Amazing Resumes: What Employers Want To See And How To Say It

by Jim Bright, Joanne Earl

Evidence-based career book that helps readers build resumes that motivate employers to hire them. Written by psychologists and career professionals.

Genres: Nonfiction, Self Help

212 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2005

Reviews

[Sophie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another mediocre resume handbook. I think the most useful section was chapter 16 which featured resume makeovers for job hunters at different stages (post-graduate, early career, mid-career, etc.).

However, I didn't find the rest of the book particularly helpful. I found it odd that quite often instructions were not illustrated with a full example, and sometimes the examples given seemed to be a joke! (For instance, example resume headlines included "high achieving claypot maker" and "dynamic chicken sexer," page 217.) Furthermore, any talk of the Internet / computers / e-mail made it sound like this book was from the mid-90s, and not the newly published 2009 second edition.

I've read a couple JIST publications and haven't been particularly impressed with any of them. Personally I'd recommend Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters 2.0: 1,001Unconventional Tips, Tricks and Tactics for Landing Your Dream Job, Revised and Updated for any job hunter, whether they're looking for resume guidance or interviewing techniques.

[Erica · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was laid out nice and simple. A wonderful and helpful piece to read when taking a look a your resume. Along with some great practices.

[A.M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The main advantage this had over the other books on the subject I've been reading is that the information is based on actual surveys of what recruiters liked and wanted to see. Specifically, I was anxious and uncertain about the whole concept of writing up a general section on skills, knowledge, etc. My attitude has often been that my experience and specific software skills should say enough. But after reading about how much more effective resumes with these sections were, I decided it was probably worth trying. It would have been nice to have more specifics on the surveys/studies, like number of recruiters polled, region, percent agreed on particular technique, etc., but nonetheless it's a compelling and useful approach. The section on studying job listings and tailoring the resume in accordance was useful, as were the training/achievement worksheets.

The book is not without its problems, however, and often I felt like it could have benefited from a more straightforward 1-2-3 approach. The chapter on competency statements, for instance, lacked context and was rather confusing. No examples were given to clarify whether they meant to include it in the resume or what. Basically, it could have been structured better, cleaned up more, and been more straightforward.

I was also put off by the sometimes too-clever tone of the writing and thought the authors could have let off the joking somewhat. I get that many job-hunting books are trying to reassure and relieve the anxiety caused by job-hunting, but please, enough with the funny asides and insertions.

Criticisms aside, I did find the book helpful overall and got some great ideas on tweaking my current resume.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Every few years there comes a time in person's life when you need to update your resume. Usually I seek the opinion of friends and colleagues, maybe see what the internet says about it. I have found that the internet is too opinionated, and everyone--employer, student, job seeker, you name it--has a different way of doing things. I think everyone would agree that you basically have to read your future employer's mind and tailor your resume to what you think he wants to see.

So, I checked out this book, just to see if things had changed. There were definitely a few surprises. I've always been told to keep a resume to one page, employers throw out anything with staples. In this book, all the examples were 2-3 pages. No, longer do they want a brief description of your work, they want specific details, anecdotes of experience, and MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS. This is understandable. It's hard to describe what you do in two sentences. But a half page description can easily highlight just how boring and menial your job really was, especially if it is not followed up with a bullet list of "Major Accomplishments." "I successfully made photocopies by keeping paper jams to a minimum!" That'll sure impress them.

This book also gave a lot of emphasis on self-aggrandizing statements about your skills, knowledge and attributes, to be the first thing predominately displayed. It used to consist of two lines at the bottom of my resume IF there was room. I used to leave this selling point to cover letters, but I guess that a bridge I'll burn when I get there.

[Luisana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, my resume had been the same as the resume put together at Career Services. This book opened my eyes to the unthinkable: Tearing apart my resume in order to redo it and LEARN a thing or two about resume writing. This book was very good for that purpose. It's the first Resume book I actually read so I have nothing else to compare it to and sound sophisticated. All I can say that it serves its purpose and I now understand a thing or two about resume writing. This is especially good if like me, you've had tons of jobs (a Jack of all trades, master of none?). Well, with this, I am no longer a Jack of all trades as I have found what I have mastered in. I would recommend if you are freshly out of college and are not in your early 20's anymore.

[Bonnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

probably best for those just getting into a job search, or who haven't done a resume in quite some time.