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Examples Of Good Resumes That Get Jobs

Updated: 11/03/2022 by Financial Samurai 170 Comments

Having a good resume is crucial for getting a job. Below you’ll find many examples of good resumes to get traditional jobs, consulting jobs, side gigs, and more.

For 13 years, I was a hiring manager at Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse, two of the world’s largest financial firms. I’ve seen literally thousands of resumes during this time period. I’ve also hired or been involved in hiring dozens of people at these firms, where their acceptance rate is in the single digits.

An excellent resume should be standard, not the exception. Before I share some examples of good resumes, let’s do a quick review of the best time to get a job and some general resume tips.

The Best Time To Get A Job

In normal times, the first half of the year is when ideally all hiring shall be done. This is because:

1) The best available people are still available. There is a bias against people looking in the 3rd and 4th quarter because rightly or wrongly, companies may wonder what’s wrong with you for not having found something earlier.

2) Companies need to spend their budgets while they are still available. There’s no time like the present.

3) Hiring an employee at the start of the year gets the most out of the employee, especially if there is a guaranteed compensation package.

If you find yourself looking for a job in the second half of the year, it’s important to hustle a little more or prepare for activity to pick up in the spring.

Don’t give up hope. Use this time to plan more thoroughly. And utilize the examples of good resumes below to improve your own, especially as economies start opening up.



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How To Trick An Employer Into Hiring You

Updated: 03/05/2021 by Financial Samurai 40 Comments

Getting a job is harder nowadays. Let’s see how to trick an employer to hire you. After all, the job market is ultra competitive! Let me share a story.

“Sam, I absolutely hate my company and hate my job.  I can’t wait for some sucker to give me a big package so I can blow this joint and retire early.” January 17, 2011.

These are the words of an acquaintance who hit the jackpot when an upstart company in his industry decided to give him a two-year guarantee for 50% more a year. 

In the employer’s mind, they think they are getting an experienced person with a great attitude and a long term commitment of building their business for 5+ years. 

In my acquaintance’s mind, he’s jumping ship because he sees the dollar signs and plans to retire as soon as his two-year contract is over.

Hire You With Strategy

After 5-10 years of experience in whatever field you are in, there will inevitably be competing firms who will want to hire you away if you are a good performer. 

If you are a super high performer you will always have opportunities thrown at you. Employers will hire you no problem. Your biggest problem is deciding when is the right time to leave for the bigger bucks.

The sad part about the scenario above is that I’ve known the hiring manager for over a decade and think he is a brilliant business builder. 

Yet, even a brilliant man like him can get hoodwinked by a miserable guy with different intentions. How does this happen? Here’s how.

The dark pieces of you can sometimes shimmer.

Nobody is completely melancholy.  We all have things we get excited and happy about.  Those specific thoughts are what you have to concentrate on to pass a lie detector test.

Interviews are the only way for an employer to directly ascertain how you are as a person.  This is when you need to throw away all your disdain, and less than desirable attributes and start performing. 

You are the lead actor in a play, and your goal is to make your audience love you.  Don’t underestimate the importance of “looking the part”.  They do play huge parts in making good impressions.

You must smile and say sweet words of kindness.  You must pretend your motivations are pure, and that you are there for the long term.  All your intentions seem real, because you are thinking about things that will potentially make you happy if you get this job – a lot of money, an early retirement, and sticking it to your old firm.

Important positions need to be carefully vetted because once someone enters your organization, it is brutally difficult to get them out thanks to employment protection laws. 

As a result, you will go through multiple interviews over many months to make sure you are the right candidate.  You need to keep your game face on and replicate your happy enthusiasm consistently over and over again.  You must not break. You must make them hire you.

Even Ghengis Khan has allies.

The next vital step is having superb references.  Even if you are the most evil person on earth, you will at least have a handful of people who will sing your praise. 

Identify those people and feed them to your perspective employer.  Give your references a heads up that you have done so and be extra kind to them for at least a month before the process.  Take them out for lunch and help out anyway you can.

Five references is generally enough.  A lot of employers stop at three, so if you give them more, you will look like a credible person.

Sugar-coated donuts are unhealthy, but everybody still loves them.

You’ll undoubtedly have some weaknesses which are less than desirable with your prospective employer.  No matter, because you are smiling and demonstrating your fantastic fake enthusiasm about the hiring company.  You have implanted sugar coated donuts into the hiring manager’s head that you will be the perfect candidate for the job.

The interview process is exactly the time where you can over-promise on what you can do.  You make them salivate like Pavlov’s dog.  The more you promise them, the more they will want to pay you. 

Forget the sugar shaker, you bring out the industrial powder sugar machine that rains goodness 10 donuts at a time.  You know that once you are in, it’s too late.  You’ve got them by the balls because everything is in writing to hire you.

The more you think about waterfalls in a crowded place, the more you will need to pee.

People can’t help but follow the herd.  As soon as your prospective employer gets a whiff that someone else might be interested in hiring you, your stock will rocket to the top. 

You need to create that anxiety to hire you even if it might not be entirely true.  It’s easy to say have been approached by a competing firm, but nothing has transpired yet. 

Once your prospective employer hears that, they’ll start thinking about Niagara Falls baby!

Related post: How To Get A Job You Do NOT Deserve 

Also, check out, How To Get Revenge From An Employer Who Fired You! Ah, gotta love this pieces.

Underperformers Survive

You must master your own presence. Like an actor in a big Hollywood movie, you are able to turn on the charm once the cameras start rolling.  If you can do that, you will forever be employed because you’ll always be able to jump around. 

By the time your employer realizes they’ve made a mistake, it won’t matter because you’ve got that fat contract, or you’re already moving on to your next employer!

And when you want to leave your partner, make sure you negotiate a severance so you can leave with money in your pocket like I did. I ended up negotiated a severance in 2012 that paid for 6 YEARS of living expenses! It was the best gift ever as I sought to do something new.

Learn how to negotiate your severance by reading my book, How To Engineer Your Layoff: Make A Small Fortune By Saying Goodbye. The book is recently expanded to over 200 pages with new resources, strategies, and additional case studies thanks to tremendous reader feedback. Get your employer to give you a severance and learn how to get a new employer to hire you soon after.

Track Your Wealth For Free

Once you get an employer to hire you, optimize you finances. I recommend signing up for Personal Capital’s free financial tools so you can track your net worth, analyze your investment portfolios for excessive fees, and run your financials through their fantastic Retirement Planning Calculator.

Those who are on top of their finances build much greater wealth longer term than those who don’t. I’ve used Personal Capital since 2012. It’s the best free financial app out there to manage your money.

Planning for retirement after they hire you
Link up your accounts and see whether you’re on track to retirement in great shape or in poverty

Charles Farrell From “Your Money Ratios” Speaks! Part II

Updated: 08/28/2020 by Financial Samurai 32 Comments

The following is the second and last part of my interview with Charles Farrell, the author of “Your Money Ratios“.  Charles Farrell discuss the much maligned 401k, whether Social Security will survive, and crowd favorite, how raising personal income tax levels further will ruin America!

The 401K AND ALL ITS GLORY

Question: Why do you think there are so many detractors of the 401k plan? Furthermore, do you think it is fair that the pre-tax limit contribution is only $16,500 for some 22 as well as someone who is 45? Presumably, the average 45 year old is making much more than the average 22 year old, so how come the government doesn’t propose an increased pre-tax contribution scale the older one gets?

Charles Farrell: Many people don’t like 401(k) plans because they believe the burden of funding retirements should fall on employers and not employees; thus they would like to see us go back to defined benefit plans that are funded by employers. Well, that is just not going to happen. Employers have no appetite for guaranteeing to pay their workers for 30 or 40 years after they stop working for them.

And DB plans are not flexible enough to accommodate a globally competitive marketplace, plus they discriminate against individuals who change jobs or careers. Moreover, many DB plans (particularly government plans) are significantly underfunded and many who thought they had guaranteed retirements may be unpleasantly surprised at some point. So I think the “romance” with DB plans is misguided, but many people would like to see those types of plans again. I just don’t think it’s going to happen.

Then there is another set of individuals who don’t like 401(k) plans because of the limited investment choices and sometimes high expense structure of the plans. I agree with people on this front, and there are problems with some 401(k) providers, particularly those smaller plans that can’t drive better deals on their investment platforms.

But, most plans do offer competitive options and are low cost. It’s important for readers not to lose sight of the primary reason to use a 401(k) plan, which is the huge tax benefit provided to those who contribute; and if you get a match, that is just makes it more attractive. The tax deduction, the match and the tax deferral on growth are incredibly valuable tools to help build your capital. So even with some restrictions, the plans are basically the best place to build your retirement assets.

Regulators Are The Problem! (401K Con’t)



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Charles Farrell of “Your Money Ratios” Speaks About Retirement And Investing,

Updated: 09/24/2018 by Financial Samurai 20 Comments

As I wrote in my review of “Your Money Ratios”, Charles’ book sings to me. Charles has the ability to simplify complicated financial topics for the average reader to understand. His book is seriously one of the best books I’ve read on personal finance in a long while.

One of the keys to progress is learning from experts in their various fields.  Charles is gracious enough to answer some follow up questions I’ve been burning to ask after reading his book.  This will be a two part post due to the 2,800 word length of the interview.  In part I, we discover Charles’ motivation for writing his book, strategies for early retirement, and his conservative and debatable 50%/50% investment split between stocks and bonds.  In part II, we discuss the much maligned 401K, personal income taxes, why Social Security will survive, and why the flat tax is the right way to go!  Please enjoy!

WRITING “YOUR MONEY RATIOS”

Question: Was there a particular lightning bolt reason why you decided to write this book? For aspiring authors, what suggestions do you have to get your worked published in this ultra competitive field of business?

Answer: I wanted to write a book that would help average readers understand the most fundamental and critical relationships among one’s income, capital and debt, and how those things must be managed throughout your working career to build financial independence. So I took what are often quite complicated topics and figured out a way to present them in a very simple format that anyone can follow. I would like more people to enjoy the benefits of financial independence, and I hope this book does that.

As far as writing, all I can say is write about what you believe in. Hopefully, if you believe in it strongly enough, you’ll develop some expertise and then seek out ways to spread your ideas. Try to develop some niche that is reflective of your expertise. So I developed the ratios and they came out of my background in tax, finance and also working with individuals.

Think about what you do that is a little different and try to focus on that unique nature of what you do. It is a tough slog because the field is very crowded and often the least valuable information gets the most press. But you have to accept that reality and still push ahead. And then you need a little luck. Your message has to somehow get into the hands of people who appreciate and understand it. And that is hard to predict, which means you need a little luck to get it out there. So if you are going to pursue that path, I think you need to accept those realities of the marketplace.

EARLY RETIREMENT

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The Samurai Mask: An Interview With The CEO of BULLDOG Gin

Updated: 02/19/2020 by Financial Samurai 18 Comments

A Brazen Breed of Gin

I’m pleased to highlight a new series of articles focused on understanding the thoughts of successful entrepreneurs. For our inaugural series, entitled, “The Samurai Mask,” I speak with the CEO and Founder of BULLDOG Gin, Mr. Anshuman Vohra, 31. “Shu” was once a JP Morgan Banker who gave up his lucrative career to start BULLDOG Gin three years ago. I was very inspired after watching his story about overcoming rejection on Donny Deutsche’s “The Big Idea” and I’m pleased he’s here with us today.  This is his story about finding entrepreneurial success, and going against the odds. I invested $61,700 in BULLDOG Gin in 2007. 

INTRODUCTION

FS: Shu, thanks for taking the time to speak. First of all, tell us about BULLDOG Gin, and why it is such a hot product?

Shu: It’s good to speak to you and it’s an honor to be the inaugural interviewee for your new series.  BULLDOG Gin is a quadruple distilled, ultra premium gin with dragon eye and other distinctive botanicals. This is not your old folks gin, but a younger, brazen breed of  gin that you can imagine Steve McQueen and James Bond drinking.

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