In Part II of this series, we will be discussing the advantages of knowing your resume like the back of your hand. If you missed Part I, you’ll find it here: The Interview Edge: Pre-Interview Research.

Believe it or not, I’ve seen people go into a job interview and be stumped when they get a question about part of their resume. I’m not sure there is anything that makes you look worse than getting a question about your resume and answering “Uhh…it was a long time ago….I really don’t remember”. After all, you wrote it, you should know the contents of it better than anybody. Here is what your potential employer is going to think: “If they can’t remember details about something they put together, what kind of value will they add to my company?”. This is the quickest way to receive a “Don’t call us, we’ll call you” email or letter in the mail.

A good rule of thumb is that you shouldn’t have anything listed on your resume that you aren’t prepared to talk about in a moderate amount of detail. For example, if you list that you were a team lead at Circuit City, then you should be prepared to give examples of management situations you encountered while working there. Even more common is when people list “skills” that they only have a peripheral knowledge of. If you put down that you are an expert C++ programmer, you better be prepared to back it up with examples of what you’ve worked on and your programming experience.

Even if you think that you are pretty familiar with your resume, before your interview you should sit down and take another look at it. Go through what you have listed and make sure that can provide some amount of detail for each section. If you want, take some notes and bring them with you. I always bring some extra copies of my resume with me to an interview, even though the interviewer will bring a copy for themselves 99% of the time. You could take notes right on a copy of the resume and have it in a folder with you when you go in. It doesn’t have to be obvious that you have notes, but generally people bring binders, etc. with them to interviews anyways (with note paper), so it won’t look out of place if you bring something.

All of the preparation in the world cannot save you from occasionally getting a question about your resume that you have a tough time answering. The only way to handle this is to be as detailed as you can without resorting to buzz words (industry words that are designed to make you look like you know what you’re talking about when you don’t). Your interviewer will most likely know when you are trying to slip one by, so don’t even try it.

By knowing the details of your resume inside and out, you should never be outright stumped on a question. As I stated above, you might run into a tough one, but you should have at least something to say about if you’ve done your preparation right. This alone will put you a cut above the majority of your competition.

I hope you enjoyed this latest installment of The Interview Edge. Stay tuned for Part III, coming soon!

The Interview Edge: Part I Part II