Resume Mastery - Using the Rule of Three

There's a reason why people like to be presented with three choices rather than two or five. When it comes to pleasing the human brain, it seems like three is a magic number to help us master the technique of resume success. Many also believe that a set of three bullet points is the most effective use of the format within a resume.

Can you remember a time you went to the store to buy a number of things you needed but you could only remember three of the things you went to get? That is the Rule of Three. Lists of three have been used for years, and are particularly popular with politicians and advertisers who know the value of using the rule to sell their ideas. An example: "Stop, Look, and Listen." Another would be Julius Caesar's "Friends, Romans, Countrymen."

Aristotle wrote the Rule of Three in his book of Rhetoric, reaffirming that, for the most part, people have a propensity to easily only remember three things. When you send out your resume, chances are that the reader will only remember three things from it. So, before you start preparing for a possible interview, you need to plan what your three key items are going to be on your resume.

In resume creation, less is always more. The three major parts of the resume are the heading, the summary, and the experience/skills section. Plan out what you are going to say in each of these three parts to grab the viewer's attention. Contrary to the SAR or OAR interview methodology, make your first part of each section the most positive and powerful one. And, if you have four main points in a section, cut one of the responses out. The reader probably wouldn't remember it anyway.

Keeping your resume detail interesting is a much more difficult task than most people realize. There is a very delicate balance between statements so boring that people start to doze off and those that are so complicated that the interviewer can't keep up with it any longer and gives up. Therefore, a resume's success could result if you constructively structure your resume around the rule and then use the rule to the fullest by coming out with positive results rather than structured job duties. Once you have created your outline, let someone review it. The more you have people review your resume, the more you can hone in on the right wording and have a significant advantage over your competitors.

C.A. Stapleton, A.S., B.S., M.B.A., is an experienced professional resume writer, career consultant, and career coach. Get more information @ http://www.vet2work.com/ or http://www.naturallysilver.com/ Copyright. All rights reserved Worldwide.

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