A tenant of mine, a Cal student, asked me to look over his resume. He was having a hard time getting a job and wanted my advice. His resume began with an interesting story about his family history. He was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. When he was 2 years old, his parents moved to the United States to escape from the civil war then raging in Northern Ireland. Just before his family left Belfast, a house on their block was destroyed by a firebomb. After reading his resume, I told him: “This is a very interesting story, but this is not a resume. This is an autobiography.” I have told other people the same thing after reading their resumes.

The purpose of a job resume is to get a job. That sounds rather obvious, doesn’t it? Nevertheless, a lot of people seem to forget this simple fact when writing their resumes. A good job resume is not simply a list of all the interesting things that you have done in your life. A prospective employer is not interested in where you went to summer camp when you were 14. He is also not interested in your dog, your girlfriend, your malicious stepmother, or your sister’s peanut allergy. He is not interviewing you because he is lonely and looking for a new best friend. When an employer is interviewing an applicant for a job, he wants to know how hiring you could benefit him and his company. Look over your resume and try to view it from the perspective of an employer who does not know or care about you. Take out the stuff that would be of no interest to a stranger. And never forget that a job interviewer is not trying to get something from you. You are trying to get something from him, namely a paycheck!

Here are my previous job hunting tips.
Mark’s Job Hunting Tip #1: ‘Today’ And ‘Tomorrow’ Are Dangerous Words In E-Mails. June, 2011
Mark’s Job Hunting Tip #2: Clean Up Your Facebook Page. July, 2011.
Mark’s Job Hunting Tip #3: Don’t Get A Conspicuous Tattoo. July, 2012