Programs like MS word and Resume Deluxe offer quick and easy resumes for all of your needs. Unfortunately, this isn’t a good idea. See, Microsoft Word, as well as other resume design programs each have a specific style of resume. We call them “Cookie-Cutter” resumes. I know employers who can not only determine whether or not a resume is a cookie-cutter, but can actually determine the program used just by looking at the resume!
Needless to say, this impacts your ability to land an interview. Employers take a resume to be a representation of you, and when you’re represented by a canned resume, they’ll call in the Guinness Book of Records to measure “The Fastest resume toss-out ever recorded.” Imaging being a hiring manager, and looking at one resume, then looking at another that’s exactly the same, save the info. Then you see another, and another, and another….you get the point.
Hence, it pays to have a resume designed for you. If you must insist on using these programs however, then what I would do is have the program write your resume, then re-edit it yourself. If you don’t know what to write, then you can give it to someone like me. I personally charge way less to revise a resume then to create one, just so you know.
Do you rely on computer-generated resumes? Have they gotten you far? Let us know!
