Does Your Resume Make the Business Case for Hiring You?

Napoleon Hill first published his landmark book, Think and Grow Rich, in 1937. The top-selling success book of all time still contains some of the best insights and advice on how to become one of the world's "winners," and has recently been revised and updated with contemporary examples of self-made billionaires instead of millionaires.

As the old cliche says, "It seems that the more things change, the more they stay the same." Much of the book's arcane or outmoded terminology has been updated to speak to the modern reader. Yet the core content remains as relevant today as it was in 1937. As a resume writer, this excerpt in particular stands out:

"A resume should be prepared as carefully as a lawyer would prepare the brief of a case to be tried in courts... If your 'case' is properly prepared and presented, your victory will have been more than half won at the onset.”

Although Mr. Hill's analogy takes place in a courtroom and mine in the boardroom, it echoes the advice I have been giving my executive clients for years: "Your resume needs to make a strong business case for the benefits a prospective employer will gain by bringing you into their organization, and it needs to have gone a long way toward making that case in the first 1/4 to 1/3 of the first page." Read your resume closely. Does it make a compelling business case for why someone should consider hiring you?

Posted by Laurie Smith

Comments

[Rodney Cooley]

I agree that a resume needs to be good enough to motivate a call for an interview, but opinions about the quality of a resume vary a lot. In my own job search, I have gotten calls back and have made it to the final round in some cases. But there are a lot of resumes that I have sent that didn't get any response at all. It's hard to say what might have been the cause.