Your Résumé: Some General Thoughtsby Marjorie Dorfman | More from this Blogger 11 Oct 2006 09:10 AM Whatever you may think of your résumé, its goal is to make you look necessary to a potential employer. How do you do that, you may scream. Well, here are some thoughts on the matter. Make your résumé look different from the multitude of others that will cross a potential employer's desk. Don't go too far by being inappropriate, like printing your job history on yellow or orange neon paper, for example. Do, however, consider emphasizing those skills that an employer might be most interested in, even if there is no position immediately available. Your résumé serves as your market place. Don't ever forget that. Consider yourself a glossy eggplant or fancy silk ensemble or even a prize stallion, if you wish. The point is you are a commodity. The fact that you are a human being is completely beside the point. It is important to realize that you have about ten seconds to capture the attention of a potential employer. That, believe it or not, is the average attention span a résumé gets. Remember that even when you are not there selling yourself, your résumé speaks for you. Although it is no master of ventriloquism, your résumé, nevertheless, has a big mouth and speaks behind your back every time a manager may want to discuss you with some else. A résumé can help guide an interview. Like a beacon on a dark night, highlighted areas cannot help but force the reader to ask about them. If you play down certain things, you greatly reduce your chances of having the interview center on these areas. Emphasize those tasks you have done well, enjoyed doing and would like to do again. (Leave out shoving your in-laws down the stairs last holiday season. That's for another time and place.) Emphasize those areas that make you more marketable and will set you apart from other candidates. In short, to thine own résumé be true. Good luck! Related Reading: "What Are Hard and Soft Skills?" http://forums.families.com/jobs,f122 Learn more about Marjorie Dorfman  Marjorie Dorfman is a freelance writer and former teacher originally from Brooklyn, New York. Relevantemployment tags User Comments No comments on this article yet. Be the first to comment! Community Tags employer, interview, job application, résume, résumé Discuss this article
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