Spend any amount of time managing people and you'll quickly realize that your chances of getting a job offer are directly proportionate to how well you interview. Managers are also people and they hire the person that they think will do the best job, not necessarily the one with the best statistics.

No matter 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 impression you leave on the interviewer. Of course this means that even if you don't have the greatest academic record, still you can earn the job 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? Here are three tips that giving your resume an edge even when you don't have the most impressive credentials:

1) Make sure that you are using 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 no knowledge of the type of job you are applying for. They will be told certain skills to look for, and if you don't have those terms on your resume, it may get discarded.

2) Try to include that you have experience with, particularly unique skills. There are always skills of a job that you never know about until the interview process, so by including all the unique skills and experience, you may be uniquely skilled for the job you are applying for. You may find that the company you are applying for a job position also has some of those that no one knows how to operate. You don't have to be an expert at something to list that skill on your resume, if it's important for the job, you can more clearly explain your knowledge level at the interview.

3) Focus on the benefits the company will expects if they hire you. There's an old saying among copywriters, focus on benefits, not features. The person reading your resume is trying to gauge how much the company will benefit from hiring you, NOT how well educated, traveled or experienced you are. Hiring manager 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 candidate. If your resume focuses on the company and the benefits they will receive by hiring you, you will gain an advantage over a more qualified candidate that purely focuses on themselves and how skilled they are.

4) A well formatted and structured resume can make a difference. Compared to the years of hard work it takes to develop the contents of your resume, time spent formatting gives an excellent return on investment. First impression means a lot, and in the job world your first impression is not usually you, it's your resume. Invest the time to make a resume that not only presents you in the best possible light, but also reflects your writing skills and your ability to make professional documents ads well.

As long as you're qualified, you don't have to be the most experienced or the most educated candidate to get a desired job. The basic mantra 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 potential employer and win that job.

Would you like help with the resume and interview process?  Most hiring decision are made in the first five minutes of the interview.  You must be prepared for these three common interview questions to give you a dynamic first five minutes.

An Interview Coach can help you avoid fatal flaws that will make you fail the interview.  Win the interview with an interview coach
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MVPSource Interview Coaching Services

MVP’s Complete Interview Preparation Program helps you better prepare for the screening and interview process.  We will help you develop examples of past accomplishments and how to effectively communicate them; how to address the “Tell me about yourself” question; how to answer standard interview questions while avoiding common pitfalls; how to understand the type of interview you will be having;  how to develop strong questions to ask the interviewer; how to effectively communicate your answers in a STAR format; how to differentiate yourself from other candidates; and how to help you prepare so that you are confident going into an interview process.