So I pull into a gas station to… well… get some gas for the car. While there, I go inside to get four waters for the family. Choosing bottled water is becoming a lot like picking out toothpaste at a grocery store. The choices are endless. Spring water, filtered water, purified water, imported water, water with vitamins, water with electrolytes, diet flavored water (what!?), carbonated water… endless. So I pick out my water based on a system that I’ve developed over the years: PRICE.

Eventually I find what I’m looking for… bottles with the bright orange “99 cents” stickers on them. But wait! On the shelving below the bottles are more orange stickers: 2/$2.22. I pause for a second to make sure my brain is registering correctly. I can buy one bottle for 99 cents or two for $2.22!? Surely a mistake. I head to the cashier to pay.

I watch the prices on the customer monitor as the girl behind the counter scans each bottle: .99… .99… special 2 for $2.22... Wait!

Me: “Excuse me. The bottles are marked 99 cents each and two for $2.22. It costs more if I buy two.”
Her: “Yeah, they’re on sale when you buy two.”
Me: (????!) “Yeah, but it costs more for two.”
Her: “No. They’re on sale.”
Me: “But they’re not really on sale because it costs more if I buy two. If I buy these four waters, I’m going to pay 48 cents more than if I bought them at 99 cents each.”
Pause.
Her: “Do you want the waters?”
Me: (sigh) “No thanks.”

Typically, recruiters and hiring personnel spend about 15 – 20 seconds scanning resumes. If your resume is unorganized, cluttered, and hard to read (like trying to select bottled water) the reader may give up and toss it on the reject pile. Good resumes have lots of “orange stickers,” meaning that they’re well written, well organized, and easy for the reader to find key points relevant to the job position.

However, in addition to “orange stickers,” accuracy of content, spelling, format, and grammar (99 cents for one or two for $2.22) are a must. And don’t just rely on your computer’s spellchecker. One resume I saw had, “PROFESSIONAL SUM MARY” in one of the headings. Spellchecker missed the unwanted space in the middle of the word, “summary” because “sum” and “mary” are valid words on their own.

Be diligent on the document that you’re sending out to represent you. Read and reread your resume package and when you’re done… have someone else read it as well. Don’t let a hiring professional leave the store (translated: schedule an interview) without buying the goods (translated: you).

Now, you wouldn’t have two tens for a five would you?