This video reviews resume tips that will help you to make a great first impression.

Rule number one: You are not your resume! I can’t stress this enough. Managers are people just like you, and they will hire the person that they think will do the best job, and not necessarily the one with the best statistics. Regardless of how hard you may have worked to earn a prestigious degree or graduate with a high GPA, the hiring decision is going to come down to the interview and the personal impression you make on whoever interviews you. This means that even if you don’t have the greatest academic record, you can still earn the job you’re after with a memorable interview.

But how do you even get an interview if your education or past work experience is not quite up to par? Your professional resume is the key.

There are four resume tips for giving your resume an edge even when you don’t have the most impressive credentials:

Here are four resume tips:

Number 1: Be sure to use industry terms that are relevant to the job you are applying for. Many times, resumes will be first filtered through by Human Resources personnel that have little or no knowledge of the type of job you are applying for. They will be told to keep an eye out for certain skills: if you don’t have those specific terms listed on your resume, it will likely get discarded.

Number 2: Try to include everything you have experience with, particularly unique skills. There are always elements of a job that you never know about until the interview process, so by including all the unique skills and experience you have, you may be further ahead in the game than you think. Perhaps you worked with a certain type of outdated legacy of computers at your last job? You may find that the company you are applying to also has some of those that no one knows how to operate. Remember, you don’t have to be an expert at something to list that skill on your resume. If it’s important for the job at hand, you can more clearly explain your knowledge level at the interview.

Number 3: Focus on the benefits the company will realize if they hire you – and that you’re the right ‘fit’ for the job. There’s an old saying among copywriters, “focus on benefits, not features”. In other words, the person reading your resume is trying to gauge how much the company will benefit from hiring you. Interviewers want to hire the person that will do the best job, so explain in your resume why you will be more beneficial to the company than any other applicant and why you’re the right ‘fit’ for the job. Do this in your resume and you will gain an advantage over a more qualified candidate that purely focuses on themselves and how skilled they are.

Number 4: Just as we talked about in a previous video, a well formatted resume will make a difference. Compared to the years of hard work it takes to develop the contents of your resume, time spent formatting your resume will afford you an excellent return on investment. Remember, first impressions mean a lot, and in the job world your first impression is usually your resume. Invest the time to make sure it presents you in the best possible light and reflects your writing skills and your ability to create professional documents. The key is to be a little smarter about your resume in order to get past that initial cut, which is based on credentials. Then once you’ve got the interview, that’s your chance to really impress your future employer and earn that job. But more, much more about that coming up.

To view other videos in the “Marketing You” Video Series about marketing yourself to employers and recruiters please view Introduction to Marketing You, Success and Creative Visualization, 60 Second Pitch,  Job Interview Tips, Resume Writing and Resume Cover Letters videos. The next video in this series is Your Resume- What Not to Do and More Resume Tips Video 7.

You may also want to download one of our Marketing You FREE E-books or visit our vast Resources Section including Tax Tip Videos and the Interview Coach articles.