"A resume is used to screen you out." Common knowledge, according to my sources. So why do we put all that effort into our resumes? We send so many copies out into the world in hopes that--with what? some fairy dust?--one of them will make it into the hands of our dream employer.
I once tested the advice given by What Color Is Your Parachute? author Dick Bolles, and saw how far I could get without a resume. I replied to an ad for a radio sales representative. The ad said, "Resume required." I sent a letter instead. I mentioned three or four things the position required, and the corresponding ways I’d proved--on other jobs--I had those skills. I got an interview and was hired.
I sucked at radio sales, but that's another story.
I didn't let a resume screen me out because I didn't send one. The interviewer seemed enchanted by my letter, and a little annoyed with himself for that! "Is this a resume," he asked, "or a resume substitute?"
But hey, it worked.
Subscribe to this comment's feed