Get to Know Your Résumé

Being unfamiliar with your own résumé is a surefire way to ruin a great interview. Picture this: Your interview is humming along nicely when the interviewer asks you for an example of the experience listed in the summary section of your résumé. You quickly try and think of an anecdote about your "extensive people-management skills," but your nerves get the best of you and you end up stumbling through a less-than-eloquent response.

Even if you have plenty of experience managing people, the fact that you can't immediately come up with a concrete example makes you seem unprepared at best, and at worst, like you're embellishing your experience. Both will leave a bad impression.

So how can you avoid these foot-in-mouth situations? These guidelines will help you "get to know" your résumé:

1. Give your input to your résumé writer: Nowadays, it's commonplace for job seekers to have help writing their résumés, and there are many good reasons to do so. Maybe you're stuck in a rut or have lost perspective and can no longer discern your accomplishments. Perhaps you feel that your achievements and background should get you more interview activity, but the résumé is not selling you well enough, or maybe you're simply short on time or don't have the energy to write it well. All of these reasons are legitimate, and there is nothing wrong with asking someone else to put together a résumé for you as long as you are comfortable with everything on the document. It's easy to become enamored with your new résumé because it is well-written and sounds wonderful, but it is still your résumé, and it needs to be a reflection of you. Make sure your résumé accurately portrays you, your attributes and your accomplishments.

If you're working with a résumé writer, one of the best ways to ensure your résumé sounds like you, only better, is to write at least the first draft of a résumé yourself. Struggling to find the right words and deciding how to state your responsibilities are great practice for responding to questions in the interview. Résumé writing is invaluable practice for the interview itself.

2. Prepare talking points for your whole résumé: A key to success is to make sure you're prepared to speak to your résumé in detail before you begin interviewing. Though your experience makes up the majority of your résumé, it's also important to focus on the summary and accomplishments sections so you're not caught off guard if you're asked a question about one of these areas in an interview. Go through each line and each word to make sure you actually understand the meaning, and aren't just using industry jargon that sounds good. If you're not sure of the definition of the term, use that as an indication you shouldn't use that word.

3. Get outside feedback: When preparing a résumé, having external feedback can be extremely helpful. Ask someone who cares about you and is willing to hold you accountable to read over the résumé and tell you if anything doesn't seem right or sound like you. Then, have the person ask you possible interview questions based on your résumé. Most people don't respond best right off the top of their head in an interview, and this practice is a great way to form confident, smooth answers to difficult questions. With practice, you will know what to say when you are on the spot in an interview.

The bottom line is that your familiarity with your résumé and your interview performance go hand in hand. Don't risk a great job opportunity by allowing your résumé to weaken your interview performance. Your résumé is a document that is supposed to represent you. Make sure it does so clearly, accurately, and in the best light possible.