How to look like everybody else.

Want to get a great job? Do you think the best way to do that is to look like everybody else, blend in, fly under the radar?

Bzzzzz!!! That is the beeper going off if you answered yes to any of the above.

If you’ve been reading AdvancingWomen.com‘s blog at all, you know by now, your key strategy for your entire career is to stand out.  And remember, your resume is key to that. “Your resume’s primary purpose is to make you stand out as clearly the best candidate. Your resume has to stand out in the way it looks, and in what it says.

So, you want to stand out. But you’re using a resume template. See the problem? A template makes you look like everybody else.

Just to be clear: the odds of coming up with a completely novel resume format are pretty low. In many respects, it really has all been done before.

But you’re not competing against the entire universe of resumes that have ever been written. You’ll be up against a much smaller subset – the group of applicants for a particular job.

The story goes that a bear was chasing two men ( or women). One guy/gal stops to change to his good running shoes. The other says, “What are you doing?! You’re wasting time! You gotta outrun that bear!” The first fellow replies, “Nope. I only have to outrun you.”

You’re trying to outrun your competition, and slapping together a quickie resume in a cookie-cutter resume template puts you at a disadvantage.

Look at templates, and learn from them. Then create your own custom format. Better yet, get some help doing that, so you can focus on the content of the resume.

( For some professional customization, see AW Career Portfolios, Customized For You)

Roy Miller, creator of Job Search Guide Post; sign up for Roy’s free weekly newsletter.

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