ing the right things to include; it’s also important that you properly di-
rect people’s attention to the very things you want people to know about
you. And do so quickly.
Typically, when a person first receives your resume, you will not be
there to explain it, and the recipient will spend no more than ten sec-
onds looking at it. You can’t assume that if something that you think is
very important is included in your resume, the recipient will see it. Nor
is it reasonable to assume that just because you’ve listed something,
the reader will understand its relevance to the job you are seeking. For
example, listing the title and duties of a position you once had does not
guarantee that the reader will instantly recognize the key skillsyou
displayed in this job. And yet, the skills you used in this job may be just
the skills the recipient of your resume is looking for.
Your resume will be most effective if the “format”of your resume—
the organization and arrangement of the information it includes—di-
rects the reader’s attention to key things you have that a prospective
employer is hoping to find in a job candidate. A P.E.A.K.S. resume for-
mat can do just that.THE BENEFITS OF USING A P.E.A.K.S. RESUME
Definition of a P.E.A.K.S. resume. A P.E.A.K.S. resume is basically any
resume that categorizes key items according to the kind of personal
characteristic,experience,accomplishment,knowledge, or skillthey ex-
emplify and is achieved by using P.E.A.K.S. subheadings.
Instead of just listing the things you did within a job, in a
P.E.A.K.S. resume you would organize what you have done according to
the P.E.A.K.S. categories. If, for example, the job required the mastery
of certain computer skills, you would list the particular computer sys-
tems you used under the subheading “Computer Skills.”If the job also
required you to work directly with customers, you would list this skill
under the subheading “Customer Service Skills.”The key things you
achieved within a job would be listed under the subheading “Accom-
plishments.”Special knowledge of a market or industry would be so
identified under the heading “Knowledge.”Each of these subheadings
would be listed under the job where these P.E.A.K.S. were developed or
exemplified.
To get a quick idea of what P.E.A.K.S. resumes look like, see Part
2 and examine some of the examples there of P.E.A.K.S. resumes.
You can, of course, use any resume format you like to pursue job
interviews. And there is no one format you must use for your resume in
order to introduce your portfolio. We would suggest, however, that you
are likely to get your best results if you use a P.E.A.K.S. resume. Here’s
why.A P.E.A.K.S. resume format can be used to highlight desired quali-
fications.In a properly targeted P.E.A.K.S. resume, the subheadings
that specify particular P.E.A.K.S. would be determined not just by what
you have done but also by your best guess as to what the prospective
employer to whom you will be sending your resume will be seeking in
a candidate.Chapter 5: Creating Resumes That Work with Your Portfolio 63