When I talk about resumes and cover letters, I’m opinionated and direct, and I’ll always tell you exactly what I think. That’s my own characterization of myself, anyway. Others have called me rude, insensitive, arrogant, and other, more R-rated terms. But usually the people who knock me are students who have never had a full-time job, or teachers who have never been given the authority to hire anyone for a full-time job. Rest assured that I respect everyone’s right to their opinion – I just think my opinion is usually right. Hey, that’s what makes it my opinion, right?
Here’s the deal about why I wrote this book. I’ll make it brief:
I’m 30 — older than you, but not a dinosaur. I still clearly remember applying for scholarships, internships and jobs. If you’re lucky, your high school or college may have devoted a whopping one or two class periods to showing you how to do a resume. Or maybe you didn’t even get that: perhaps you’ve got one of those “career counseling” offices at your school, with services that are available to everyone – and used by no one.
I’d rather help you get a job than stroke your ego. There are already way too many people in the world who would rather kiss your ass and send you on your way instead of taking a little extra time to help you identify and fix your flaws. You know many of these people already – they’re your teachers, friends and parents.
I would rather tell you the truth about the weaknesses in your resume, have you go fix them, and then get a job — than tell you how nice, perfect and wonderful your resume is, and then watch you send it out and get no callbacks. Remember, the time to correct your resumes is NOW, rather than after you send them out. I wrote this book to stop you from making mistakes that could cost you interviews, so if I’m looking at your resume and find a lot of suggested changes, then that’s good. No changes, that’s good, too. Only good outcomes. Also remember that opinions differ on a lot of these things — I’m just going to give you mine.
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