Article 4

One of the worst mistakes I ever made was mass-mailing a couple of dozen resumes
with the same stupid and obvious misspelling on them. I may as well have saved
myself the price of a stamp and tossed them straight in the trash. Just using a second
set of eyes reviewing what I had would have saved all that wasted time, wasted ink,
wasted paper, and wasted stamps. Instead of my resume finding the trash bin, it could
have been sitting on an executive's desk and all it would have taken is an experienced
fresh set of eyes who would have easily caught the mistake in a couple of seconds.

While getting all the details sorted out into a resume can be a bit time consuming and
the technical perfection expected in a resume in terms of spelling, making sure
everything lines up exactly right, etc. can be a very daunting task. However, it must be
remembered that your resume or application is your only chance at getting a job
through the normal job application process. Therefore, the resume needs to be the
most technically perfect document that you can possibly produce. When a Human
Resources professional has a stack of resumes for a single position, it's not
uncommon for them to take the ones with gross misspellings or errors and toss them
directly in the trash. And why shouldn't they? They have a hundred or more applicants
to get through, why not get rid of the ones who can't even present themselves well on
the piece of paper which is giving them their only chance to get a job?

Plenty of books, web articles, and other advice is available for resume writing. There
are even courses available on the subject. But for those who need to put their best foot
forward and maximize their chances of getting a great job, it may be advisable to seek
out the assistance of a professional, even if it's just as a second set of eyes.

OJNJ's rule for resumes: Every time you do a resume, make it perfect!

In order to ensure your resume is looking its best, you can seek out the assistance of
friends and relatives who may be willing to look it over. However, they aren't always the
most detail-oriented people and they aren't likely to have much experience with resume
buzz-words and styles that can really make your particular situation, experience and
abilities stand out. For this, you need a professional resume writer who can work with
you to help you present yourself in the best possible way. In doing so, the skills you
learn, and the resume you create can be used well into the future. It's a small price to
pay for the job of your dreams.

By hiring another person to help with the task, it reduces stress even farther and allows
you to work on what should be most important: finding the jobs that you most want to
apply to with the knowledge that a great resume is going to be ready and waiting for
you to send, and that it will catch attention and be read.

OJNJ is now offering a resume service. You can learn more about it here (link).

Continue to the next page to learn more rules and ideas about resumes.