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Your Resume: Tips for Surviving Weed Out
Envision this: A gardener faces a huge, weedy flower bed in August. There are some great, healthy plants in full
bloom. But they are surrounded by hundreds of weeds. The boss wants everything cleared out except the healthy
specimens. As he pulls out the crabgrass, dandelions, and wild onions, the gardener soon realizes that there are a lot of other plants and he's
not sure what to do with them. Some even have buds, or attractive foliage, but weeds can be deceptive, so, he opts
to pull out anything that isn't clearly robust and blooming.
Is your resume in bloom or looking suspiciously like a weed? Here are some tips to help your resume survive the
massive weeding-out process that occurs every day in companies and organizations.
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Identify the companies you have worked for with a descriptive phrase that will give the reader a sense of what the
company does. Such information is like a bloom on plant, it's not only appealing, it's an identifier of who you, as a job
applicant, are. For example, if you worked at Smith Office Products, what would a reader know? But if you include a
descriptive sentence, such as "Smith Office Products, a $57 million high-end supplier of specialized office furniture to
100-plus IT companies," will instantly give your time-pressed screener a better understanding of the relevance of your job
experience.
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Other aspects of your resume need splashes of color. This is what keeps the reader interested. You get that by
packing your resume – your experience, education, success in the field – with information relevant to the job's
requirements. Pore over the vacancy announcement, the classified advertisement, or better yet, the job description
itself (which many companies make available to applicants through their websites) and highlight the skills, duties, and
knowledge that are listed. Does the existing language on your resume match the terms and phrases used in the want
ad or job description? If it does, you are putting much-needed color in your resume, and stand a better chance of
surviving the weed out.
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Remember the process. First, resumes get a glance, and then they are pitched out or set aside. Then, resumes in the
set-aside pile are skimmed. The set-aside pile gets smaller and the trashcan gets more crowded. Finally, things get
serious and resumes are read with a little more attention. You have to give the screener a reason to not toss out your resume.
- But wait, you say, I simply can't ethically match what they are looking for and what I have to offer, yet I know I have
the experience it takes to do the job. All's not lost. This is where your cover letter becomes more important than ever
because it provides you with a platform to address your worthiness as a transitional candidate. An example of this for
someone with not-quite-the national sales experience stated as a prerequisite could be:
"With my combined experience
and track record of increasing local advertising among my accounts more than 50 percent, I am ready to move into
national sales. I have been studying national sales trends, and feel that many of the techniques I used to increase
revenue would readily translate to increasing your company's national sales." Use your cover letter to show how you
have been preparing yourself for a transition, and how the experience you already possess will serve you well in the job
you are aiming for.
Remember, your resume is residing in a plot packed with other beautiful specimens, and a lot of weeds. It needs to
stand out with language and formatting that says to the screener, "Keep me! I am definitely what the boss wanted!"
Return to the Resume Writing Tips home page.
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