Resume Writing 101: How to Write a Selling Resume

Bob Weinstein is a journalist who covers technology, project management, the workplace and career development.

  Career Development  

Can you handle the truth? To document the obvious, no matter how talented you are, you could lose your job. It's a stomach-turning thought you'd rather not think about.  

Most times, it has nothing to do with how well you do your job. Companies are still hiring, but many more are paring ranks and closing their doors indefinitely. That means joining the ranks of the unemployed and hitting the pavement looking for a new job. The goal of this article is to lay out the components of a selling resume that will land interviews and, hopefully, a job.

As soon as you step out into the cruel world, the importance of writing a perfect resume is drummed into you. Hate to disappoint you, but it doesn't exist. Trying to create a perfect resume can be likened to believing you'll find Atlantis or Oz (not the one in the HBO series). The best you can hope for is to come close. That should take a lot of pressure off your back. Think of job-searching as climbing a long, steep stairway. The resume is stair one.

Writing a resume is an unavoidable and frustrating chore that will never go away. I've always had mixed feelings about its effectiveness and wished other methods for connecting with employers--like a straightforward letter combining cover letter and resume--would become acceptable. It's never happened. Yet, with the prominence of Internet …

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