Chapter - 10

Why, When, And How To Write A Resume

Planning The Campaign

One of the most cherished rituals of employment is the mind-wrenching ceremony called "filling out the application blank." All over the country, in bank after bank of steel files, are millions upon millions of completed application blanks, all looking much alike, and all containing much the same useless information. Of the labors that went into filling them out, of the hopes and ambitions, of the personalities and real achievements of the applicants, only a few hints are revealed. Said one employer of his application file, "The Agony Box. They sweat over filling out the forms, and I sweat over reading them, wondering what the people are really like."

The standard application form of 1960, after 40 years of development, is a statistical clerk's masterpiece—it can screen out just about everybody for any type of work. Everyone with whom I have discussed it—employees, personnel men, agency men, and management—have deplored its short-comings, but they all resort to the same answer: "It's all we've got, and we have to use something."

Theoretically, the application blank is a formalized resume of the applicant's employment history. It is supposed to show what a man has done, and presumably can do again on the next job. It makes no allowance for how well he did what he did, and provides no assurance that he will do well on the next job. I call it an obituary, because it so successfully buries a man's real values.

To any success-minded man, the whole idea of applying for another job is to further his program for getting ahead. But the application-resume is designed to disclose only that he is qualified to do much the same work as he has already done.

At the same time it raises a nasty little doubt—maybe he's not so qualified, if he has to hunt for another job. Even an employment history that shows a steady climb from low to high paying positions can raise the same doubts.

All employers are familiar with the glib talker who uses one good job to advance himself to a better two months before his faults catch up to him. Explaining this situation a company president said, "Firing a man is so much trouble he has to make a real mess before we get around to it. We keep hoping he'll go away, and when he gets the drift, he usually does—to a better job. Do we give him a letter of recommendation? Of course. Doesn't everybody? The only letters of recommendation that really mean anything to me are from men I know personally."

If this variety of job jumper has one redeeming value, it's that he proves how easy it is to get a job, even with the wrong talents.

The application-resume is concerned with the applicant's past. The applicant is concerned with his future. The company is concerned with its future. So why all this concern with what is already obsolete? Even the old saying, "There's no substitute for experience," has lost its significance. Nor is there any validity anymore in the old and desperate complaint, "You can't get a job without experience, and you can't get experience without a job."

Today, with conditions and products changing with bewildering rapidity, too much experience can actually be a handicap. An auditor with 30 years experience in a wholesale house saw his department turned into what he called an "electric nightmare" that did everything but collect bills from dead-beats. "Thirty years working my way to top of my department/' he told me, "and that's the job I got—trying to collect from deadbeats." Fortunately he was an excellent man with tax figures, and is now a successful tax consultant, a job not likely to be taken over by an impersonal machine.

He is but one of the thousands whose jobs and lives are daily being altered in small or drastic ways. As the move toward decentralization by industry and government picks up speed, thousands are faced with the choice of following the job to various sections of the country or remaining where their roots are and hoping to find another job that may or may not have anything to do with past experience. Even in companies that remain firmly rooted, change is the order of the day. Flexibility and adjustability are qualities that are more important in many fields than experience, a word some employers regard as synonymous with "dated," or "rutted," or "not in tune with the times."

The fault lies not with the experience, but in the manner in which it is used. Conditions have changed, products have changed, and so have the methods of making those products, but unchanged remains the thinking surrounding the hiring of the men and women.

This first became a matter of personal concern to me in 1945 when, as a director of the Society for the Advancement of Management (N. Y. Chapter) I was asked to develop a program that would aid our returning veterans in finding jobs. Eighteen executives volunteered to work with me on the placement program, so I began by asking them and others how they had obtained their positions.

That may seem like an obvious beginning, but as it turned out, such a study had never been reported before. Such inquiries had been made previously of personnel men, employment managers, and placement agencies, most of whom were concerned with filling jobs in the lower income brackets. Worse, for my purpose, was the fact that these men were rarely in a position to follow the progress, or the lack thereof, of the men they placed. They knew where the men had come from, but seldom where they were going.

The 18 executives working with me were united in taking an opposite view. Their concern was with what a man could do; not with what he had done. To a man they agreed that they could not get that information from the standard application form. Most of them complained of their inability to get good men through their own personnel offices or through agencies.

And then I got the lead I was looking for. Said one executive, "I can't blame the applicants coming to see me. We've put the emphasis on experience for so long that that's what they've been trained to talk about. I want people with drive and ambition who know where they're going. What I get are people who know where they've been. We need something to shake them up and start them thinking about the future. That's all they've got left to sell, and sure as shooting, that's all we want to buy."

Right then I set out to develop a form of presentation that would show where a man was going, and support it with proof of his ability to get there. It began with the procedures already described in the chapters on Dynamic Success Factors and Functional Self Analysis and followed through with development of what has since come to be called the Directed Resume, designed to supplant the obituary-type resume. In manual form, this work was recommended by the Federal Government for use by returning military officers throughout the country. Its success led in turn to an invitation from the Harvard Business School for me to serve as a consultant there and add further refinements to the work. Since then, with only such modifications as are needed to meet special requirements, the Directed Resume has proved its value many thousand times.

Now to get down to cases. The only reason for writing a resume is to further your progress through moving to another company that offers greater opportunity. That means you have to know where you are going, and have confidence in your ability to get there. Remember the old saw, "If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there."

Possibly you can arrange your move through contacts and job interviews, but even under these circumstances your interviewer is apt to ask for a resume, "to pass around to the others who will need to know who you are." That means that your resume will have to serve as your salesman when you aren't present to talk for yourself. You want your personality in it; not your professional obituary.

By tradition the standard resume is little more than an elaboration of the standard application form. The unoriginal thinking behind this is based on the supposition that because most companies have come to accept the obituary-type application form, most executives must favor that type of resume. But as I have already evidenced, most executives are thinking about the future. That is what you must plan to sell.

Some Comparisons

The standard application form starts by asking your name and address. Next follow spaces in which you enter such personal details as date of birth, weight, marital status, etc. A few of the latest forms then ask for the title of the position you are seeking, a somewhat meaningless request since few companies agree on the same duties and responsibilities for the same titles. After that comes the chronological listing of your previous jobs —but in reverse order, with the most recent job first and then on back into history. You are working backwards, while your employer is seeking a man who looks forward.

Nor is that the worst of it. Some of the jobs you must list may have advanced your career and some may have been taken to avert starvation, but on the form, equal emphasis is given to both. You may have excelled on one job and barely held your own on another, but on the form, you appear to be equally good—or bad—on both. It could also be that none of the jobs you held enabled you to use your best abilities, but on the form that fact isn't revealed at all. According to the resume, you are supposed to be what the jobs made of you; not what you made of the jobs, or what you are able to make of the next one.

It follows then that a standard resume based on the format of a standard application blank is likely to be a more elaborate presentation of the same weaknesses. About all that can be said for it is that it is easy to write, requiring no imagination and no foresight. Consider, for instance, the chronological resume of Richard Jones, one of the better examples of the obituary style:

Resume Of Richard Jones

PERSONAL DATA

1718 E. 191 Street Brooklyn 19, N.Y. TEL: Brook 6-2151

Age                              :                       34

Marital Status               :                       Married, 2 children

Education                     :                       Florida University

Military Service            :                       United States Army-1942-46

BUSINESS EXPERIENCE

Lord and Thompson, Inc.

Present                         :                       Merchandising and Sales Promotion

My present responsibilities are in the areas of contests, premiums, incentives, couponing, advertising tie-ins, sampling, direct mail, special audience programs, exhibitions and unmeasured media.

The Universal Metals Company (May 1955 to July 1956)

Associate Sales Manager

In this employment capacity, I developed promotions, premium programs, dealer loading merchandising programs in which silver or stainless steel flatware and holloware were the incentive items. The programs developed by me were adopted by many leading national advertisers.

In addition to these creative and sales duties, I was, shortly before my resignation, appointed to handle the liquidation of all excess and inactive inventories of the company and reported directly to the Vice President in Charge of Sales.

Filtration Products, Inc. (November 1951 to May 1955)
 
Advertising and Sales Promotion Manager

In this employment capacity, I was responsible for the administration of an advertising and sales promotion budget of $1,000,-000.00 annually, of which approximately $500,000.00 was devoted to national (trade-consumer-industrial) magazine space.

I developed local market advertising (radio-television-newspaper-outdoor) campaigns, merchandising and premium programs which were included in the selling programs of 21 petroleum marketers, 6500 automotive parts jobbers and wholesalers and the Chrysler Corporation, Ford Motor Company, Nash Motors, Packard Motor Car Company, John Deere, The Caterpillar Company, International Harvester Company, Case and Massey Harris tractor companies.

I created-designed-wrote catalogs, bulletins, point-of-sale materials, brochures, direct mail, general sales helps, special literature and display booths.

Enright and Nowey, Inc. 1949-1951

Space Representative-Account Executive

I sold advertising space to national advertisers and developed literature and merchandising packages for these advertisers which were tailored for use in schools, adult education, 4-H activities, home economics shows, home economics school and industry programs.

During this period, I also acted in a consulting capacity to small manufacturers and retailers and prepared copy, rough layouts, promotion literature, publicity and direct mail activity.

Newel Advertising, Inc. 1947-1948

Assistant Space and Time Buyer

Entered training program; advanced through ranks in media detail, media research. Worked on Proctor and Gamble and Nestle Company accounts.
 
You will note that an 18-year history of Mr. Jones is all there if you can find it, though the names of his employers and dates of employment are given more prominence than what he did. He uses only five words and the dates to cover four years of military service, an experience that must have affected him profoundly. The greatest weakness of all, however, is that Jones has used all that space to tell of what he has sold, and has neglected to mention what he wants to sell. That, of course, is the main fault of the obituary-type resume, but as an advertising, merchandising, and sales promotion man, one would think Jones would have done something about it.

It could be that he was too close to his own talents to think they needed selling, like the shoemaker whose own children run barefoot, but my experience with too many men indicates otherwise. So fixed in the mind of most is the obituary-type of resume that they would rather sell themselves short than fail to conform.

Here are the major reasons why the obituary-type resume should not be used, accepted though it might appear to be:

(1) It fails to inform an employer of your potentialities, forcing him to guess from a reading of your past history what your future value to him might be.

(2) It emphasizes your history, but not what you have learned from it. Almost every resume lists a number of jobs, and to the employer reading them over, they take on a monotonous sameness. Exposure to experience is not the same as learning from it, and the value of what you learned cannot be estimated by reading that you held—or were stuck with—a certain job for five years.

(3) It emphasizes former employers and dates of employment, an uneasy reminder to your prospective employer that if you could quit them—or get fired—you will quit him—or get fired. It leaves no room to mention the fact, unless you drag it in by the heels, that you saved or earned uncounted sums for your previous employers and will do better for him. (4) In stressing your own history, you omit the one factor that is the most vital concern of your prospective employer, and that is his own future and the future of the company that holds his future. Good fellow though he might be, it's not your success he is buying, but his own.

The Functional Resume

In developing the Functional Resume for returning veterans, my first concern was with the fixed idea most employers seemed to hold that military experience was of small value in the business world. But for hundreds of thousands of young men, military experience was all they had. I could see employers looking over hundreds of thousands of job applications, all listing Uncle Sam as the employer, and lieutenant as the title of the last job held. Nor would rank offer employers much of a clue, private enterprise having no slots into which corporals, sergeants, lieutenants, majors, colonels, etc., could be automatically fitted. I had to develop a type of resume that would make individuals of these men instead of dog tags, and so stress their achievements that their future values to an employer would be immediately apparent.

It was no simple resume, to be filled out in a few minutes, that finally emerged. Nor did I want the boys to get simple jobs in which they might be trapped for weeks, months, or years before they discovered they were getting nowhere. A few hours of work at the start could make the difference between "taking what you can get" and tens of thousands of dollars in habit-forming success.

It began by asking the boys to analyze their achievements to discover their Dynamic Success Factors (the description hadn't yet been coined, but the effect was the same) and followed through with Functional Self-Analysis according to the procedures already described in previous chapters. Now the boys knew what they could do well. The next step was to use this knowledge in setting future goals. More study, of course, of the industries where one could function best, as per Chapter Five, but again far better a few hours spent in a library reading trade journals and company histories than painful time wasted on a dead-end job.

For the thousands interested enough in their success to follow through on the instructions, the results were so spectacular that we were moved to develop the Functional Resume to assist civilians faced with similar problems. These included war workers whose jobs no longer existed, but who had had no previous experience in other lines of work; men reluctant to pull up family roots when factories began to migrate to the South and West; men who had remained rutted on a single job while their families were growing up, but were now anxious to take "one last flier at success"; and young men with plenty of achievements but no practical experience in business and industry.

Since the Functional Resume in its present state of development is of more value to you than the one rushed to completion after the war, let's examine the one written recently by Gary Sawyer, a 24-year-old whose practical experience in the eyes of a hard-headed sales manager might be said to be nil:

Age: 24                                                            GARY D. SAWYER
Married                                                            Tel: Circle 6-8212
Veteran                                                            59 Grace Court
B.A., Yale                                                        Drexel Hill, Pa.

OBJECTIVE

Selling Or Sales Promotional Work—where use can be made of contact making and persuasive abilities; ingenuity in originating and developing ideas; writing ability; manual skill and understanding of mechanisms—talents that would be useful in demonstrating, trouble shooting, or technical sales.

Some Indications Of Potential Value

SALESMANSHIP QUALITIES

Have always been able to meet people easily and have exhibited persuasive abilities on worthwhile subjects. For example: As a camp counsellor instituted changes in activities of a group of 50 boys that provided more continuous events and more broadening experiences. Doing this involved persuading camp owner and 12 other counsellors that the results justified the extra work involved. As a community chest solicitor obtained my quota first out of 200 solicitors; then exceeded quota by 85%. . . . Worked up and performed a college radio program that drew favorable response. . . . Originated routines and trained a three-man team of song leaders that appeared before crowds of 70,000.

LEADERSHIP

Through a series of contests and awards, instructing and inspecting, produced a record for camp cleanliness that owner said was the best in 25 years. . . . Directed 50 boys and 15 counselors in organizing and producing a carnival that was voted best in the history of this event.

MANAGEMENT

Managed camp laundry; had charge of soft drink sales in Navy barracks; coached college soccer team.

IDEAS

Invented a device used by skiers that has been copied and used by professionals; devised a humidifying system for a large residence. Composed words and music for more than fifteen popular and classical songs; planned weekly radio programs; wrote and staged puppet shows.

WRITING

Wrote story for publication throughout all Navy WTS program schools; was in top 5% in short story class, in top quarter of class in theme writing.

MANUAL SKILLS

Rank in 98th percentile on manual dexterity. Designed and built "home workshop projects"; repaired radios and mechanical equipment for puppet shows. Worked on building repairs and construction crew, laid bricks, wooden floors, linoleum; glazed windows.

EMPLOYMENT

Held summer jobs as camp counsellor; laborer on factory maintenance crew, construction and surveying.

First to attract the eye is Gary's name, phone number and address in the upper right hand corner of the page, the traditional space allotted by a newspaper to its most important story. It will also be top-most and instantly readable to anyone thumbing through the job application folder or file cabinet. (Why put your name in the middle or left hand corner of the page where it can be half or completely buried in the file?)

In a less conspicuous but still top-of-the-page or headline spot is his age, marital status, military service, and education.

And then, right into the future with his goal-"OBJECTIVE . . . SELLING OR SALES PROMOTIONAL WORK.” No guessing about where he wants to go or his confidence in getting there. With his objective thus firmly planted in his prospective employer's mind, that worthy is bound to read the smaller print to see what the young man can do for him. Thirty-seven words tell him that in seven seconds, and then his eye jumps to the large type in the left margin, again the use of newspaper headline technique. These are the functional words based on previous achievements: "SALESMANSHIP QUALITIES, LEADERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, IDEAS, WRITING, MANUAL SKILLS, EMPLOYMENT." Powerful words that make a powerful first impression.

Then back to "SOME INDICATIONS OF POTENTIAL VALUE." Had Gary written instead, "A RECORD OF PAST EXPERIENCES," the prospective employer would end up by saying, "And not one worth a cent in this high-pressure office." But indications of potential value they certainly were, even to his job as a laborer which indicated he could take it when the going was tough even though he was a Yale man. (Employers from Midwestern and Western colleges are not always impressed by Ivy League men and vice versa.)

In brief, what Gary had done in his resume was substitute related functions for his lack of practical business experience, and by using the Functional Resume Form, he had done it so effectively that out of 20 resumes sent out, he received 17 responses. Nine announced with seemingly genuine regret that there were no openings now or in the foreseeable future. One advised him to check back in six months. Seven invited him in for interviews that led to three job offers, the last of which he took at $6,000 a year, somewhat less than the previous two, but with bonus possibilities that he found challenging and enticing.

Now let's consider the following two Functional Resumes written by more experienced men. Had these two written the standard, obituary-type resumes, they would still be in then-time-worn ruts. I know, because both had tried the standard resume often enough to end up with cases of near-permanent despair. See if you can, in reading through Functional Resumes, discover why.

WALTER A. POTTER
5 Johnson Avenue
Baltimore, Maryland

OBJECTIVE

SALES MANAGEMENT

Qualifications

Twelve years' experience as executive assistant to top policy-making officials along sales, merchandising, and general administrative lines. Successful record in selling and marketing at field and executive levels, familiar with production problems, can work with government officials, act as liaison between departments of company. Made present connection as administrative assistant to national sales manager. Promoted to national assistant sales manager.

AREAS OF EXPERIENCE-SOME ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Management

Guide, train, and develop the sales efforts of national sales organization of fourteen executive salesmen in their relationships with over 2000 distributors and dealers. Also maintain liaison with four company-owned distributor branches insofar as it affects national sales policy. Staff member of sales policy-making committee; also staff member of advertising, merchandising, and sales promotion committees.

Marketing
 
Responsible for making field inspections, territorial surveys, and market research, with the view to making recommendations for solution of sales problems. Traveled throughout the United States. Responsible for follow-through on all problems connected with the development, merchandising, and marketing of new lines.

Administration

Responsible for internal sales organization, devising sales records, computing statistics, and sales training. Maintained liaison between departments while introducing new products: have knowledge of buying and production in addition to selling and merchandising.

Previously

Formed and directed new business department for multi-branch New York banking organization to solicit individual, commercial, financial, and industrial accounts. Liaison assistant to president and secretary-treasurer.

National Assistant Sales Manager

Baltimore Paper & Color Corporation, Hagerstown, Md. 1947—Present

Assistant Secretary And Treasurer

Manhattan Trust Company, New York, New York. 1935-1947

Personal Data

Age 35—married—two children. American Institute of Banking and New York University: studied business administration and economics.

FORREST F. WALTERS
Pittsford,
Massachusetts

OBJECTIVE

Production And Troubleshooting Assistant To President

Experienced in executive and management operations, the development of improved methods to cut costs, training and supervision of employees and foremen, all kinds of investigation and trouble-shooting (in chemical, woodworking, maintenance and construction fields), labor relations and community relations, and plant management.

Qualified By

More than fifteen years of progressively responsible management and leadership jobs, including Assistant Vice President in Charge of Production for a corporation with sales of $10,000,000, and the elected presidency (three times) of Carpenters' Union. Also, by the self-made man approach to success which includes willingness to learn thoroughly all elements which go towards insuring greatest efficiency and lowest costs.

SOME ACCOMPLISHMENTS
 
Cost Control Budgeting

Saved over $300,000 yearly for one company by analyzing cost elements, developing improved procedures, training supervisors in new methods, installing them, and supervising operations. More than 700 men and women were involved, as well as serious labor problems which were cleared up. . . . Established planned budget exceeding $1,000,000 yearly, and directed expenditures covering labor, materials, repairs, maintenance costs, etc. ... As Vice President in charge of production with another company, organized, controlled and directed much larger expenditures and purchasing operations.

Policy-Making Administration Management Liaison

Proved ability to stimulate and maintain friendly relations of all members of management team at joint conferences, frequently in the face of highly controversial issues. Have often been requested to solve management problems requiring objective analysis of antagonistic viewpoints and to reconcile hurt feelings of department heads.

With top management, helped develop and execute policy in relation to corporate expansion, location of new plants, selection of key executives and their orientation, coordination of manufacturing with sales potentials, development of new products, planning and organization of new departments and new plants, etc.

Purchasing

Saved over $20,000 for one company by forward buying of item due to become scarce (its price jumped more than ten times). Purchasing agent for more than 7,500 items. Have always preceded purchases by careful study of specific needs and specific qualities of available supplies. This has made it possible for me to undertake forward buying in many fields, following studies of market and supply conditions and trends, and also to find adequate, lower cost substitutes for many items. Know lumber of different kinds and grades; chemicals; paper; printing; building materials; machinery and maintenance equipment and supplies; woodworking machinery; line-method production equipment and machinery; some plastics; etc.

Wood Working Production

Thoroughly familiar with all phases of woodworking, from basic carpenter work and housebuilding to fine cabinet work—both on the basis of work with my own hands and as plant manager supervising up to 50 employees producing furniture including logging and sawmill operations.

Production & Materials Controls Manufacturing Methods

Boosted output 50% without rise in payroll of 200 personnel: Following study of materials handling and manufacturing methods, developed and installed (through the plant superintendent) improved work and materials flow techniques with the result indicated.

Created and installed inventory and materials control systems which maintained supplies at lowest practicable levels, thus insuring minimum capital requirements for non-finished materials, and avoidance of "unexplained" losses. . . . Planned production lines for woodworking, bottling, and other operations, and established production schedules, controls and standards. For these, applied time and motion study techniques, and broad knowledge of machines and mechanical functions.

Plant Building Management Maintenance

Was in charge of maintenance of all Philadelphia Center Buildings for several years, during which time costs were substantially reduced despite rising prices and wages. Applied scientific management principles, perhaps for the first time on record, to maintenance problems. . . . Directed the largest staff department at Philadelphia Center, handling its problems of policy, personnel recruitment, morale, grievances, and efficiency. . . . Supervised the erection of numerous buildings costing up to $100,-000 including residences and factory and office reconstruction. Planned and directed the installation of machinery and equipment, occasionally assisting in design of same. Responsible for plant layout.

New Products

Helped in the development of several new products, including pre-manu-facturing analysis of sales potentials. Hold patents. Have the broad practical design, engineering, and production knowledge which is helpful in the development of new products.

Labor Relations Morale Building Personnel Training

Developed merit system, training method for supervisors (conducted these successful classes), and improved training procedures for employees. Built morale with the aid of impartial justice, personal consideration of employees as individuals. Participated in union contract negotiations. Recruited all kinds of personnel, from charwomen to engineers and plant managers, and covering a wide range of union members.

Report Writing Troubleshooting
 
Prepared numerous reports for top management, principally around cost analysis and cost reduction factors. Many were special trouble-shooting reports made at top management's request. Work has consistently required the kind of patience, perceptiveness, perseverance and analytical abilities that are essential to effective smoothing of troubled waters at management and lower levels.

Training & Education

Studied intensively in fields which would make me more effective at work. Completed several correspondence courses. Broadly read in many fields. Completed courses offered by professional groups.

The Analysis

For 12 years Walter Potter had served as an executive assistant to the top policy-making officials of his company, the oldest of whom still had ten years to go before retirement. He had had one promotion, from administrative assistant to the national sales manager to national assistant sales manager, an ego-soothing way of saying he still functioned in the same job. His previous 12 years, in which he had risen to Assistant Secretary and Treasurer of one of the many branch offices of a large bank, had been, outside of his salary, largely non-productive because, although he didn't know it then, his Dynamic Success Factors all indicated he belonged in some phase of selling. His lack of a college degree—only two years at NYU and some night courses in banking—had further undermined his confidence. All of his associates, though lacking his ability on which they relied, had college degrees. Only two jobs in 24 years, both of which had led him into dead ends. No wonder he felt discouraged.

Potter was looking only at the stone wall in front of him, not at what his achievements had done for his associates, for the bank, and for the corporation. Once he was able to see the achievements instead of the stone wall, and analyze them in terms of salesmanship where he could function best, the rest was inevitable.

In seven lines, or 30 seconds of reading time, he made clear what he wanted and why he could function profitably in that capacity for a company. Then he drove home such functions as Management, Marketing, and Administration in eye-catching, first-impression words, and documented them with the facts on "AREAS OF EXPERIENCE-SOME ACCOMPLISHMENTS"

He mailed out 30 resumes, and got the response he wanted on his home telephone the next evening. "And to think," he exclaimed to me in describing his new job, "that I had to wait nearly a quarter of a century to realize what it means to enjoy your work!"

The Functional Resume of Forrest Walters required more planning. He was "more than 50 years old," which he seemed to think was as old as creation. He had not completed his high school education, and though he was well read and had taken several correspondence courses, he felt inferior to college graduates, including his own children, who, incidentally, were more in awe of their father's wisdom than that of any professor they had ever met.

In Walter's appraisal of himself, he was just a "work horse who does what is expected of him." And he was, after more than 30 years with the same company, tired of being a horse. (In his resume, you will note, we ignored his first years of working his way up to management level, and stated honestly, "More than fifteen years of progressively responsible management and leadership jobs." It was this we had to sell, and not the years it took him to get there, a fact all oldsters who think they have nothing left to sell should put foremost in their minds. This is the same policy in selling yourself to your new employer that the salesman uses in introducing the new model car; it may be only a slightly revised version of last year's model, but by the time he gets through stressing the new features, you are left with the impression that not an old feature remains.

Once Walters had analyzed his achievements, he no longer saw himself as a man whose 30-year career was on the downgrade to retirement. Maybe his present company thought of him as "the old reliable workhorse," but he could see his Dynamic Success Factors opening up a whole new future. He was "thinking rich" again, and feeling all the younger for it. On the strength of this new surge of confidence, he sat down to dream up "the ideal job" that would use his success factors to best advantage.

Note that he did not think of a specific job, and then try to fit his success factors to it; he let his success factors create a "dream job," and then set out to find if such a job actually existed or could be conjured up. "As long as I'm not going to get the job anyway," he said to me, "I might as well not get the best."

Well, he was thinking of the best, even if in negative terms. And he was thinking creatively. One of the most overlooked points in resume writing is that in today's rapidly changing world, opportunities are opening so fast that not even the employers are always aware of their imminence. Then along comes the right resume, and the employer finds himself saying with astonishment and relief, "Boy, that's the kind of a man we've been needing for a long time."

That is exactly what happened in Walters' case. A harassed executive vice president, too busy to realize he was working himself to death, saw in Walters' resume the solution of all his problems. Some of his problems, as Walters told me later, the executive didn't know he had.

"The whole thing was mixed up," Walters said. "The company had picked up six new lines in the last two years, including prefabricated houses and aluminum boats. The whole plant had been modernized by an engineering consultant firm, but no one had overhauled management. One senior V.P. was still in charge of storm windows, sashes and doors and could play golf every day. A junior V.P. was in charge of what they called the 'toy department,' turning out about a million dollar's worth of boats a year, and knocking himself cold. The hardest trouble-shooting job I had was convincing old-time management that boats weren't toys anymore, and that the management load had to be more evenly distributed. The senior V.P. doesn't like me for busting up his golf game, but as long as my boss and the junior V.P. are getting in a little time for fishing these days, I don't have to worry."

And Walters, having the time of his life, was getting in a little fishing, too, and one of the items he fished up was a doubling of his previous salary.

The Directed Resume

The Directed Resume is a development of the Functional Resume, intended for use by men whose employment history includes several jobs. Its preparation requires the same selective thinking demanded by the Functional Resume because it must represent your future as you see it—and want your employer to see it—and not serve as an obituary of your professional past.

Whether you like it or not, and no one does, the fact remains that the suspicion of job-jumping hangs over the man who has moved more than five times during his first ten years of employment. And the belief exists, especially among younger employers, that any man who has not found his niche by the age of (30) is never going to find it. In the first instance, there are just enough job-jumpers to provide some foundation for the suspicion, and in the second instance, there are just enough men over (30) so regimented in their thinking that any change, even for the better, is intolerable. Such being the case, the conditions exist and must be faced.

Thus the purpose of the Directed Resume is not to list your experiences like so many groceries, but to direct them at the job you are after, as though you had dedicated your professional life to preparing yourself for this ultimate position. No repetition of experiences, but an accumulation of them, all adding up to a potential of enormous value to your next employer. Let's consider first the standard resume of Warren Arthur that drew dusty answers in response to 50 mailings. Then compare it with the Directed Resume that follows.

RESUME

WARREN ARTHUR
419 Cedarlane Avenue
Allenport, L. L, N. Y.                         Telephone-Johnson 4-2199

Born—Asbury, New Jersey—May 3, 1915

Marital Status—Married—four children

Health-Excellent-Height 6T'-Weight 197

Education—Clairview Academy—10 years

Somernet Hills Preparatory School—2 years

New York College—Industrial Relations & Personnel Courses

WORK HISTORY

March 1951 to Present

DIRECTOR OF PERSONNEL

Graves Electronics Corporation, Newroads, L. I., N. Y.

Manufacturer of electronic computers employing over 2400 employees. Supervise all Personnel operations which include the following:

Employment Manager, Training Supervisor, Employee Relations Manager, Editor and staff of company newspaper (issued monthly), Wage and Salary Administrator, Security Officer and Security Force of approximately forty guards, Insurance Supervisor, Medical Department of four nurses and physician, and Personnel Department Clerical Staff. Responsible also for the plant cafeteria's operation.

(It is interesting to note that management has been successful in keeping the plant non-union through the entire history of its operation.)

August 1945 to March 1951

PERSONNEL MANAGER-Blueright, Inc., Brooklyn, N. Y.
 
In addition to employment duties and other personnel functions, I was the company representative at the weekly grievance committee meetings of the IAM, Carpenters and Joiners Union, and Local 3 of the Electricians Union. I also was a member of the company negotiation team.

Prior to above

MERIT RATING SUPERVISOR-Superrise Company, Briar-cliff, N. Y.

PERSONNEL MANAGER-Aviation Products, Whitestone, N. Y.

ASS'T PERSONNEL DIRECTOR-Airlift Producers, Inc. EMPLOYMENT INTERVIEWER-The Ajax Corporation

Personnel background covers a total of fifteen years. MEMBER: New York Personnel Management Association

The Long Island Personnel Directors' Association

WARREN ARTHUR

TEL: Johnson 4-2199

419 Cedarlane Avenue

Allenport, L. I., N. Y.

Scientist Recruiter And Industrial Relations-Personnel Executive:

Experienced in both union contract negotiations and non-union manufacturing operations—with medium-sized companies employing between 500 and 2400 personnel of all kinds—in the electronics, aircraft parts, electro-mechanical components and rubber-products industries. Twelve years of reporting to the President and working with him on the policy committee; interviewed (and recruited) all applicants for key professional and managerial positions; initiated and conducted training and development programs (also supervised training director); established new safety program (which reduced insurance costs); directed employee publications program; maintained community and inter-industry relations; and otherwise established and directed industrial relations and personnel programs—from the point of beginning one. 6'l", 197 lbs., age 43, excellent health, married, 4 children, will relocate.

DIRECTOR OF PERSONNEL, manufacturer of missile and electronic equipment components—Graves Electronics Corporation, 1951-1958. Directed expansion of personnel from 800 to over 2400, and contraction due to military cutbacks and economic changes. Supervised all phases, including supervisor training, wage and salary administration, security, medical department, cafeteria, monthly publication, etc. Very effective in communications and human relations (guided policy and activities which resulted in 3:1 employee vote to remain independent of union affiliation). Reported to the President. INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS DIRECTOR (actual title, Personnel Manager), with manufacturer of rubber products used in the construction industry; 900 employees, 3 IAM unions— Blueright, Inc., 1945-1951. Maintained effective relationships with union representatives, and kept formal grievances to a minimum; with production Vice President and Labor Attorney, negotiated union contracts. Responsibilities included all recruiting, plant feeding, supervisor training, editing employee publication, department administration. Reported to President.

MERIT RATING SUPERVISOR-Supervise Company, Briar-cliff, N. Y. (4,500 emp.)

PERSONNEL MANAGER-Aviation Products, Whitestone, N. Y. (1,200 emp.)

ASS'T PERSONNEL DIRECTOR-Airlift Products, Inc., (700 emp.)

EMPLOYMENT INTERVIEWER-Ajax Corporation (1,200 emp.)

MEMBER: New York Personnel Management Association

The Long Island Personnel Directors' Association

It should be obvious from the analyses of the Functional Resumes of Sawyer, Potter, and Walters why Warren Arthur got his job within two weeks after sending his Directed Resume to ten carefully selected companies.

Now consider the resumes of Jack Minus, a young man of 33 who had really floundered around from taxi cab companies and retail stores to wholesale houses and a motion picture company. He was not a job-jumper. With each move he had hoped to better himself, in a disorganized sort of way. The disorganization is evident in his standard resume which neglects to mention where he wants to go and lumps his colorful experiences with a taxi cab company, dress maker, etc., under the dull heading of "Private Industry: Bookkeeper; . . ." But see how it all adds up in support of his objective in the Directed Resume.

JACK MINUS 1105
Newark Avenue Bronx
17, New York
Grand 2-1965

Personal History                       :                       Born August, 1924, NYC

Married                                    :                       Two dependents
Weight                                     :                       144, height 57½"

Business Experience                 :                       January 1954 to June 1956

Currently employed by a medium size Certified Public Accounting firm. This organization has a diversified clientele of manufacturers, retail stores, insurance companies, and automotive fleets. My responsibilities include work of original entry; preparation of financial statements; tax returns and audits both supervised and unsupervised. As an outgrowth of my work, I have developed a deep interest in dealing with people and seeking a fresh approach to systems and procedures whenever a situation may warrant change.

Aaron Jones, C.P.A.                           September 1952 to December 1953
New York, N. Y.
A. R. Mour & Co.                              August 1951 to June 1952

New York, N. Y.

My duties with the above mentioned firms consisted of footing books of original entry; computing sales invoices and their sequence of numbers; bank reconciliations, confirmation of accounts receivable and numerous other procedures of a junior accountant. Private Industry:      

February                                             1948 to August 1951

Bookkeeper; accounts receivable clerk; inventory clerk; and general office procedures. Education:

Graduated 1947-Roosevelt High School, New York, N. Y. Graduated 1954—New Columbia University, Brooklyn, N. Y. Bachelor of Science in Accounting Evening Session

Military Service:

Radio Technician in the United States Air Force. Honorably discharged.

Objective
 
JACK MINUS Grand 2-1965 1105 Newark Avenue Bronx 17, New York ASSISTANT OFFICE MANAGER, with responsibilities which would include analysis and development of systems and procedures, work on internal auditing and accounting supervision, related problem solving, and working with and supervising office personnel on associated details.

Summary Of Background

More than eight years of diversified auditing and accounting experience in supervisory office position, and with public accounting firms (B.S. Accounting). As General Accountant and Assistant to Chief Auditor (currently), introduced revised forms which gave more complete data and increased paper handling efficiency. ... As General Accountant, worked on budget analysis, monthly and progressive statements and supporting schedules, and special assignments for Auditor. ... As Public Accountant, served as semi-senior and junior; responsible for unsupervised audits of small firms, and supervised audits with larger companies; prepared financial statements and tax returns; developed and installed complete simple bookkeeping systems.

Personal Data

Age 33, 57½", 145 lbs., good health, married, one child. B.S. Accounting, New Columbia University.

Variety Of Experience

Now with producer of movie films; previously, accounting and auditing work with such concerns as insurance broker, wholesale drug concern, wholesale distributor, dress manufacturer, taxicab company, bakeries, retail stores, etc.
Employment History

General Accountant and Assistant to Chief Auditor—MGM Laboratories, Inc. (1956—now). Developed report to improve office work flow, simplify and improve the efficiency of office operations, conducted and supervised audits, analyzed budgets, helped coordinate data from different departments, worked with clerical and supervisory personnel from several departments.

Semi-senior and Junior Accountant (1951-1956). Duties included general tax, auditing, accounting and bookkeeping work, as well as development of systems improvements, installation of systems, training of bookkeeping and related clerical personnel, and some advisement with small company principals. The CPA firms were: B. Winickot & Co. (1954-56); Aaron Jones (1952-53); and A. R. Mour & Co. (1951-52).

Preference

Would prefer working in an organization under a progressive office manager, Controller or Assistant Treasurer.

Some Pointers

(1) Describe the position you want—your objective—but do so in terms of your ability to function well in it. In these changing times, that job might have been made obsolete over night, but your abilities are not subject to obsolescence. In both the Functional and Directed Resumes you are stressing your values, and something of value is what an employer wants, and can use.

(2) If you are young and eager, but relatively inexperienced businesswise, stress youth and ambition, and build up your achievements in related functions. If you are rich in age and experience, select those experiences that can be directed at the job you want, and leave your age out of it, or drop it in casually as a support for your mature judgment.

(3) Don't hesitate to conjure up the "ideal" or "dream" job. Simply because you have never heard of such a position doesn't mean that it might not be the answer to a harassed executive's prayer. Many a job's requirements have been altered to take advantage of an applicant's superior values.

(4) Don't ever believe that an employer really knows what he wants, much though that belief has been foisted about. He may think he knows, as he may think he knows his wife will like perfume for an anniversary present, but you can be sure that if he is offered something more attractive while in a buying mood, he'll take it. What he buys is more influenced by what he can get than what he thinks he wants.

(5) Never overlook the assets of military experience. Though few executives like to admit it, they are now aware of the fact that men with military experience often execute orders better than those without it. To this can be added the sneaky suspicion, "How come you dodged military service, or weren't fit for it?" (Those who for a variety of legitimate reasons were never privileged to serve, please note, and prepare forthright answers to an unavoidable question.)
 
But in relating your military achievements to the job you are after, select only those that can be directly applied, and then describe them in civilianese. Capturing a machine gun nest occupied by 20 North Koreans is certainly an heroic achievement, but if the job you are after is in textile design, the mention of such heroism could condemn you as a swashbuckling adventurer who would never do in making designs of colored threads. And if you were in command of large numbers of men, don't use that fact to snow an employer who may head up a small but select group. He may think you are too big for the job.

(6) In presenting your achievements or business background, select those facts which support most strongly your bid for the job you are after. When you stated your objective, and backed it with a few lines describing your abilities—what we call a "frame of reference paragraph—*' you were saying in effect, "This is how I would like you to think about me." If you stated that your objective was office manager, for instance, you are asking him to think of you as a manager. If you don't substantiate, or "flesh out," this skeleton outline with real or related experience, you have seriously weakened your case.

(7) If you have had several jobs, examine them to see if their contributions to your experience can be summarized in a single paragraph. "Sales work with department store, grocery, filling station and all-night restaurant," is a far stronger way of presenting yourself as a salesman than would be a listing of four separate jobs.

Look at it this way: The listing of four 'little jobs" creates in your prospective employer the psychological impression that you are a "little job" man; the grouping of them in a single paragraph creates the impression that you have accumulated an interesting, and hence valuable, series of experiences. Many an employer was himself a clerk, counterman or grease monkey, and can appreciate your use of "sales work" as a related description of the job. That in itself is a demonstration of good salesmanship.

(8) Remember that a "little job" is a matter of degree. No job is small to the man who is proud of it, and no job is big to the man who wants something bigger. Apply Point 7 to your resume, no matter how high the goal you are shooting at.

(9) Humanize your prospective employer. It is true that a favorable decision from him can have a profound effect on your future, but that doesn't make him a demi-god. While you are working over your own resume, you might pause to wonder how many he sweated over before he got to where he is. Unless you are moving into a business handed down from father to son, you are directing your resume at a success-minded man like yourself who is not apt to forget where he came from. Such being the case, you might pause to wonder, also, about what you'll think of a resume like yours when you succeed your prospective employer in his present post. That puts you in the position of selling yourself on your own future, and if you re sold, you have complied with the first rule of salesmanship—"The best salesman is a satisfied customer."

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