Unbeatable Résumés: America's Top Recruiter Reveals What Really Gets You Hired

337 Pages·2011·1.9 MB·English

by  Tony Beshara

Unbeatable
Résumés
America’s Top Recruiter Reveals
What Really Gets You Hired
TONY BESHARA
FOREWORD BY DR. PHIL McGRAW
AMERICAN MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Beshara, Tony, 1948–
Unbeatable résumés : America’s top recruiter reveals what really gets you hired / Tony Beshara ;
foreword by Phil McGraw.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8144-1762-1 (pbk.)
ISBN-10: 0-8144-1762-0 (pbk.)
1. Résumés (Employment)—United States. I. Title.
HF5383.B4335 2011
650.14'2—dc22
2011006635
© 2011 Tony Beshara
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
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part, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior written permission of AMACOM, a division of American Management
Association, 1601 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.
About AMA
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advancing the skills of individuals to drive business success. Our mission is to support the goals of
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riential learning—learning through doing—with opportunities for ongoing professional growth at
every step of one’s career journey.
Printing number
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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C O N T E N T S
Foreword by Dr. Phil McGraw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . V
Acknowledgments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VII
Preface The Top Ten (BIG) Mistakes of RésuméWriting . . . . . . . IX
Chapter 1 Straight Talk About Your Résumé (From a
Guy Whose Living Depends on Using Them) . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Chapter 2 Surprising Facts About Your Résumé Audience. . . . . . . . . . . 6
Chapter 3 The Résumés 3,000 Hiring Authorities Want to See. . . . . . 10
Chapter 4 Key Features of the Most Effective Résumés. . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Chapter 5 The Basic Résumé and Some Résumé Makeovers. . . . . . . . 41
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Chapter 6 Sample Traditional Résumés . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Chapter 7 Nontraditional Résumés. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Chapter 8 E-Mailing Résumés, Cover Letters, and
Attachments: Increasing the Chances
Your Résumé Will Get Read . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Chapter 9 Leveraging Your Résumé . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
Chapter 10 How to Handle Common Résumé Problems
(Too Many Jobs, Employment Gaps,
Changing Careers, Relocating, etc.). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
Epilogue The Top Ten Rules (You Now Know)
of Résumé Writing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
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F O R E W O R D
On The Dr. Phil Show,we strive to bring our guests the best of the best
in every category of resource during and after the show. Tony Beshara
is just that—the best of the best! Given these tough economic times,
more and more of our guests find themselves in social or economic dis-
tress, often recently unemployed with the challenge of having to rein-
vent themselves and find a new career path. Tony is one of the top
placement and recruitment specialists in the United States, and with
him in your corner you have an incredible advantage. He has developed
one of the most successful systems for finding a job or changing careers
ever devised. It is specific, action oriented, and above all, “doable.”
We asked Tony to intervene with a husband and father, who was
out of work for eight months through no fault of his own. Tony began
with a dynamic and scientifically based rewrite of his résumé. Within
thirty minutes, the transformation had begun. The simple but effec-
tive changes that Tony made are here in this book.
The guest implemented Tony’s system, including the newly
shaped résumé, and despite being in California with its terrible job
market, a new job was created. Now, it took nine months of hard
job-searching work; it wasn’t easy, but it was “doable.” There was
nothing mystical or magical about what he did—just good, solid,
well-executed planning and work.
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VI ❚ FOREWORD
A résumé is one of the most important tools you can have in a
job search.
Tony’s first two books, The Job Search Solution and Acing the
Interview, were bestsellers because of Tony’s practical, in-the-
trenches strategies for how to get a job. He knows what works. Tony
taps into everything he knows from decades of job-placement expe-
rience when he shows job candidates how crafting their résumés dif-
ferently can make all the difference in finding a job. When it comes
to looking for a job and creating the most effective résumé, Tony’s
Unbeatable Résumésis of the highest standard. Some people are going
to get the jobs that are out there. With Tony’s system in the mix,
your chances are clearly going to go way up. Good luck, and God
bless you and your family.
Dr. Phil
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A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S
Greatest thanks go to Chrissy for her prayers, time, and spiritual sup-
port. A great deal of thanks goes to the “team” at AMACOM: Ellen,
Erika, Carole, and Kama . . . you all are the best! Thanks also go to
Pam Williams, who kept these chapters straight revision after revision,
and to Vernelle Fugitt for her research. Thanks to Phil McGraw, his
organization, and their spirit of service. And a special thanks to the
thousands of candidates I have worked with over the years who con-
tributed to this book’s contents.
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Dedicated to God’s greatest blessings,
My wonderful wife and best friend, Chrissy, and our family.
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P R E F A C E
The Top Ten
(BIG) Mistakes of
Résumé Writing
I personally receive200 to 300 résumés each week. I personally use200
résumés each week to find people jobs. Being on the front line, in the
trenches, when it comes to résumés, I know what works and what
doesn’t. This isn’t theory; this is truth. Here are the most common
mistakes people make regarding their résumés. In this book, I debunk
résumé myths and give you all the inside info you’ll need to get the
edge in obtaining job interviews.
So, here are the top ten BIG mistakes people make when prepar-
ing their résumés:
1. Overestimating the value of a résumé. Suffice it to say, the
value of your résumé in getting you a job, let alone an interview, isn’t what
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