5 Things Your Résumé Is Not

5 Things Your Rsum Is Not5 Things Your Rsum Is NotYou know you need arsumin order to get a job. But have you taken the time to step back from thersum-writing process to ask yourself what arsumis and isnt? Fundamentally, it is important to recognize that yourrsumis your marketing document. Its purpose is to garner enough interest in you to get an employer to think This person may well have the capacity to do the workassociated with the job that needs to be filled. And once an employer has reviewed yourrsumand initiated contact with you for a phone or in-person interview, it has successfully fulfilled its purpose. When you speak with recruiters or others who regularly reviewrsums, youll learn that the vast majority of people have ill-conceived elendions of what makes arsumcompelling. To help you evaluate yourrsumin terms of todays best practices, bear in mind all the things that arsumis not1. Yourrsumis not your autobiography. It is not the story of your whole life. It is a business document that should not include a picture of yourself or personal information about your marital status, children, sexual identity or age. Your political leanings and religious beliefs or affiliations should only be included if they are relevant to the particular job for which you seek consideration. You need not include every job you ever had or everything you ever did or were responsible for at those jobs.Typically, you dont need to go back more than 10 to 15 years on arsumand should make a logical cutoff depending on your work history. While everything you claim on yourrsummust be accurate, there isno rule thatsays it has to be all-inclusive.You can simply state under you earliest listed job Details of prior employment history are available upon request.2. Yourrsumis not a list of your job descriptions and responsibilities. Perhaps the most commonrsummistake is making it therecord of the things you were supposed to doin your various roles without including how you went about fulfilling those responsibilities or what results you achieved.3. Yourrsumis not about your aspirations.Put simply, employers wont be impressed to read that they hold the key to the job of your dreams. On the other hand, they will be impressed when you show them how and why you are the candidate of their dreams. Employers care about what you have to offer and the value you can contribute to the company you seek to join. Thats why objective statements are out and personal branding statements are in at the top of well-craftedrsums.4. Yourrsumis not an employment application. What? Of course, it is you exclaim. Its how I tell an employer that I want to be considered for a job. You wonder why it isnt an application. Many companies will have their own application forms that candidates fill out at or around the time of their first in-person interview. By signing the document, you often consent to background or other checks and attest that all the information you give about prior employ ment and anything else on the form is truthful. You thereby acknowledge that if unfavorable information is revealed, or if the employer discovers that any information you provide is untruthful, you may be immediately excluded from further consideration, or fired if you have already begun to work at the company. Yourrsummay be fairly considered as the grounds for which you seek to be considered. As such, everything you include in it must be entirely accurate. But it doesnt constitute in and of itself a formal job applicationdocument.5. Yourrsumis not a list of your actions. A functionalrsumfocuses on your skills and experience, rather than on your chronological work history, writes Alison Doyle, job search expert for About.com. The problem with this kind of format, however, is that it muddles what you did, where you did it and when you did it. That makes it difficult for decision-makers to determine your overall career development. Moreover, because people who are fighting age dis crimination or returning to the workforce after an extended absence often favor this format, it raises a red flag about what you are trying to mask by not giving a simple, straightforward, chronological story. Yourrsumis ultimately your unique story of professional experience including challenges, what you did and what you attained. It tells the story of a discrete set of work activities, the skills youve attained and theeducation and credentials that enable you to perform as a valued employee. When you choose relevant facts to include and weave them together in a way that shows youre the answer to an employers needs, youll stimulate interest in what you have to offer. At that point, youll most likely get that all-important invitation to begin a dialogue. Happy huntingArnie Fertig, MPA, is passionate about helping hisJobhuntercoachclients advance their careers by transforming frantic Ill apply to anything searches into focused hunts for great fit opportunities. He brings t o each client the extensive knowledge he gained when working in HR staffing and managing his boutique recruiting firm.