[MUSIC] Welcome to the fourth course in this specialization on interviewing and resume writing. In this course, you'll learn strategies for writing resumes, cover letters, and other correspondence related to landing a job you'll love. But first, I want to ask you a question. What is the real purpose of a resume? Here you see the overall hiring process you learned about in the first course, and here you see the resume review. If your resume passes review, you move on to the interview stage. If it doesn't, you're eliminated from the start. That tells you that a resume has one primary purpose. To convince an organization to invite you in for an interview. Or at least for a phone interview. If that happens, you have an effective resume. This means your resume is a marketing document. It matches the keywords for the competencies the organization has advertised for. It's nothing more than a marketing document. But it's nothing less. Meaning it's attractive, easy to read, and mistake free. It's your personal marketing representative going out into the world and representing you. Many people mistakenly think of a resume as a summary of their entire life and career. When they write their resume they stick in everything they've ever done and every bit of information about themselves. That is an unfortunate mistake. It produces generic resumes that fail to target the hiring organization. And as a result, often end up in the trash can. Don't ever forget that your resume is an advertisement. It needs to target a specific customer, namely, the hiring organization. And often a specific audience, which means at the start, the resume screener. Effective advertisements appeal to a specific target customer. An advertisement for a luxury car has an upscale feel. An advertisement for a luxury home puts you in that imaginary setting and makes you feel like you're already there. And a winning resume works like an effective advertisement. It mirrors the environment of the hiring organization. Objectives, experience and accomplishments match the keywords in the job description. The level of vocabulary and industry specific terms are those used by the organization. A winning resume simply feels right to the hiring organization. This idea from Michael Jordan captures the spirit of a winning resume. You want your resume to impress the hiring organization. To create interest, to persuade the organization to call. To say, this candidate is special, this candidate has the right mind, the right skills, and the right motivation. A resume written with that in mind will look very different from a piece written merely as a catalogue of your job history. It will clearly and concisely demonstrate that you have the potential to help the hiring organization be successful. It will contain the best evidence to support that claim. It will be free of any irrelevant information that distracts from that claim. A winning resume will be focused. Focused on a specific organization, a specific position, and a specific audience. White space will serve to help focus the reader's attention. Fonts that are easy to read also serve to focus the resume. A winning resume is powerful, it uses potent action words that make you sound like a doer and an achiever. It uses explicit numbers and specific details that add credibility to your accomplishments. And a winning resume is concise. It makes a point and makes it clearly. It uses bullets to help the reader zero in on your most outstanding achievements. It uses small blocks of text that are easy to scan. Now you know the real purpose of a resume is to win an interview. And you know that to do that, the resume must be focused. How are you going to accomplish that focus? By highlighting those parts of your background that provide evidence you have the competencies the hiring organization is looking for. That's what you'll learn about in the next lesson. [MUSIC]
