What Makes An Interviewable Resume?

Many job seekers have the misconception that creating a great resume will help them score a job. But this is actually not the case. The great resume actually scores the interview—and if the interview is great, then you may score the job. In other words, if you want a company to call you in for an interview, you need to create a resume that encourages a hiring manager to do so. But why not take it one step further by not only writing a resume that prompts a callback but one that shapes the course of the interview? This type of resume is known as an interviewable resume.

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Understanding The Interviewable Resume

The interviewable resume is unique in that it does more than make a hiring manager interested enough to want to learn more about you in an interview; it actually provides such intriguing information that it sculpts the interview questions. For instance, if you write in your resume that your responsibilities include filing documents, the interviewer may feel the need to come up with his or her own questions to learn whether you can develop your own filing system. But if you write in your resume that you “coordinated efforts with company president to innovate a company-wide standardized filing system,” the interviewer may want to know what steps you took to develop the system—and even how you were able to coordinate efforts with the company’s president to make it happen. See the difference?

Creating Your Own Interviewable Resume

So how can you develop a resume that effectively intrigues hiring managers? Here are a few steps to consider:

1. Think In Terms Of Employer Needs

Keep in mind that a resume is always about what you can do for the company, not what the company can do for you. So when you create the interviewable resume, your first step is to write examples of what you’ve done for previous companies based on what you know the prospective employer wants from the person who wins the job.

2. Deliver A Consistent Message

A great way to get an employer to ask more about what you’ve written in your resume is to deliver a consistent message that tells the story of how you plan to transform the position based on your previous experience. If you deliver this message in your resume, the employer will certainly want to learn more in an interview.

3. Make Use Of Action Words

Also, as noted in the previous section, you want to make use of action words like “correlated” or “developed” to show you were not just handed responsibilities but actually initiated your own projects. This proves you’re a leader with great ideas to share in an interview. The more you present yourself as an active leader with innovate ideas, the more you’ll pique the interest of an employer. So as you write your resume, make sure the information you provide is so impressive that the interviewer can’t wait to learn more. Photo Credit: Shutterstock