what are their strengths and weaknesses?
If you have reviewed any of the vast literature on this subject, you have discovered there are really only three basic resume formats. They are the chronological resume, the functional resume, and a type that is a combination of chronological and functional.
Characteristics of Each Type of Resume"
Chronological
- Details work experience from most recent to beginning.
- Includes total work history and education.
Negative: If there are time gaps in your work history or if your jobs do not demonstrate increased responsibility and titles, it will be used against you.
Functional
Organized according to the functions of jobs held rather than by where they were held or for how long. Data relate only to the job you are aiming for. If it is constructed correctly, this format omits items irrelevant to your job hunt. Hard to prepare, favors those who can express themselves well.
Negative: Organizations presume you're "hiding" information if you don't list all employers, dates, and your titles.
Combination
Same as functional, except that employers and titles are also listed in reverse chronological order.
Format for Resumes
1. Your name and address should appear centered at the top or in the upper right-hand corner.
2. Your telephone number (under the address) should include the area code. Give your home number and, if possible, an office number, or a number where messages can be left for you. (Candidates have lost interviews because they could not be reached.) Leave off' your work number if you work in an open area.
3. Career objectives are not necessary; give them in your cover letter. When answering an ad, paraphrase illustrate description given in the ad in your cover letter and list the job title you're applying for.
4. The educational institutions you attended should be listed in reverse chronological order. List your dates of graduation. State your degree and major. Your grade point average is optional. Do not mention it if it is less than 3.0 to 4.0. Do not put your education first if you are forty or over; put it near the end. Interest the reader in your business successes. Even though it's illegal to discriminate on the basis of age, employers still do it, particularly to women .
5. List extracurricular activities and offices held in college, if significant.
6. If you have financed your education through part-time, summer, or full-time jobs, you should make note of it. Other financing such as scholarships, graduate assistantships, or savings should also be mentioned. Note: This is more important for those with limited business experience. For example, "Financed 75% of educational expenses through part-time jobs and scholarships."
7. Honors and awards received in college and graduate school should be listed.
8. Under a section entitled Business Experience, the positions you have held should be listed in reverse chronological order. Military service can be stated here or in a separate section. For each job, list the dates of employment, the company, the location (city and state are sufficient), position title, and results. For summer positions, a title of "intern" is fine.
9. Additional information: personal data such as height, weight, date of birth, marital status, or health are no longer necessary. If your name and where you were educated might cause some confusion as to your visa status, indicate your country of citizenship. If you are willing to relocate, say so at the conclusion of your resume. If you have a security clearance, list it.
10. Languages in which you are fluent can be listed under personal data or within a separate section, especially if you know several. Indicate your level of expertise such as "fluency" or "working knowledge." Languages are important if you are seeking a position in international business or banking.
11. Special skills or courses such as computer languages and business courses are important additions to your resume. If you were liberal arts major, do not list your courses unless you took statistics, other math, or business courses. No one at Bank of America will care that you turned two of Henry James's novels into iambic pentameter.
12. Relevant certifications such as C.P.A. or C.F.A. should be included and highlighted (if they are appropriate to the position for which you are applying).
13. Publications/papers you have published can be listed on your resume under a separate section, but doing this is recommended only if the material is related to the business opportunity you seek. Or make an addendum sheet for them and use it judiciously.
14. Listing special interests is optional, but it does provide information for discussion on a common, non work meeting ground and it serves as an ice-breaker for in interview. If you have room, list a few, but no more than four. You don't want to convey the impression that you prefer playing to working.
15. Do not list references on your resume. A statement such as "References will be furnished-upon request" is sufficient.
A Resume Is Much More than a Fact Sheet
Your resume is a significant statement about how you view yourself. The entire resume presentation describes you to the reader and it should clearly state:
" I'm a good organizer (or well organized).
" I'm a clear and logical thinker.
" I'm efficient.
" I've had significant accomplishments at my jobs and in volunteer organizations (ask a business associate if you have doubts).
" I'd be perfect for the job at your organization, and I WANT IT!
Your resume is not a summary of your total experience. Instead, it should focus on your qualifications for a specific career opportunity. If you have very few objections or none to overcome in your background and work experience, the preferred resume format is chronological. If you need to overcome any important negatives, such as being out of the work force for several years, then the functional or combined resume is the format of choice.
A RESUME Is A SELLING DOCUMENT. It is your first contact with the prospective employer and it must indicate what you can do for his/her firm. What you will do in the future is reflected n what you have achieved and accomplished in the past. The discipline required to collect, analyze, and prepare the data for the resume is not only useful for seeking employment, but gives you the opportunity for self-evaluation. As a result of thoughtful preparation of your resume, you will be able to interview more effectively by having this information at your fingertips.
EFFECTIVE RESUMES ARE WRITTEN BY PEOPLE WHO KNOW THEIR MARKET. A good resume should tell just enough about you to make the employer think that your skills, experience, and potential make you an excellent candidate for a position within their firm. It should be concise, organized, and readable, an outline of your past experiences. Use the want-ad analysis to find out what skills are important to the industry or area of employment in which you are interested and slant your resume accordingly. Company representatives are looking for potential demonstrated through your excellence, leadership, competitiveness, and initiative. They also look for evidence of basic skills such as problem solving, oral and written communication, and management experience.
You CAN OVERCOME LIMITED BUSINESS EXPERIENCE. If you have a limited amount of business experience that is related to the job you are seeking, emphasize your educational background. In addition to the information concerning the colleges you attended, dates of graduation, and majors, include in the appropriate areas of your resume academic achievements, offices held in student government or organizations, internships, part-time jobs, volunteer work, and community activities. The focus of your resume should be on what you initiated, were responsible for, and achieved.
THE IMPORTANCE OF EMPHASIZING RELATED BUSINESS EXPERIENCE: If you have related work-experience, college activities will be less important. Gear the job description toward the positioning it. For instance, if you were the manager of an art gallery and are always interested in a financial analyst position, emphasize the financial responsibilities involved in that position. Always discuss the managerial or supervisory functions in your past positions and give the number of people who reported to you.
THE WORDING OF YOUR RESUME IS IMPORTANT. Use clear, concise, simple language. Company representatives do not have time to read thoroughly the large number of resumes they receive. Write and rewrite your resume, trimming your wording until it projects, in as few words as possible, a clear positive image of you. Pertinent facts and skills should be highlighted and not buried in wordy narrative statements. The pronoun / is implicit and therefore not necessary. Focus on action words rather than job descriptions.
DON'T CROWD YOUR RESUME WITH TOO MUCH INFORMATION. Your resume must follow certain standards to be successful. It must be neat and typed in an easy-to-read typeface (no script typefaces, please). There must be enough white space at the margins and between topics so that it doesn't look like a tremendous amount to read. It's better to have two pages with enough white space than one that's cramped. However, never do more than a two-page resume. Avoid long, rambling paragraphs. Make them relatively short and to the point. Resumes are supposed to meet the interest of the employers, not satiate it.
Your approach should be accurate and professional. Most important, your resume must demonstrate your accomplishments, not just give a job description. A job description states only what you were hired to and doesn't say anything about how you performed.
THE RESUME IS A REFLECTION OF YOU. The average resume has about 10 to 15 seconds to make an impression, either positive or negative, on the employer. It is, therefore, important that your resume is neat. It should be typed on a clean, new typewriter.
Proofread your resume carefully and have another person proofread it as well. Check for misspelled words, grammatical and typographical errors. Your resume should be offset on good-quality bond paper. Be sure that your resume is 100 percent accurate before you leave the copy center. You are paying, for perfection, so demand it.
If you are well known in your local community or have won awards for meritorious service, list them (but make the list short-it shouldn't dilute your work accomplishments).
If you belong to professional associations connected with your work, list them. And list any significant offices held in them.
(If you went through school on scholarship, say so. If you financed 60 percent or all of your own schooling, say so. Companies look for a "constellation of characteristics," not only work experience, in employees.)
Don't list all your part-time and summer jobs. No employer really cares if you were the best waiter at the Hyatt-Regency or a governess on Cape Cod. Just say, "Financed 47 percent of own education through part-time and summer employment...."
If you are now enrolled in a part-time M.B.A. or other relevant graduate program, list several courses that are related to the job you seek. If you are an M.B.A. or have other graduate degrees, list three or four courses that would be of specific interest to a new employer.
What Not to Do
1. Do not list your marketing courses if you are applying for an accounting position.
2. Do not give reasons for leaving past positions on your resume; they will be interpreted as defensive. Mention leaving only if you were employed at a place for a year or less and the firm has since folded.
3. Never mention salary in your resume or in your cover letter. When ad in newspapers state "Only resumes with complete salary history will be considered," write back in your cover letter, "My salary is competitive" If the ad doesn't tell you their salary, don't tell them yours. If your resume intrigues the company, believe us, they'll contact you! Have dignity. Many firms put ads in the paper without stating the salary, knowing full well that most women earn less than men and that they can hire men or women who are equally qualified but get a woman for less money. So, no salary discussion.
4. Never name your references on your resume. You don't want your references contacted by people who may have no intention of hiring you anyway. Save references for when it counts. And make certain that all your references have agreed in advance to help you and will give you excellent reviews when called. Don't have someone surprised by a reference call when you haven't talked to them in four years.
5. Do not name your superiors. You can say, "Report to the corporate controller or the VP of Marketing" (but never name him or her).
6. If there is a gap of several months on your resume, do not list your jobs by months. Use years instead (1976-1979, 1982 to present; not October 1976 to September 1979, February 1982 to present).
7. Never have any statements on your resume that an interviewer may interpret as negative. See inclusive list later on in this chapter.
CONFLICTING PHILOSOPHIES
To Use or Not Use the Resume in Your Job Search
There are several schools of thought regarding resumes. The conventional wisdom, reinforced daily by the want ads, says, "Only candidates submitting a detailed resume and salary history will be considered." In other words, in order to get their job, you must use a resume. It is implied that a resume, usually written in chronological format, must be used for all of your job search: to answer ads, to send out inquiries directly to employers, and during the interview process.
This is probably the most widespread and popular theory.
The Resume as the Basis of Your Job Search: The Traditional Approach
With an accompanying cover letter, your resume is
1. sent directly to employers (cold canvass),
2. sent in response to help-wanted advertisements.
3. Your resume reflects your past work history.
4. Your resume reflects your responsibilities and results.
5. Your resume reflects your progression (or lack of progress) in salary via job titles ( :r lack of them).
A second philosophy forgoes the use of the resume entirely. Instead, this non-resume approach relies solely on the use of an action letter. Here the resume is relegated to the position of being a reference tool. This reference resume is not used to answer ads or contact employers, or during the interview process. The letter approach has been gaining a larger audience in recent years on the strength of the advancing technology of office equipment, particularly automated typewriters that can type individual "original" letters quickly.
The Resume as a Reference Source: A Non-Traditional Approach
This is the non-resume approach to job hunting.
1. Never send out a resume nor bring one to an interview.
2. Use one to construct action letters.
3. Use one to analyze your work experience.
4. Use one as preparation for the job interview.
5. This approach results in an improved self-image and greater self-esteem.
The Reference Resume, with Examples
The key component in this combination job-search method is to create a reference resume that encompasses every aspect of your past vocational and a vocational experience, including education, work experience (paid and unpaid), community work, and interests.
This all-inclusive resume, done in P-A-R format, then becomes your reference source from which specialized action letters and resumes can be developed. Under no circumstances is this reference resume ever sent: TO a prospective employer. Instead, pertinent sections of it are used to create your marketing tools (action letter and each new resume). These newly created materials are sent to prospective employers. In this way, you are assured that your selected marketing approach addresses the employer's specific needs you did. Do your want-ad analysis, didn't you?
This method presents you is a specialized one, ready to solve a particular employer's problems. It also eliminates extraneous information, which employers often use as the reason for not granting interviews.
When creating your reference resume in P-A-R format, you should use action words to describe the "action" portion of your P-A-R experience. Each sentence should begin with an action verb, if possible. To assist you in this step, consult the list of action words below. There are many others, but this will give you a head start.
Why Hire You?
What do employers want in the applicants they eventually hire and how can you assist employers in this area?
If you are at all familiar with employment advertisements and have followed them for any time, you're probably aware that employers advertise for the "perfect" or super perfect candidate. However, perfection rarely exists, and employers settle for less than what they say they want. Nevertheless, the closer you appear to fit an employer's job description, the better prospects you have of being granted an interview.
When employers place an ad, they attempt to accomplish specific objectives. They want to hire the best possible person at the lowest starting salary they can get away with, compatible with their internal wage and salary structure. Why? The longer it takes to recruit for and fill a position, the more expensive it becomes for any organization. These costs include reduced productivity, lost sales, morale loss in the department, a growing backlog of work in the affected area, lost growth opportunities because the position has been vacant a long time, etc. In a nutshell: LOST PROFITS. Therefore, if the response you mail to an advertisement even partially convinces an employer that your experience and background could help restore their balance, you will be requested to interview! To do this effectively and consistently you must show tangible results in your work background.
Answering the Question "What Have You Accomplished"?
Employers are interested first and foremost in how you can make a contribution to the organization's bottom line: its profits. This can be done in many ways. You don't have to make a contribution to profits in the way a sales representative would make them. You could do it through a reduction in costs, an improved public relations program, a new product or service idea, creative use of existing resources, better control of personnel costs, reduced inventory, improvement in employee morale or employee turnover. The list is almost endless.
The important point here is that, whether you are in a line or a staff job, you should and do contribute to an organization's bottom line in some way. Your ability to demonstrate these contributions to the bottom line must be evident in your marketing tools. You must show results, not just a job description of what you were hired to do.
What are considered tangible results? They vary greatly from job to job and organization to organization. Generally, however, they are a contribution to the bottom line expressed in a carefully quantified format. The various contributions listed above, when quantified, are tangible results.
Instant Credibility: P-A-R
Relying solely on tangible results is not enough. If you briefly review the P-A-R format discussed in chapter 3, you will see that the "Action" and "Result" parts have then limitations. Though to the reader these two parts demonstrate tangible results clearly, the) share one major weakness. They could be fabrications. The hiring employer has no way of verifying your claims to greatness, particularly at your present job. After all, a prospective employer probably doesn't know you personally. Why should you be believed? This creates a major hurdle for all job seekers. How do you make yourself credible?
Happily, the solution to the credibility issue is strict adherence to the "Problem" section of the P-A-R format. By defining the specific problems you were hired to solve (the "P" part of the format), you create instant credibility. This allows prospective employers to compare the problems in their organization with the problems you handled in your work. If the description of your work experience is well written, an employer will see the similarity of their own problems to the problems you solved. You may be the person for their current vacancy. To make certain, you will be asked in to interview.
The credibility gained through discussion of problems you solved also overcomes a common myth associated with job hunting: "Only a detailed resume with complete salary history will be considered" (to get the job interview). Logic and extensive experience in the area of obtaining jobs for people have convinced us to the contrary. Employers will ask to interview an applicant who submitted application letter because the applicant's discussion of the problems solved created credibility. This will happen regardless of the fact that the applicant did not submit a resume and that the salary history was omitted. Note: Some employers will ask you to submit a resume or bring one with you to the interview. Since both a resume and salary information can be obtained before or during the job interview, no credible candidate will be overlooked.
Premium Products Command Higher Prices
Has anyone ever offered you an expensive item such as a watch, camera, piece of electronic equipment, car or mink coat at a ridiculously low price? If so, wasn't your gut response to ask "What is wrong with it?" After all, if an item that should be expensive is cheap, there must be something wrong with it. Right? Well, this type of reaction occurs when you, a highly qualified candidate, put too low a value (price) on your experience.
Remember that you have spent a great deal of time and effort to develop your P-A-R paragraphs, which were then incorporated into your marketing materials (resume and action letter). These marketing materials will insure that you get more interviews and job offers because: they give you instant credibility; you can go into any interview as an equal, not hoping for charity and looking for a handout; they present you as a premium product.
How you handle the salary issue is critical to your successful job search. So as not to cheapen the quality of the product you are attempting to market, avoid mentioning salary. Let the reader of your letter conclude your worth to their organization. Just to show that you didn't forget to address this important aspect, however, always use the phrase (in writing) "My salary requirements are competitive." The time to discuss salary is after you have made a "sale" with the organization. If necessary delay the salary discussion by stating, "It's more important to establish a possible fit on both sides, including a detailed discussion of job responsibilities and career growth, than to cover the issue of salary right now." However, if you suspect the salary is less than what you are earning you can question the salary range when you are called for an interview. Our experience has shown that hiring organizations often place a higher value on your experience than you do (sound familiar?). Convinced of this strategy, of not divulging salary, an assistant office manager was counseled to let the prospective employer make the initial dollar offer. It turned out to be $2,500 higher than what the candidate had targeted! If, however, you are pushed into a discussion of salary, always state the range in which you are looking. Example: "I've been interviewing for positions that pay between twenty-two and twenty-eight thousand." This tells the interviewer very clearly that you're earning $17,000 to $20,000, won't accept less than $22,000, and probably want more and that you'll negotiate.
In summary, the point should be clear. You are a quality product, so charge what the traffic will bear. Use your want-ad analysis to establish the salary range for any job in which you're interested, or supplement this data by speaking with colleagues who may know the going rates. Contact local employment agencies or search firms in your area.
Overcoming also the weaknesses in Your Background
Successful salespeople will tell you that their career growth has been directly influenced by their ability to overcome objections raised by customers. This is also true of the job search: to be successful, you must present (market) yourself to overcome the objections of the reader of your resume (the employer). To aid in overcoming objections, we have listed a description of the problems many people confront when attempting to switch jobs. Alongside each are suggested ways in which these objections (usually the employer's) can be successfully overcome.
Summary
Many of us have had either good or bad experiences in the past with resumes. Although we will play an important role to play in the job search process. The fact remains that most personnel recruiters and line managers expect to review an applicant's background and work experience in a format that they are comfortable with. This format is still the traditional resume. Therefore, it is in your own interest that you become knowledgeable in its varieties and development so you can put your best foot forward.
Like many of the concepts presented in this book, they build upon each other in order to create a system of job hunting that is stronger than the sum of its parts. Therefore, always be sure to use the P-A-R format in constructing your resume. In our next chapter, "The Want-Ad Analysis Technique," we will continue this building process by showing you how to choose those parts of your background and work experience that will maximize your chances for getting interviews and subsequent job offers.
