How long have you been job hunting long enough? How many resumes have you sent out? Enough now Not enough? How often have you tweaked your resume? Have you had a lot of contact for interviews? Why not? Your experience, your skills, your knowledge, your abilities are all competitive, are they not! Why no response? Someones getting called in, why is it not you?

Maybe it is not you. Not you, in the sense that you are fine, but your methods are all wrong. If you see yourself as a competitive individual with others in similar circumstances and you have had no success in the past several months, then it is time for some introspection. It is time to step back and examine everything, preferably with a mentor or trusted friend.

Because if I am not careful, I could write a 100,000 word tome, I am going to restrict the topic to resumes. In a previous article, I suggested that every job seeker should maintain 2 core resumes. The first resume is an eye catcher that one sends to well catch someones eye. The second resume would be the one that a job seeker leaves behind after I say again, after the interview.

Some have suggested that having two resume is not necessary. At best, the suggestion has been to have two variations of the same resume. The first resume would be essentially the same as the second but with the accomplishments, skills, and such left out.

I disagree. The first rule is to stop digging if you are in a hole. And doing the same things over and over again expecting different results is wishful thinking at best. How many resumes have you sent out and what have been the results? What would lead you to believe that you will get a better response by sending out more of the same resume?

The first resume needs to be concise, on point, and be visually exciting. It should have:

Summary
Accomplishments
Experience
Skills
Educational Background

The resume should make use fonts, breaks, bullet points to present a clean, beautiful product. Until recently, I thought that was sufficient and for most part, I still do. That said I saw a resume that had logos, testimonials, recommendations right on the resume. It was in color and visually stunning.

So, now I think our first resume should have all what I listed and you should work in quotes from past employers you are on good terms with along the edges of resume using Text Art. And if you worked for a company with a distinctive and recognizable logo, you should cut and paste that too.
Whether you mail a resume to ad posting or drop one off at a job fair, your resume is up against some competition:

First, the sheer number of resumes dropped off or mailed in will overwhelm the HR person and the chances of getting to a hiring manager drop off the cliff.
At least some will have paid several hundred dollars to have their resume written for them.
Some may, may have fudge a few entries to make their resumes stand out. May!

But that is not necessary. Make your resume visually appealing using color, font size, bullet shapes, and lines. Succinctly list your summary with either a 3 to 4 sentence paragraph or with bullet points. Your accomplishments should be listed with bullet points and be brief. Your work experience should be just title and dates.

Set the margins of your page to .25 all the way around and maximize the usage space on the document. And with the new twist, insert a vertical line along the left side of the resume. There should be about a 2 space to the left of the line and about 6 to right. All of your resume information goes to the right of the line.

To the left of the line, insert testimonials and quotes, along with a logo or two. This will make the resume look great. And that is what this first resumes sole purpose is to get their attention.

But let me give credit to where credit is due. This addition came from two guys, Kevin Donlan and David E. Perry. So, I give kudos to them.

Come visit our blog, "Landing On Your Feet: A Help You Find a Job Blog." Strategies, tips and advice, a few laughs and a couple of words of wisdom are all it is. Visit us today at www.LandingOnYourFeet.com Also, in all fairness to Kevin and David, if you want more information on how exactly they do their resumes, go to www.penniesonthedollar.org.