Prime Resume´ Real Estate
A resume is an outline, not a detailed narrative. It’s purpose is to persuade the reader that you should be invited to an interview. There are a number of resume formats that are acceptable and sometimes a nontraditional approach may work, although most hiring managers don’t have time or patience for over-the-top attempts to gain attention. You should aim for a direct and easy to read document that will get to the point quickly. Remember you may only have a few seconds to pique the interest of the reader. 
Critical information should be laid out clearly and in a format that will give the big picture of who you are as succinctly as possibly. The optimal place to do this is right under your name and contact information header. You might consider that area as prime property that can be developed into the Boardwalk.
Unfortunately many resume writers treat that space more like Baltic Avenue and then wonder why they aren’t getting much income from it. You’re on Baltic Avenue if you have a Job Objective section occupying that corner. What a waste of prime real estate that is! Who cares what your job objective is but you? Obviously, you are applying for a specific job in a specific company. Hopefully your employment objective and that position opening are a potential match or you wouldn’t even be applying, so why waste valuable space and the hiring manager’s valuable time with that useless information?
You want to put your hotel on the Boardwalk! That is what you will be doing if you insert a Profile Summary as the first section of your resume. This lead-in statement serves as an executive summary and should be designed to capture the reader’s immediate attention. This section will tell the reader about your key qualifications without the need to abstract them from your resume.
The advantages of using a well-honed profile paragraph are that it provides the reader with a quick overview of your unique assets and that it allows you to bring key elements from your past to the top of the resume.
There are four elements you can include in the Profile Summary:
- Who you are as a professional
- Your key areas of competence
- Your greatest strengths
- General statement of your accomplishments
OK. This all sounds good, but how do you get it on paper? Some of us just draw a blank when it comes to describing ourselves. That’s where you may need to do a little introspection or even get help pulling those words out. If you get stuck contact us. We can help you develop a Profile Summary or an entire resume so that you can PASS GO AND COLLECT YOUR $200.
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