Knock Them Dead Resumes

What is a resume? Many resume professionals, employers, teachers, and applicants will quickly bombard you with many a bias answer, depending on what each personally wants to believe. Some say a resume is a summary of a person’s background, or experience, or education, or training, or skills, or strengths, or goals, or -- well, you get the general idea. Others talk of advertising oneself, selling a product (YOU!), or merely a necessary evil of the current business world that you just can’t get around. Of course, all these points have merit. But above and beyond all these things that definitely matter, a resume is an aggravation. Not only is it an annoyance to the person writing one for the first time, but it will continue to plague busy minds throughout the working life. The resume is a business-like document which takes the entire professional life (which includes times spent in educational institutions like high school and college or volunteer time) and reduces it to a written page or two! Sad as that may sound, most employers are asking for these painful biographies; and, in fact, they are demanding them.