Mark Simon languishes in a pile of discarded resumes.

Look out! Don't look at your investments! It's not the sky that's falling, it's your savings!

If you're lucky, your only worry is the current state of your portfolio because too many people are now struggling with finding a job while others are losing theirs.

The country, and the world, is in the middle of a major recession. With millions of people out of work and competing with you for the few available jobs, you need a resume that will work for you.

However, the purpose of you resume is not to get you a job. The purpose of a resume is to get you an interview. Once you get in, then landing the job is up to you.

To write a resume that will land you an interview you need to forget everything you've been taught about resumes.

The commonly accepted rules of writing resumes are all wrong. Common sense says that most teachings about resumes don't work.

This title layout SUCKS!

The Top of Your Resume
When I speak at events from Los Angeles to Orlando, from Mexico to England, I often ask the attendees what they think is the most important element on top of the resume. "Your name," is the answer I most often hear. And it's wrong!

This title layout ROCKS!

I'm never looking to hire a John or a Patricia. Your name doesn't matter when I'm looking at resumes. (If I am looking to hire a Tony Bancroft or a Glen Keane, you can guarantee THEY won't need a resume.)

The most important element on top of a resume is a job title. And not just any job title, but the job you are applying to get. Common sense and experience says that when I am looking for a new storyboard artist, I go through my pile of resumes and I only pull out those resumes with Storyboard Artist as the title. Without a job title, your resume won't even be looked at.

Unfortunately, around 95% of the resumes we get do not have job titles. That means you can increase the odds of your resume working for you by over 20 times simply by adding a job title.