Unbeatable Resumes: America's Top Recruiter Reveals What REALLY Gets You Hired [Paperback]

I changed my resume to the format and content as suggested in this book and I've started getting phone screens and interviews with it. In the 14 weeks prior to making this change I wasn't getting much of anything.

Yeah, it could be coincidence. And no, I'm not generally enamored of folks touted by Dr. Phil as experts in anything. I'm also not sold on the idea that 3000 businesses in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area are generally representative of the entire US hiring population.

What I can tell you though, especially since the economy has made me into a semi-professional job hunter, is that I have seen a marked difference in response to this book's suggested format as compared to my previous resume format. And that the previous format was one that most other resume books and online resume advisers recommend. As always with these things, your mileage may vary.

I was having a tough time updating my Resume after years out of the job hunt picture. I got this book by Tony Beshara, and have had a hard time putting it down. It has EVERYTHING you need to write one of the best possible Resumes, to help you get hired. Just the sample Resumes alone are worth the price of the book.
If you can only afford one book for your job search, then this should be that book-Without the best Resume, you may not even get the interview. And of course if you get the interview, read "Acing the Interview", another excellent book.
Acing the Interview: How to Ask and Answer the Questions That Will Get You the Job

The first thing I did after reading Tony Beshara's Unbeatable Resumes was to dust off my own resume to see what I might do to improve it. What worked for me in the 90s is evidently passé now, as I quickly realized that a resume crafted 10 years ago won't cut it in today's employment marketplace.

In previous years, many people rewrote their resumes in the popular functional resume format. Beshara notes that it is still an acceptable approach for some job seekers, such as those looking to land their first job or those reentering the workforce after a lapse of time, but he endorses the reverse chronological format as the best choice for everyone else. Using a functional resume may raise a flag that the candidate has something to hide that is best covered up by omitting a timeline.

The author clearly lays out the reasons for this and other aspects of resume writing, based on his extensive career in finding jobs for others. In his role as a placement and recruitment specialist, he is in a prime position to see and critique resumes. He can also judge what works effectively from this vantage point by observing who gets an interview and who does not. And an interview is precisely the goal the resume is aimed for. Beshara makes that point up front--that a resume is only a tool to gain entry to the decision makers, not the tool to get a job.

One of the most interesting chapters in the book, in my estimation, is the one with Beshara's tabulations for his survey of over 3,000 hiring authorities regarding what they actually look for when reviewing resumes. These results bear out the author's admonishments about choosing a reverse chronology to document experience. Also supporting this is the percentage of reviewers who dislike long, unclear descriptions of jobs--something that is typical on a functional resume. Other observations from the survey criticize some of the customary elements for resumes; for instance, 95 percent of the respondents said they don't like objective or summary statements.

There is a substantial section that defines a step-by-step method to rewrite a resume into an effective one. What really helps the job hunter is the inclusion of many illustrative resumes--some in a "before" and a rewritten "after" format and some that are targeted to specific nontraditional occupations or conditions. What better way to write a successful resume than to see a template that an expert in the field has utilized.

With chapters on electronic submissions as well as how to leverage your resume through job boards, social media, and other technological avenues, this book is up-to-the-minute savvy. It should prove to be of immense help for someone like me who has an outdated resume, but also for anyone writing their first resume.

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