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As Fran's and Tom's examples illustrate, most employers don't have the ability or time to look at unrelated job titles and try to assess if you have the skills they need -- you must do that for them.

My latest book, Proven Resumes: Strategies That Have Increased Salaries and Changed Lives!  (now in Word format with total download of about 5 minutes broken into 7 booklets or as the complete series as a great savings!) provides extensive examples and worksheets to help you determine whether you should use a skill based resume or a chronological resume; and how to truthfully strengthen, modify or replace weak and unrelated titles.

Thousand Dollar Resume Mistakes:
The Financial and Emotional Cost of Ineffective Resumes
Most job seekers don't understand the negative financial impact an ineffective resume can have on their job search - until it's too late and they've already been affected financially. Resumes that don't work result in prolonged job searches and, very often, lower salary offers.

A person in the $60,000 range who is unemployed for 4 months can easily lose over $20,000. A person in the $24,000 range can lose over $8,000 dollars. Most of us never stop to think what the monetary value of our resume is until we're faced with having to pay mortgage payments and maintain our family's budget when we become unemployed. Even with unemployment many of the job seekers I've worked with still have to dip into their savings.

This makes it important that job seekers see the monetary value and importance of their resumes along with implementing a well-rounded job search campaign. When you grow tired of tweaking your resume think of what an ineffective resume can cost you. I find that these monetary figures motivate almost everyone to keep improving their resumes. Ineffective resumes can also negatively impact your self-confidence. When you send out dozens or hundreds of resumes and get a poor response how will you feel?

When people get a poor response to their resumes, they don't stop to think their resume is the problem--they think they are the problem. So, take to heart the examples in this website, and in my book or booklets, then tweak your resume whenever it will help you look more qualified.

Magical Transformations: Stress and Anxiety Evaporate
Each time I give a presentation using the concepts in this and the next two workshops, I see stress, worry and anxiety leave the audience because they have begun to understand why and how resumes really work. Arms that were folded are moved to an open position. Shoulders that were tense become relaxed. People begin to smile. And, I see even more physical and mental changes occur once people finish their resumes and begin landing more interviews and higher salary offers.

One of my favorite memories is of Tom, a truck driver, who practically heckled me during one of my presentations. He felt this stuff was too fancy, schmancy - that he was just a truck driver and that's all employers wanted to know about him. However, losing his teamster position at $18 an hour he needed a strong resume to land a comparable salary in a non-union position. Surprisingly, he took to heart the concepts in my book and created a resume that landed him a job starting at $24 an hour. That was wonderful but what really made me feel good was to see how differently he felt about himself. Before, he had been anxious, his shoulders were hunched, he avoided eye contact and he was a little angry at the world.

A week after class, I ran into him and he was smiling--his shoulders were back and he looked at me confidently--while telling me about his new job. What a difference! Like Fran and Tom, the rewards of an effective resume are better salaries and more interviews--but more importantly--are the changes in how people feel about themselves when they generate a great response to their resumes.

Thoughts From Someone Who Has Already Been Through My Top 12 Workshops
Recently, Andrea Defort wrote and told me she had purchased the Increase Salaries booklet to write her husband's resume ...it landed him 26 job offers over the internet (which even I find very hard to believe). So, I asked her what she would say to readers who are visiting these workshops for the first time and how valuable she feels these materials are. Here's her letter:

As Andrea points out, almost all of us have some self-doubt when writing our resumes and this leads us to create weak resumes. This problem is then compounded by the fact that so much resume advice is outdated or not based on controlling and directing the eye path nor on selling top skills in seconds. I take my role as a resume writer very seriously. I know that I am impacting people's lives--therefore I have spent thousands of hours perfecting the techniques in my Increase Salaries booklets to make sure that they are extremely effective--as proven by the testimonials throughout this site.

A resume is much more than just a resume! In the end it affects how we feel about ourselves (not too great if we don't generate interviews). If written well it markets our top skills and increases our confidence. It impresses employers which also makes us feel good about ourselves. And, powerful resumes help us generate job offers at higher salary levels. In turn, higher salaries increase our standard of living and help us take better care of our families...or buy a car...or make a mortgage payment. For these reasons, resumes really are much more than just resumes! Beyond teaching you how to write a good resume is my goal of helping you achieve all of these things -- which are much more meaningful! Good luck - I do hope you write a resume that increases your confidence and not only helps you feel great about yourself but also lands the interviews and salary offers you want!

With 2 million visitors coming to our site each year, we receive many e-mails asking which of my materials will best suit their needs. Below, I've provided a detailed explanation of which products I recommend for different needs (so if you're interested you might print this page, bookmark it, or write down the url of this page). Shorter explanations are included in the rest of the workshops.

Now let's continue analyzing Fran's before and after resumes to determine how her first resume damaged her image and how we corrected it. Learn more tips to improve yours!