Can Your Resume Talk?

About the Book

One recruiter made this statement after reviewing the book: "This book is a gem for the ABC's of putting a great resume together. Dick Hart combines his classroom and real world experience to guide the reader in a practical, no-nonsense approach of ways to make your resume talk for you."

Can your Resume Talk? goes through all the required and optional sections of a resume with suggestions to make the resume talk for you. Suggestions are made to make someone preparing a resume think about who they really are and how good they are. Suggestions are given to make the Objective a headline and how to write the work experience to support that headline.

"Before" and "After" versions of resumes are shown with critiques of the "before" versions given to show ways to make the resume stronger. Then, the "after" version is a re-write to show the changes so the "after" versions will talk for you. Ten different types of resumes are shown so the reader can use resumes that fit their particular circumstances.

Unemployed workers who have taken Mr. Hart's classes have found good results from the information in this book, as indicated by this statement from one of his students: "I went over a year with no interviews after attending a professional resume class. My thanks to Dick Hart for getting rid of my obituary and getting me to write an advertisement of my skills and abilities with results on one page with a technical addendum. I am now back at work with a very challenging job."

The contents are not long and are written as simply as possible because shorter is better. The book is easy to read and the suggestions are straightforward. Using the suggestions in the book will make you think about what you need to do to put some life in your statements so they will talk for you.

The Chief Administrative Officer and Human Resources Director of an engineering company in Raleigh, NC reviewed the contents in the book and provided her view: "Finally, an easy-to-use, real-world approach to resume writing! Dick Hart's recommendations are right on target. Resumes written according to his guidelines will surely grab the attention and recognition of hiring managers and HR professionals. I just wish I had it when I was writing my resume!"

About the Author

Richard A. Hart is a contract instructor for Wake Technical Community College in Raleigh, NC. He teaches two classes - Can Your Resume Talk? and Career Development and Assessment.

He is an accounting graduate from West Virginia Institute of Technology where he was captain of his basketball and baseball teams. He was also college student government president. His major and activities in college hardly fit the personnel and human resources area. However, during his 35-year career with the US General Accounting Office he spent 13 years in the training area, having served as Director of Training for 10 years. In that capacity, he was also Director of Outplacement where he personally reviewed resumes and gave practice interviews to assist exiting employees. He has worked with two support groups for unemployed church members to assist them in preparing resumes and preparing for interviews.

When challenged on his approach to what makes a resume talk and why he thought his approach was right, he went out into the community and interviewed all types of employers, recruiters, and human resource companies to see what made them read resumes and what made them throw them in file 13. His satisfaction comes from seeing others refocus their resumes showing how good they are, finding challenging jobs, and then becoming successful in those jobs.