Steps To Creating A Resume In Word 2010: Fill & Download for Free

Following his intuition. Breaking conventions. Breaking hierarchies and letting the best ideas to win.Hiring great people who wanted to create insanely great products. Forming great teams. Keeping the process simple. Being super honest.Values and making great products for people mattered to him more than anything else. That was the focus. Everything else was secondary.Direct insights from Steve Jobs:In an Interview to Terry Gross (1996):"Well, I don't know what corporate lifestyle is, I mean Apple was a corporation, we were very conscious of that, we were very driven to make money so that we can continue to invest in the things that we loved but it had a very few big differences to other corporate lifestyles that I had seen. The first one was, a real belief that an hierarchy of ideas that mapped into the hierarchy of the organization, in other words, great ideas can come from anywhere and that we better sort of treat people in a much more egalitarian sense, in terms of where ideas came from. And Apple was a very bottom-up company when it came to lot of great ideas and we hired, you know truly great people and gave them the room to do great work. And lot of companies, I know it sounds crazy, but lot of companies don't do that. They hire people to tell them what to do, we hire people to tell us what to do. And that lead to a very different corporate culture. And one that's much more collegial than hierarchal"In an Interview with Walt Mossberg, D8 conference (2010):In BusinessWeek interview (12 October 2004) :"The system is that there is no system. That doesn't mean we don't have process. Apple is a very disciplined company, and we have great processes. But that's not what it's about. Process makes you more efficient. But innovation comes from people meeting up in the hallways or calling each other at 10:30 at night with a new idea, or because they realized something that shoots holes in how we've been thinking about a problem. It's ad hoc meetings of six people called by someone who thinks he has figured out the coolest new thing ever and who wants to know what other people think of his idea. And it comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don't get on the wrong track or try to do too much. We're always thinking about new markets we could enter, but it's only by saying no that you can concentrate on the things that are really important."The First Macintosh team video (1985):Hiring professional managers:"We were in stage where we went out and thought, Oh! We gonna be a big company, so let's hire professional management. We went and hired a bunch of professional management but it didn't work out all well. Most of them were bozos, they knew how to manage but they didn't how to do anything! So, if you are a great person, why would you want to work with someone you can't learn anything from? You know what's interesting? You know who the best managers are? They are the great individual contributors who never ever want to be a manager but decide they have to be manager because no one else is gonna do a job as good as them"Status Quo Versus Change:"The best way I came up with to effect changes at Apple is by example and that was probably anything else the reason I spent two and half years on Macintosh, was to try by example "Hey! here is a better way to do things! And it turns out, it worked! Everyone at Apple now have looked at the Macintosh experience and come in and said, we could take lot of these concepts and apply them better in some ways and model every other factory after Macintosh factory, every other product team doing it's product have been modelled after the Macintosh team"Managing great people:"We wanted people who were insanely great at what they did, but not necessarily the seasoned professionals but who had on tips of their fingers and in their passion, the latest understanding where technology was and what we could do with technology and who wanted to bring that to lots of people, so, the neatest thing that happened was when you get a core group of ten great people, it becomes self policing has who they let into the group. So I consider the most important job of someone like myself is recruiting. The greatest people are self managing. They don't need to be managed. Once they know what to do, they will go figure out how to do it. They don't need to be managed at all. What they need is a common vision. And that's what leadership is. What leadership means is having a vision and being able to articulate that , so the people around you can understand it and getting a consencus on a common vision"On 60 Minutes Overtime, (2003):“My model for business is The Beatles. They were four guys who kept each other’s kind of negative tendencies in check. They balanced each other and the total was greater than the sum of the parts. That’s how I see business: great things in business are never done by one person; they’re done by a team of people.”The Pirates:Insights from great people:When late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs assembled his first iPhone development team, he wasn't focused on conceiving a device that would run all sorts of apps and media but instead laid out a simple mission to his team: to create the first phone people would love so much, they'd never leave the house without it.This insight into the thought process during the early days of the iPhone's development was shared during a lecture at a California school by former iPhone product marketing engineer Bob Borchers, who may be best known for his appearances in some of the iLife and iPhone guided tour videos."What's interesting is that the challenge Steve laid out for us when we created the iPhone wasn't to make a touch-screen device that would play apps and do all of this stuff," Borchers told students. "His [charge] was simple. He wanted to create the first phone that people would fall in love with. That's what he told us.""Now if you're an engineer, like I am by training, you're like 'what the heck does that mean?'," he said. "But he was right. The idea was, he wanted to create something that was so instrumental and integrated in peoples' lives that you'd rather leave your wallet at home than your iPhone."Borchers noted that Apple's success largely stemmed from focusing on only a handful of fundamental concepts: break the rules but do so in an exceptionally well manner, pay attention to detail and make people "think differently" about the relationship they have with their device, especially given that smartphones already existed in the market.The product had to be a revolutionary mobile phone, the best iPod to date, and also let users carry "the internet in their pocket," the latter of which was somewhat of a foreign concept at the time, Borchers said. Downloadable apps, advanced GPS capabilities, video and photography features, and voice integration weren't part of the original mandate.Instead, those featured blossomed from Apple's successful formation of a platform that could continue to surprise and delight users over time, with Jobs in particular exercising his penchant for perfection and attention to detail every step of the way.For instance, Borchers recounted how the original iPhone almost shipped with a plastic touchscreen but right before its debut, Jobs confronted his team with the concern that while the plastic would protect the underlying LCD, it would scratch when users kept it in their pocket with keys and other items. This prompted his team to improvise on the spot, convincing Corning to resume production of its then-abandoned Gorilla Glass, which turned out to be the superior solution.Similarly, Borchers also detailed Apple's well-known obsession with product packaging, saying that Apple spends "way too much time on" product presentation but its ultimately worth it because it effectively communicates to consumers that the product inside the box is special.Meanwhile, Jobs and his team also did their part to break the rules of engagement when it came to dealing with its first official wireless carrier AT&T. As was customary at the time, the carrier wanted to purchase all of the phones outright from Apple and then turn around and market them to customers on its own."We said no, we don't want to do that,'" Borchers said. "We want to be able to sell the iPhone. We want to be able to talk directly to the customer. That was a big, big change for the industry.”Source: Apple Insider. http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/12/02/03/former_apple_product_manager_recounts_how_jobs_motivated_first_iphone_team.htmlSachin Agarwal learned a lot about Apple's management style during his days as an engineer. He worked at the company for 6 years, before leaving to start the simple blogging platform Posterous."I loved working there... [Choosing to leave] was a really hard decision," he says.But, when he left, he made sure to take a few important management lessons with him, which have helped make Posterous successful as well.A tech company should be run by engineers, not managersBuilding a culture of respect between managers and employeesGive employees the freedom to own and improve the productChallenge your employees to growDeadlines are crucialDon't play the "feature game" with your competition.Hire people who are insanely passionate about your productYou should maintain that startup culture even when you are a big companySource: Business Insider.http://www.businessinsider.com/management-lessons-i-learned-working-at-apple-2010-7Finally,Excerpts from his legacy,"My passion has been to build an enduring company where people were motivated to make great products. Everything else was secondary.I have my own theory about why decline happens at companies like IBM or Microsoft. The company does a great job, innovates and becomes a monopoly or close to it in some field, and then the quality of the product becomes less important. The company starts valuing the great salesmen, because they’re the ones who can move the needle on revenues, not the product engineers and designers. So the salespeople end up running the company. John Akers at IBM was a smart, eloquent, fantastic salesperson, but he didn’t know anything about product. The same thing happened at Xerox. When the sales guys run the company, the product guys don’t matter so much, and a lot of them just turn off. It happened at Apple when Sculley came in, which was my fault, and it happened when Ballmer took over at Microsoft. Apple was lucky and it rebounded, but I don’t think anything will change at Microsoft as long as Ballmer is running it.I hate it when people call themselves “entrepreneurs” when what they’re really trying to do is launch a startup and then sell or go public, so they can cash in and move on. They’re unwilling to do the work it takes to build a real company, which is the hardest work in business. That’s how you really make a contribution and add to the legacy of those who went before. You build a company that will still stand for something a generation or two from now. That’s what Walt Disney did, and Hewlett and Packard, and the people who built Intel. They created a company to last, not just to make money. That’s what I want Apple to be I don’t think I run roughshod over people, but if something sucks, I tell people to their face. It’s my job to be honest. I know what I’m talking about, and I usually turn out to be right. That’s the culture I tried to create. We are brutally honest with each other, and anyone can tell me they think I am full of shit and I can tell them the same. And we’ve had some rip-roaring arguments, where we are yelling at each other, and it’s some of the best times I’ve ever had. I feel totally comfortable saying “Ron, that store looks like shit” in front of everyone else. Or I might say “God, we really fucked up the engineering on this” in front of the person that’s responsible. That’s the ante for being in the room: You’ve got to be able to be super honest. Maybe there’s a better way, a gentlemen’s club where we all wear ties and speak in this Brahmin language and velvet code-words, but I don’t know that way, because I am middle class from California. I was hard on people sometimes, probably harder than I needed to be. I remember the time when Reed was six years old, coming home, and I had just fired somebody that day, and I imagined what it was like for that person to tell his family and his young son that he had lost his job. It was hard. But somebody’s got to do it. I figured that it was always my job to make sure that the team was excellent, and if I didn’t do it, nobody was going to do it. You always have to keep pushing to innovate. Dylan could have sung protest songs forever and probably made a lot of money, but he didn’t. The Beatles were the same way. They kept evolving, moving, refining their art. That’s what I’ve always tried to do—keep moving. Otherwise, as Dylan says, if you’re not busy being born, you’re busy dying."

To start a great resume, you literally set aside your work experience for a moment and focus on the top of the resume, which is a re-write of the related job advertisements that you have found. Once that is done, then you add your matching background. Going back to the Romeo and Juliet example, would you write about Macbeth if the paper was supposed to be about a different play? Use the job advertisements to drive the resume, not the other way around.The #1 Resume Hack: Write the Resume to the Job Advertisement.This resume style takes all the hard work you did identifying different career paths for your skills, and makes a resume out of the resulting job advertisements. At this stage you optimize the resume based on the keywords necessary to allow recruiters to find you based on their search parameters. By specifically creating a resume based on the job advertisement’s required and desired skills, years of experience, job title, education, and accomplishments, your resume surfaces to the top. This document is also used as a template to build your online profiles on LinkedIn: Log In or Sign Up, Job Search | Indeed, Monster Jobs - Job Search, Career Advice & Hiring Resources, staffing agencies, and niche professional job boards. An aligned profile helps the recruiter to assist you because it is easier for them to sell a direct-hit match candidate to the hiring manager.With the Market-Based Resume©, what matters is what matches; all other material is minimized or removed. By the time you are done with this section you may ask yourself the following question: “Why don’t I just copy and paste the job advertisement into my resume?” My dear readers, it is almost that simple!Before you learn this powerful resume style, let’s review and debunk some myths about modern resume writing.This chapter includes the following lessons:3.1 – Modern Resume Myths3.2 – The 4-Easy Steps to a Resume that Gets Calls3.3 – Cover Letters3.1: Modern Resume MythsA resume format that works for online profiles and internal Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) is not the same as the old resume style. This lesson discusses or debunks many myths and common beliefs about resumes.Myth 1: The look of the resume is as important as the content.This is not true. There are some amazing and quite beautiful templates out there for resumes that do absolutely nothing to tell the recruiter that you are qualified for the job. In addition, some of the graphic rich, grid-like resume formats can really be hurting your chances of being found because the ATS cannot read them.To do a quick check on how your resume is being read, log in to Job Search | Indeed and upload your resume. Also, open your Notepad on any PC, and copy and paste the resume into Notepad, which will strip the formatting. That stripped-down version is the actual output that a recruiter has from Job Search | Indeed. It is not pretty, and some systems are designed to boot out resumes that cannot be read properly.The look of the resume is less important than …• Matching content• Matching keywords• Matching accomplishmentsMyth 2: Modern resumes should be submitted as a PDF not a Word DocumentThe industry standard in resume creation and submission is a Microsoft Word Document (.doc or .docx). Even the most cursory review of the job market will indicate immediately that MS Word is the mandatory resume submission format. This is true because although Adobe PDF is popular and better at retaining its format shape, the Applicant Tracking Systems cannot read a PDF document. Instead, create and submit using MSWord. (I do like to review a PDF version of a resume to catch any strange formatting issues - a great way to proofread.)Myth 3: Resumes should be pretty to stand out.MS Word offers some really attractive looking resume templates. Even I think they look great. BUT, these resumes do not help you stand out with online submission. In fact, they may be hurting your chances of being found by recruiters due to issues that the ATS has with grids and images. Consider keeping a “pretty” version for your in-person networking and for online use. The goal is a resume style that focuses on matching information and keywords that the systems can read.Myth 4: Modern resumes do not need whitespace - more information is better.The human brain needs “white space” to discern words and images. For this reason, it is critical to maintain at least a half inch margin; .75 inch is also good. If your resume is too crammed with words, the recruiter will not be able to read it. A recruiter will read the resume from left to right with the top half of the page being the most important visual space. Create a resume that presents the most important matching information first.Myth 5: Solid lines that go from one side of the page to another are useful.The use of lines to create visual separations is generally discouraged because the old type of ATS, which many companies still use, cannot read them. It is better to use center justifications, ALL CAPS, bold, and different font styles to create visual separation.Myth 6: Dates of employment have to be month and year.Because many candidates have dates of employment spanning less than two years, it is recommended to tab the dates over the right and use a year-to-year date format. You will, however, be required to use the month/year (xx/xxxx) format on your job applications. I recommend year-to-year on the resume and a separate document that has month/year for employment applications. Eventually, you will need it.Myth 7: Fancy bullets are fun!Fancy bullets are generally unnecessary for the resume. Use the standard “•”. Use tabs to move copy horizontally on the page. Note that to get dates and other information justified properly on the right, the use of tabs and spaces will also be needed to get the correct alignment.Myth 8: I can copy lines from the internet into my MS Word document with no problem.When material is copied and pasted from the Internet, paste it into “Notepad” first to strip any background formatting and graphics, and then copy and paste into the Word document. If the formatting within an MS Word document gets difficult, select the entire document and change your paragraph spacing to “no spacing” (in the 2010 version of the program) to remove all paragraph spacing. Sometimes it is best to start over instead of fussing.Myth 9: Tables and graphics are great!They may be great but the ATS cannot read them. Do not put them on your resume. Use tabs instead to create columns and spacing on resumes.Myth 10: Times New Roman Font Size 12 is the best ever!I love the Times New Roman font but it is no longer acceptable, because “sans serif” fonts are considered the most readable modern fonts for this computer age. The recommended fonts and sizes are Arial-11, Calibri-12, Tahoma-11, and Verdana-10. The template on the video class is Verdana-10. Sometimes if I want to be fancy, I will use Garamond-14, but for headers only. (Get the template and class at Stacked_Class_Link)Myth 11: The header and footer are a great place to put my contact information!The ATS cannot read information in the headers or footers so do not use these.Myth 12: I need my contact information on both pages.Usually, this means putting the contact information in the header, which as I said can’t be read by the ATS. It is not necessary to have your contact information on all pages of your resume.Myth 13: It’s OK to have a resume over two pages long.The answer is no, unless it is a C.V. for an academic or scientific position that includes publications and consortium events. Studies have shown that the recruiter tends to look at the top of the resume and scan for education at the bottom on the first page. If they do not find it on the first page, they will look for it on the bottom of the second page. If they have to search, your resume goes in the trash bin. The recruiter is not going to review multiple pages of experience. The goal is to quickly show them you are a match and to get the call for an interview, not to review your entire history.Myth 14: I need to list all 20 years of work history.Generally speaking, you should only be listing the last ten years of work history. This can be pushed to 15 years but it is not advisable. More history tends to age the candidate and the older worker tends to have a lot of redundant or irrelevant history as well. Only keep older information if it is critical for the next job.Here is a recap of general formatting recommendations.• Document program: MS Word (.doc or .docx), not Adobe PDF• Margins: One-inch standard, .75 inch, or .5 inch. Do not go too narrow• Lines that span the page: Do not use• Fonts and sizes: Arial-11, Calibri-12, Tahoma-11, or Verdana-10• Spacing: Single or 1.15• Highlights: Bold, CAPS, italics, different fonts• Justification: Left or center• Listing: Standard round bullets• Indentation: Tabs and return• Tables and pictures: Do not use• Colors: Do not use• Page Numbers: Do not use• Header and Footer: Do not useThe online class has a downloadable resume example that has the correct formatting. This can be used to create your own resume. (Stacked_Class_Link)Myth 15. Reverse Chronology is the only way to build a resume.This one is partially true. In the classic reverse chronology resume, the recruiter focuses on the following items: Employer/Industry, Job Title, Dates of Employment. This is an issue for professionals who want or need to move out of their industry or job title, or that have gaps, too much job jumping, or even too long a tenure at a specific job. A candidate who needs to change careers often turn to the classic functional resume that focused on the skills and accomplishments. These resumes minimize mismatching industry, titles, and dates of employment.Recruiters tend to dislike or (I will say it more strongly) hate functional resumes. The recruiter wants to see immediately if the candidate’s most recent work experience matches the job for which the recruiter is hiring. Unfortunately, the recruiter believes that the most recent work experience is more important than the job candidate’s related skills and accomplishments. Because of this, hiring practices typically reinforce square-peg, square-hole lateral moves.The ATS-friendly Market-Based Resume Profile© combines the reverse-chronology resume with the qualities of a functional resume in a way that does not appear to hide anything.Below is the format difference between a classic reverse-chronology resume compared to the Market-Based Resume© style. There are four differences: 1) the use of a Title Bar, 2) a Summary of Skills, 3) skill highlights, and 4) matching line items and accomplishments.CLASSIC RESUME• Contact information• Objective• Reverse-chronology work experience: highlighting job duties• EducationMARKET-BASED RESUME©• Contact information• Title Bar• Summary of Skills• Skill Highlights• Reverse-chronology work experience: line item accomplishments• EducationMyth 16: I need to list every possible contact method to reach me.The contact information includes your name, mailing address, one telephone number, and one email address. More than one of anything just clutters and does not help.Myth 17: My email address from when I was 20 years old will work great.Old email addresses pose a few problems. The account “handle-name” and email provider you chose 15 years ago may appear very unprofessional and outdated now. I recommend that you create an email specifically for your job hunt. Most of us are inundated with spam or even solicitations that you have signed up for, but because many employers use email now to set up a phone interview or to send you a written pre-screen, it is very easy to miss an email from an employer or the Applicant Tracking System. Make sure the email address you use is neutral sounding and is something you reliably check every day. Gmail is recommended.Myth 18: I have to list my LinkedIn account on the resume.This is still optional. If a LinkedIn account is listed, the profile must be optimized to support the desired position.Myth 19: Objective or no objective?The Title Bar, Summary of Skills, and Skill Highlights section taught in this program replace the objective and are a primary tool to beat the ATS system.Myth 20: One resume style will make everyone happy.One resume style and strategy gets you past the ATS to get a call for an interview, but do not expect to get great feedback about it. Resumes are extremely personal, like a work of art. Ten people can look at one piece of artwork and have different feelings about it. Do not be surprised if a recruiter calls you on your resume and provides negative feedback about length and formatting.The truth is if the resume got you a call, it was successful!Welcome the feedback respectfully; potentially even make changes if the recruiter suggests it will help with continued candidacy. But in many cases the feedback is the personal taste of the recruiter. If the resume got the call, it did its #1 primary job! Its second job is to make the interview conversation easier. If the format is hampering the interview conversation, or not presenting all the relevant information in an easy-to-follow format, then it may be a signal to alter the profile.Now it is time to start looking at resumes to see how market-based profiling works.The 4-Easy Steps to a Resume that Gets CallsThis resume format optimizes for keywords and skyrockets your chances of being found in employers’ systems and online by recruiters searching for you right now.Market-Based Resume©1. Title Bars2. Summary of Skills3. Skill Highlights4. Line Item Accomplishments1 Title BarsThis lesson could also be called "how to include title and industry on your resume regardless of your most recent position."In the classic version of a resume, the “objective” section is an area right under the contact information that gives a job candidate an opportunity to state their goal in applying for a certain job. These objectives were typically weak statements that usually had nothing to do with the job advertisement. This section is completely replaced by the Title Bar, Summary of Skills, and Skill Highlights.Title Bar DefinitionA three- to six-word re-write of the goal job title typically written in bold and ALL CAPS that creates a framework for the resume profile.The Title Bar serves the following functions:It uses the target job title in the resume for keyword optimization whether or not the candidate has held that title.It allows the resume to surface in the Recruiter’s search because it is entirely based on the keywords used to find the targeted candidate.Once the resume surfaces, it also instantly sends a signal to the recruiter’s brain that the candidate is qualified for the job.It allows the job applicant a method of stating the job title from the advertisement even if they have not specifically held that title.Your most recent job title and industry is one of the primary methods that employers use to qualify a candidate for positions. Many candidates do not have a job title that is an exact fit for the position. The simple but powerful step of using a Title Bar creates a profile theme and uses the keywords that are critical to get through to the recruiter. Title bars also remind the candidate to focus on writing a matching profile for the particular job.In the following section, I will present a recently graduated job candidate that is applying for three different positions. Based on this candidate’s Core-3©, there were three great options. The item listed before the colon is the job title of the ad, and the item after the colon is the Title Bar used for the respective resume.This candidate was a 40-year old new graduate seeking to either leverage many years of retail management for a promotion or to move in a completely new direction into Human Resources. Technically, the candidate had only one relevant title in their previous work history - Retail Manager. One of the job advertisements was seeking a Multi-Store Regional Loss Prevention Manager. The candidate had never held a position with that exact title but had done the loss prevention work. The candidate had also not held a Human Resource title but had done a lot of related work and was trying out internships as a way to break into a new field following graduation.The process of restating the job title tells the recruiter what the resume is about and that the candidate has done this type of work. It also keyword-stacks the resume with the targeting job title so it can be found.1. Regional Loss Prevention Manager: MULTI-STORE LOSS PREVENTION PROGRAMS2. Human Resources Internship: HUMAN RESOURCE INTERNSHIP PROFILE3. Retail Store Manager: RETAIL MANAGEMENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS2 Summary of SkillsThe Title Bar is the first of four steps in an ATS-friendly Market-Based Resume© Template customization. The second is the Summary of Skills section, which is the area directly under the Title Bar. When applying for jobs, the applicant should meet the following minimum thresholds to be considered qualified for the position: 1) match close to 100% of the mandated qualifications and 2) have at least 75% of the line items in the job advertisement. This second step offers an opportunity to repeat the important mandatory qualifications of the position including years of experience, the level of responsibility, and skills.Summary of Skills Definition:Summary of Skills is a rewrite of the REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS section of the job advertisement which should include:Position titleEducation levelRequested years of experience (each request)Level of responsibilityMatching industry and profession focusThis serves as a direct-hit match to the required qualifications at the top of the resume where it will be read immediately.Sometimes a job advertisement will say “3 years of ‘x’” or “5 years of ‘x’.” You should literally write that out. This works - I have had recruiters read the Summary of Skills right back to the job candidate. Remember that these recruiters are going through hundreds of resumes a day so make it easy on them. The next exercises provide examples of appropriate Summary of Skills writing and scripts based on the three Title Bars from the previous lesson.*Note: this is the only place on a resume where using the first-person ‘I’ may be considered acceptable.3 Skill HighlightsThe Skill Highlights section is the third method that tells the recruiter a candidate is a direct-hit match to the job advertisement. This method helps preserve the classic reverse-chronology version that they prefer while still directing their attention to matching qualifications.Skill Highlights DefinitionCondensing the line items and mandatory qualifications down to two- to four-word statements focused on “hard-skills,” in a 2-column format under the Summary of Skills.This serves to repeat the “hard-skill” line items and tells the recruiter that the applicant is qualified for the job immediately.One of the more challenging things for a candidate to do is to create and differentiate these “hard-skill” power statements when job advertisements are chock full of “soft-skill” statements. Soft-skills are important but they will not get you a call for an interview. To get found and get a job offer you need to simplify your matching technical dominance. Below is a list of soft-skills and a corresponding hard-skill list to demonstrate the difference.4 Line-Item AccomplishmentsIt is common for job candidates to create a list of job duties for their resume and leave it the same for each resume – this is not a good practice.This serves the following functions:The Line-Item Accomplishments are, at a minimum, a list of matching duties stripped right from the job advertisement.In some cases, re-writing the line items from the job ad is all that is needed to get a call on the resume. It is certainly better than a list of duties that have nothing to do with the job. As a career coach, I consistently work with professionals for positions I have never worked with before. To assist those clients, I created a work-around hack to help develop their resume content.Tip: Use another job advertisement in another city to build your resume.Some job ads have very few line items listed. To help create your resume, search for the same title in another city. Find a job that that has a robust set of line items. Copy, paste, and re-write the list of duties. This helps to avoid plagiarism for the position you are applying for yet offers the most content to work from.

When I was 17 years old, a real estate agent – M.M Goyal of Jaico Real Estates in Mumbai told me a Hindi dialog. He said, "Vyaapari woh, Jo Bechta bhala."Translated, it means, "The businessman who knows how to ‘Sell’ is truly successful."25 years later, and 4 Startups later, I couldn’t agree with him more.No matter which profession or job you are in, you have to know how to sell if you want an accelerated career.Here are seven compelling reasons I have learnt personally:1. Sales make you believe in yourself.When I started an unheard concept of creating online contests (contests2win) in 1998, I couldn’t even explain the idea to people because the online world was alien to them.In a famous meeting I had with Gunender Kapur (GK) of Hindustan Lever (that lasted for one hour), in which I pounded the idea of online promotions for the Annapurna Brand that he headed. He finally exclaimed, “I like you, I like the idea of ‘contesting’, but pray tell me what is ‘online?’ GK did not know what the Internet really was!I did hundreds of meetings like those during 98-99, only to face rejection, doubts and outright bewilderment. But each meeting made me hone my skill of explaining my idea in more detail; it forced me to add so many more dimensions to my concept in more ways than I had even envisaged. It made me learn my business better and reinforced my conviction in it.Thirteen years later, how much I thank those painful years for teaching me the hardest lesson that an Entrepreneur sometimes finds most difficult to learn – to continue to BELIEVE in her idea when the world says "Huh?"Just the sheer passion in your eyes and speech will make people like you, notice you and even believe in you instantly. Even though they may not understand your idea.Yup. It ain't ever easy! Pictured here - Raj Menon - 2win founding team trying to explain a concept to an MBA Class of De Paul University from Chicago who visited us.2. Sales teaches you 'Patience'.A gentleman called Gareth Thomas who was a management trainee at Channel V in 1998 liked the concept of online contests.Channel V had a popular ‘Viewers Choice’ awards on their channel and they were keen to convert the same into online contests.The only problem was that Gareth liked calling me from my office in South Mumbai to meet his boss Vivek Paul usually at 2 pm to their Lakdawala office in Khar, and after making me wait till 5 pm, he would send a message via the receptionist (or come down himself) to tell me that Vivek could not meet me.Both Vivek and he repeated this ‘ditch’ game three times with me. On my fifth visit, after the usual 3 hour wait, Vivek did finally meet me and gave me the business of hosting the Channel V Viewers’ Choice Awards on my website.Despite the bitter anger and frustration of wasting time ‘waiting’, I learnt the hard lesson of being patient.Sofas, secretaries and guards in offices became my best friends.Waiting became my meditation.Waiting is meditation. This is the Tenrikyo (Japanese) religious service I went to for 10 years; in the end I learnt the basics..Today, if I have to wait for a day, a month, a year or even a decade to achieve what I really want, it's cool with me.The religion of Sales has taught me that the fruit of penance is very sweet.3. Sales makes you meet like minded people.The most like minded people I have met! First c2w group photo - Circa 2000I met Rajiv Hiranadani (another ACE Salesman) when we used to both wait for 3 hours (minimum) to meet N.P. Thirukode of Shaw Wallace at Ballard Estate.As salespeople, we clicked despite the fact that while sitting on that sofa we were arch competitors. Rajiv used to sell Yahoo and I used to represent MSN (Microsoft) as a sales partner.By 2002, we had become good friends and I invited Rajiv to start up Mobile2win in India. By meeting him constantly, I understood what he was about.More importantly, if he could wait with a smile for 3 hours to close a small deal, he was my clone. He was my kind of CEO.Today, 10 years later Rajiv is still running that business. (Google the story of my exit from mobile2win)When I last counted, I had 5199 visiting cards that I have collected as an online entrepreneur.Yup. I've met and interacted with over 5000 people. All thanks to SALESEach and every one of them has a Sales Contact.You have to go out there, SELL and in the process meet the most interesting people in the world. For all you know, your business soul mate could be one of them!4. Sales teaches you how to ‘read’ People.My 2win founding team member Raj Menon (Ace salesman again) and I had gone to Sony India (in their Faridabad office) in June 2003 to pitch a brand new format of contesting that we had conceptualized in collaboration with Jet Airways.At the Sony office, we met a gentleman called Dinesh Chandra.I began presenting the pitch. It was a 12-slide deck. The pitch price was on slide 12.Raj and I have trained each other to watch and observe the client as a pitch progresses. As I crossed slide 9. I saw Raj reach for his phone. That was a subtle signal for me. Islowly finished slide 10. Just as slide 11 came up, I saw Raj’s sms message on my phone. It said ‘Do not go to 12. End now’.After slide 11, I declared that we had reached the end of the PPT and thanked Dinesh Chandra for listening.Just then Raj pretended to get a phone call, and in a couple of minutes, Raj looked at Dinesh Chandra and asked him ‘Sir, do you mind if Alok and I step out? I have an urgent business matter to discuss with him’.Dinesh said “Sure.”Raj took me out and said ‘Alok, Dinesh loves it. I saw his expression. We have asked for 7.5 lacs on slide 12. He will pay 15 lacs’.I came back and sat down. Dinesh asked me ‘So, what does the Jet proposal cost?I gently said ‘Sir, it costs Rs. 15 lacs’.Dinesh said “Done”. “Send me the purchase order.” That was the fastest sale I have ever done in my life.Both Raj and I left stunned and ecstatic.Only a week later did we find out who really read whom!It turned out that Dinesh Chandra was launching the Sony WEGA range in India for the first time and an interactive contest in Jet Airways that collected a live database for him was the most effective marketing he could have achieved.He had actually ‘read’ Raj and Alok better than we thought we had read him.In retrospect, we think he could have paid 30 lacs if we had known what he was planning to use the campaign for.Sales makes you understand people - it trains you to see their invisible smile even when they maintain a poker face, it shows you the twinkle in their eyes even though they may be wearing sunglasses.Can you read Gaurav Sharma? (One of 2win's best Sales people clowning away to glory at the 2011 annual party)5. VCs love SALES people!I have been involved in raising Venture Capital (10+ transactions) for my own companies and for the companies I have mentored over the past 13 years. I have a fair idea of what VCs like in Entrepreneurs and their businesses.One of the things they expect is the fact that the entrepreneur should be able to SELL.And here I mean Sales that are not necessarily revenue centric but also the ability to sell the idea, the concept or the service to potential customers and clients as proof of validation of the business.Take what happened to me for the first time when I raised venture capital for Contests2win.com.In June of 1999, I walked into the Khaitan Bhavan offices of Acqauvit (what became E-Ventures in India) for the first time. There I met Neeraj Bhargava and Rajesh Jog.The first question Neeraj asked me was “So, how many brands have used contests2win? What’s your proof of concept in the real world?”Simply said, he was asking me, "Boss, have you sold this idea to real brands or is it a concept on paper?”I answered and said, “Neeraj, seventy five of the Fortune 500 brands have already worked with us. Of them, fifteen have become repeat clients.”Some of the Brands c2w has worked with.Neeraj could not believe me. He was a McKinsey veteran and knew how difficult it was to get even a single Fortune 500 brand to sign on.I showed him the roster of clients and the campaigns they had done.In that conversation, I volunteered and said, “Neeraj, but you must know that all these brands have worked with me for free. I have not charged them anything.”I still remember Neeraj’s reply so clearly. He said, “Alok, if you have got 75 brands to work with you, I will get them to pay. That’s the easy bit."E-Ventures funded me because I had shown proof of sales of a concept that did not exist in the world before – and none other than the biggest brands in the world being customers of that concept.Today, when I sit in competitions in which real entrepreneurs compete for Money, I reflexively ask "So, who all have bought this?” Ever so often I have seen VCs politely asking entrepreneurs to come back to pitch to them AFTER they have had their first sale.If you want to raise Capital, be sure you have proof of SALES in your pitch.Some of the Best Sales People I have ever met in my life - who became Founders of the 2win Companies. From left to right - Mahesh (games2win), Rajiv (mobile2win India), GK (c2w), KK in white (media2win), Alok, Raj (c2w), Dinesh (c2w)6. Sales teaches you the business models of the world.I have sold over 2000 campaigns to over 1000 brands that belong to almost all the Fortune 500 companies in the world.In the process, I have been exposed to the business models and insights of industries as diverse as telecom to trucks, airlines to antacids.While selling my wares, I have been exposed to the sales problems of my partners, because after all, what they buy from me in terms of advertising solutions or games is only to help them sell better!There is no MBA in the world that can teach you or expose you to live case studies, management issues, problems and solutions of the world’s biggest and best companies. Going into their offices to SELL them something is the best MBA program a person can attend.Sales is the best education you get PAID to receive!Just let me get a feel of it. I will figure it out. I'm a sales guy! Pictured - Alok being tutored how to ride a horse carriage in Budapest.7. Sales helps you Sell ‘yourself’.What happens in a Job Interview?The candidate ‘sells’ his personality, abilities and his experience to a potential employer. A resume is the sales pitch in a word format, while the interview thereafter is a meeting to close that sales pitch.In today’s hyper competitive world I see the best bred, most outstanding professionals fast becoming extinct in the corporate world – because they don’t know how to sell themselves.Today, it’s not good enough to be very good at your job or to have an expertise in your domain – you have to know how to sell yourself.Take Steve Jobs for instance. He was not just brilliant in his vision and execution. He was a superlative salesman too – every keynote of his is a salesman’s Bible. When he would go up on stage to present Apple products, the crowds would go crazy. He reinvented the concept of creating an explosive cocktail of emotion, innovation and sheer stage magic to capture the imagination of consumers; as if he was a rock star performing with his instruments, in front of his fans.In the years to come, you will have to become a Rockstar yourself.Think of what happens when people search for your name on google. What do they see? A list of linkedin, facebook and twitter links? I say that they need to see more. If you want to create an impact, you should be blogging, presenting a point of view, saying something compelling. They should be ‘pre-sold’ on you.I'm relevant. Even on page 33 of a Google Search result on my name.In February of 2010, Harvard Business School sent me an invite to speak to its students as part of an India Week. Their mail said, ‘We like what you write on rodinhood.com and wish you can present the ideas to our students’.I think I had achieved a very rare and honorable 'personal' sale!****