The Toronto Star

The Toronto Star - Business Section/Front Page - June 3, 1998

Selling Yourself The Write Way - How To Sharpen Your Resume - Smart Money: Job Hunt

Resumes are Portraits of the Self in Prose - By: Lisa Wright, Business Reporter

You see an ad for the job of your dreams. What do you do? If you think you can simply dust off the old resume and toss it in the mailbox, then it's time to clean up your act when it comes to selling yourself, employment experts say. Remember that a resume is not just a summary of your education and employment record for the purposes of applying for a position. Think of your resume as a portrait of yourself in prose -- but stick to the facts and don't get sappy about the product or the company for which you'd like to work.

"Your resume is intended to be a verbal picture of you, designed both to give an employer your factual data and to create and leave a favourable impression," says Michael Ross, Executive Career Consultant with Resume Consultants Ltd., in Toronto. "It connects you, the prospective employee, with the employer, so it must be written in a language commonly understood by both," he says. To that end, your resume should not be static or formulaic. You should be able to tailor the document to each position for which you're applying. It might mean several drafts or completely starting over with what you thought was a perfectly functional piece of paper. "It's common sense," he says. "If someone just adds to their resume like they're building a model train, they're not going to be ready when the true career opportunity surfaces."

With that in mind, the cover letter should be one page long and the resume a maximum of two pages. Don't tell your life story; keep it professional above all. But do provide enough information, including interests and achievements, to give a sense of who you are and what you would bring to the position. Generally, it's very hard to be objective about yourself, Mr. Ross says.

Keep in mind that it's best to highlight the positive and definitely don't lie or fudge the truth because it can easily be detected. "I get people who do not toot their own horn enough and others who really brag about themselves," he says, adding you have to strike a proper balance to make it to the interview. The resume is crucial to the job search because obviously "if you're not getting interviews, you're not getting any closer to landing a job".