ResuMaestro Résumé Service

Your resume demonstrates the value that you bring to employers.  Regardless of how slick, professional, or intriguing it seems, if the employer is not buying what you are selling, the resume may not be effective.  We see value as having four main components:

1. your skills and talents

2. the needs of the employer

3. your ability to apply your skills to the employers needs

4. your ability to communicate all of the above.

You philosophy majors may note that the above is based on Aristotle’s principles of rhetoric, which is deliberate, because your resume is essentially an argument, not necessarily for hiring you, but for getting you in the door.  It is, essentially what marketeers call your “value proposition.” Let’s look briefly on on each peg of your argument.

1. Skills and abilities. This is the most basic, component, the one most people think of when they think of the resume, do you have the stuff. If you are keeping score – this maps to Aristotle’s logos component: does the resume make sense?

2. Employer’s needs. Unless you have talked to the employer, all you really have to go on is what is in the job description, so you should be sure minimally that you resume maps to to that.  Beyond that, you can research job descriptions in Department of Labor resources such as O*Net or the Occupational Outlook Handbook. These will give you very detailed descriptions of the tasks required for most major occupations, and the skills and abilities necessary to perform them, from creative thinking requirements to finger movements.  I see this as analogous to Aristotle’s pathos concept: Is your experience important to the employer?

3. Your ability to deliver. Even when there is match between what you are offering and the employers needs. The resume must still show that you are the right person — that you have the right level of experience, that you will show up on time, that you are actually committed to taking the job, and keeping it. You communicate through a variety of aspects on the resume, everything from accuracy and continuity of your history to your hobbies.  This relates to Aristotle’s ethos: Are you credible?

4. Can you communicate all of the above. And finally, if you truly are the right person for the job, how do you make sure that the employer knows that.  If you can just get in the door, you probably can sell with your charm, but the resume has got to get you there. The cover letter gives you another opportunity to communicate, but the resume has to back you up.  This is the part where style, design, clarity, and all that good stuff come into play.  Looking back to Aristotle, early accounts showed that he only had three principles of persuasion, ethos, pathos, and logos, and the latter was sometimes presented as lexis.  Other scholars have pointed out the distinction between “what you say,” logos and “how you say it,”  lexis, we use the latter distinction here.

ResuMaestro’s completeness principle is that all four of the above components are essential for a winning resume.

ResuMaestro’s strategic principle is that if you are deficient or lacking on any of the above, you compensate through the others.  If your work history is spotty, you play up some of the other components of your experience. Earlier we implied that a hot looking resume won’t do you much good if your experience doesn’t match the job. But, to take an extreme example, let’s say that you are confident that you can do the work if only given the chance, all you have is style to go on, and all we can do is hope that a hot resume — maybe supplemented by a good cover letter and some personal contacts — will get you in the door.

One side benefit of looking at your resume as a compendium of the value you bring to the market, is that it becomes a kind of inventory of what you have, and a good guide to helping you decide what to add.  So even if you are not right now looking for a job, building your resume is a first step to building your career.

In What Color is your Parachute, Richard Bolles tells career planners to start by writing the obituary they would like to appear upon their death. That is a bit extreme, but certainly writing the resume you want to have in five or ten years could be help you visualize and realize your career track. Of course don’t use that version unless you actually get the jobs or education that you put on there.