Right now, monster.com has over 24 million resumes stored in it's database, with more than 3,000 added daily. Add that astounding amount of resumes to the million+ other resumes spread across hundreds of other job boards as well as the hundreds of unsolicited resumes received by employers each day and you have a mind-boggling group of candidates with which to compete. That resume you sent out is now floating in a sea of competition, floundering, looking for legs and waiting to be picked up and read. Now that I've got your attention (hopefully), I'd like to demonstrate how an artfully crafted resume will truly make a difference in your job search.

Scenario - You're the employer or in charge of the search committee tasked with filling the opening of Human Resources Director. You've placed the advertisement with the local newspaper, contracted with 20 job boards (including monster) and have a recruiter in the wings working for you to try to fill this position. After just two days, you find that you've already been forwarded over 427 resumes. Wow - you don't have time for this, you have other responsibilities and filling this position is just a pain.

ACT I  - Ok, you've set aside an hour of time this afternoon (all you have to spare right now). You first skim through the resumes, immediately trashing the ones that just look plain sloppy, unprofessional and just too short for a position at this level. You also trash the resumes on funky paper and those that are so messed up with fancy fonts that you can't even read the name! You begin to eliminate more than half of these resumes then start making a "possible" pile before you narrow that down to approximately 50 or so potentially good candidates.

ACT II - "Hey," you say, just as you're about to nod off. This guy looks pretty good. Right away you see that his education matches what you're looking for and you are impressed with his job titles. He may be a very good possibility so you set him your "possible" pile, actually. (click to see resume)

Finale - "WOW," you say, just before you resign yourself to review those "good" possibilities you've already set aside. THIS guy is GREAT! I've never seen a resume quite like this, well, at least in a very long time. His resume has an authoritative tone that makes me want to keep reading and it's chock full of accomplishments. He's not just a possibility, he's the FIRST person I'm going to call. Man, that other guy I thought was good, but this guy, his resume is top-notch. (Same candidate, new resume)." Phew; glad that's over.