A few years ago, I had the opportunity to co-produce a full-length family film called Treasure Blind.

To get recognized at film festivals, we produced a trailer that would grab the attention of the hosts. We were invited to show the film at five different festivals. In the movie industry, a trailer can be your only opportunity to get a response from the viewers. The goal of the trailer is to get the viewers to act.

In movie theaters, it is common to see five or six movie trailers before the feature film to get you to consider seeing their production. Our response falls under one of these three choices:

“Let’s go see this movie,”

“Let’s wait till it come out for rental or to television,” or

“We are never going to go see that movie.”

The opening lines of a resume are like a movie trailer. The “trailer” or opening lines of a resume determines whether the “viewer” or hiring manager will:

Bring a candidate in for an interview immediately,

Wait until they see what other candidates/resumes are out there, or

Put the resume on the bottom of the stack. (trashcan)

A resume needs to grab the attention of the reader immediately. The average hiring manager spends less than ten seconds reviewing a resume. Your resume must scream “I meet your needs with my skills and abilities!”

We were recently assisting a job seeker with his resume to identify with a specific job in which he was interested. Comparing his key strengths and expertise to the job requirements, he customized his resume to showcase his abilities in a way that mirrored the job description. He peppered his opening statement (his movie trailer) with key phrases to show the immediate impact he could make in the position. He followed with a list of key strengths and expertise he brought to the position and four -5 selected accomplishments to drive home that fact that he had a history of bringing results to his employers.

No one can make a summary statement better than the person writing the resume but with professional help and by using the job description to frame the resume, he was able to create a resume that received this response “we need to talk to this applicant.”

Creating a movie trailer is not easy. There is considerable research that goes into the development of the trailer to ensure that it does the best job possible in getting people to see the movie. Like creating a movie trailer, a job applicant must do their homework on the company and be familiar with the vision and mission, the people who they will be applying with, the people who will make the hiring decision, and the job description to ensure that the hiring manager will notice their resume.

A resume must be created using a skeleton of the job description and adding the personalized meat and muscle the candidate uniquely brings to those bones. Do your homework. Find the real needs within the positions you are applying for. Doing all these things will help you get the same response that a good movie trailer gets from the viewers at the theater.

Keeping your resume updated is a good habit and keeps you prepared when opportunities come your way.

Employers are looking for proven workers who can get the job done. And remember one of the ten commandments, “Thou shalt not lie.”  Truth is always the key to success long term.

Proverbs 22:29 “Those who are exceptional in their work will be noticed by leaders, not lost in the crowd.”

Treasure Blind won awards at five film festivals and distributed by Cloud 10 Pictures.