If you are like most people, you have probably never considered what your resume can mean to you financially. However your resume controls, to a great extent, the salary offers you receive, the number of interviews and the quality of job offers that you generate. If you have a weak resume you will receive fewer interviews and lower salary offers. On the other hand, if you have a strong resume you will receive more interviews and higher salary offers.

Strong and effective resumes also cut job search time. How much will you lose financially if you are out of a job for an additional month, two months or six months? Someone making $24,000 will lose $6,000 if unemployed during a 3-month job search. Someone making $60,000 will lose $15,000 if unemployed during a 3-month job search. How long will it take to make this up financially? In turn, what is a resume worth to you if it cuts your job search time? It is worth to educate yourself about resume writing and create a resume that will minimize the time of your search.

We spend over one-half of our adult lives working but the process of writing a resume or looking for a job is given little importance. Most job seekers don't have any idea that resumes have such a dramatic impact upon salary offers or long-term career growth.

Because most of us don't realize the financial value of our resumes we don't treat them seriously. Yet we spend years developing our careers, fighting for promotions, or completing college degrees--then typically spend only 1-2 hours creating a resume to market skills we've spent years and years developing--and that doesn't make any sense! Most of us have been taught that a resume should list the type of job we want, the jobs we've held and our education--so it seems a simple process. Yet, in today's job market employers receive 100 to 400 resumes, or more, for each position they advertise. To compete as a top candidate your resume must stand out, control your image and match your skills to the jobs you want.