You've done your resume right: a professional summary, business accomplishments noted, recommendations and skills listed that match up to the job description. And you have the face-to-face interview with the hiring manager! You get to the interview and the manager starts off asking you questions that are clearly answered on the resume. Then some more questions. You realize he's never read your killer resume. Didn't even look at it. You could lose the job right here. If you get upset, you'll miss the answers you need to the questions being asked. Or, you'll pat yourself on the back for quickly recognizing the  situation and focus your answers on the questions being asked, using your resume as the place to pick and choose the business results to present. Your choice.

Your Resume Already Did Its Job

After all your hard work creating your resume, it's easy to get upset when the hiring manager doesn't read it before the interview. You spent hours crafting it, more hours refining it. To have all that work tossed out the window can be a little too much to handle. But you miss the point here. Your resume already did the supreme work of landing you the interview. It showcased your talents, job skills and showed that you can get business results. That got you a phone interview where you confirmed all that talent. Now you're having this face-to-face interview. The resume's job was done a long time ago and done well.

Many Hiring Managers Won't Read Your Resume Before the Interview

Let's just accept the fact that managers (and their team) are busy people, doing more work than before all the downsizing. They go from meeting to meeting doing their job. They barely have time to prep for the next meeting, much less read all the resumes of people they have to interview. Would they ask better questions if they read it? Yes. Would they perhaps see your viewpoint better? Yes. Can they hire a good candidate for the position if they don't read your resume? Yes. You just need to perform well during the interview and you have a great shot at the job.

Will You Fit Into the Team?

Many candidates don't realize there are only three questions to every interview. The first is can do the job? The second is about your motivation for doing the work. And the third is if will you fit into the team? Resumes answer the first question. By the time you get the interview, there's little question you can do the job. Face to face interviews are all about your motivation for doing the work and whether you'll fit into the team. Great hiring managers spend about 15 minutes of the hour on your job  skills and the rest trying to figure out if you're motivated and whether you'll fit. Sometimes the best way to figure this out is to not read your resume. Really. Knowing this, your focus during the interview should be to use the information on your resume to answer questions about your motivation for the work and how you'll perform  with a team. Your killer resume did the job. Now it's up to you. -- Scot Herrick