The other day a family friend asked me to review a resume.

It was the typical resume; her name at the top and her qualifications and skills followed along with her professional experience and volunteer work.

My first thought was this resume was just cold hard facts. As a business owner I want to get to know whom I might hire. In fact I don’t believe any business owner is just interested in the person’s name and qualifications. They only become interested when they begin to understand if there is a fit with the person and their business. At least I think that should be one of the most important fundamentals, if you want a staff that works well together.

Then it occurred to me that this is just a ‘canned’ formula that is promoted as the way to apply for a job. Can anyone tell me why people buy into this and expect to be hired? If all resumes look the same, how do you expect to be noticed? It is the same when you are marketing your business – how do you expect to be noticed if you look the same as your competitors?

My concluding question for you is; ‘If there is no thought being put into differentiating your business how do you expect to be noticed?’