3 Questions Your Résumé Must Answer

Would this ”Objective” opening grab your attention and make you excited to read the rest of my résumé?

“Seeking a management level role that will let me use my acquired skills and talents in mentoring, leadership and work unit reorganization to help a forward-looking company improve its efficiency and enable me to energize my career.”

This opening commits several fundamental mistakes:

1. It’s written in first person, essay format:  “… let me use my …”
2. It takes too long to get to the point:  “Seeking a management level role that will let me use my acquired skills and talents in” adds nothing of interest to a hiring manager.
3. It’s results-poor:  The only results-oriented statement is the very general “improve its efficiency.”
4. The biggest error: The message is about what this person wants instead of on what’s important to the hiring manager. I’m not hiring you to solve YOUR problems, I’m only interested in you if you can solve MY problems!

When writing your résumé, you need to put yourself in the hiring manager’s shoes.  If I’m the hiring manager, to grab my attention you need to concentrate on answering these 3  questions:

1. Does the résumé have a strong professional image?
2. Does it pass the 10 second test?
3. Does it prove you will deliver?

Read this for more on creating a powerful resume.

Then move on to the 1st question.