The Resume You Need To Write - Part 2

April 10, 2012

Interview with Quentin J. Schultze, author of the book Resume 101: A Student and Recent-Grad Guide to Crafting Resumes and Cover Letters that Land Jobs

________________

Mike Carruthers:
When you’re looking for a new job it’s important to understand the real purpose of your resume.

Quentin J. Schultze:
Resumes are critically important for getting interviews. Resumes don’t themselves usually get jobs.
 

Quentin Schultze, author of the book Resume 101, believes you have to customize your resume for each and every company you’re applying to.

One of the things I recommended is to look at the organization, its website some of the key words that it uses to describe itself and its mission and its purpose and try to reflect some of that language in the resume.

Quentin says the number 1 reason people don’t get called in for an interview after they’ve sent in resume and cover letter is…

Because the cover letter doesn’t show any evidence that the applicant has actually done due diligence in looking at the organization that they’re applying for – so it just seems like the person is sending out mass resumes.

And your cover letter must contain 5 things if you want to be considered for any job.

1 clear statement about what you’re applying for, 2 indication where you heard about the position, 3rd a statement about why you’re interested in the position, 4th explanations as to why you think you’re qualified and that’s going to be kind of a summary of what’s in the resume using the key words that the organization uses in their job description. And finally indication that you know something significant about the organization and you’re not just mass mailing resumes and cover letters – if you’ve got all 5 of those you’ve got a winner.

To hear the complete unedited interview, click here.