CONTEXT
It is a misconception that résumés are about your past. Résumés are about your FUTURE. In other words, your résumé will work if you think about what a potential employer would want to know about how you WILL perform. What experience do you have that will enable you to make a contribution to their firm or organization?
If you are writing from the perspective of the FUTURE, here’s what will happen:
1. You will write detailed bullets that demonstrate your capability to achieve measurable results. Your readers will infer that you can produce similar results for them.
2. You will think about the purpose and priority of each item on your résumé, then choose and place your sections and bullets accordingly.
3. You will delete anything that is irrelevant or of minimal importance to your future.
4. You will include positions from as many years back as necessary to share information that’s relevant to your next position—there is no absolute rule about how many years to include!
Keep reading for more résumé tips that will help you write a well-formatted, attention-grabbing, future-based résumé!
If you’re not sure what position you are aiming for, how are you possibly going to get it? Make sure you know what your ideal job is and write your résumé as if you are going 100 percent for that job. If there are two types of jobs you want, write two résumés. If there are three types of jobs you want . . . ? You guessed it!
ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL IN THE WORLD OF RÉSUMÉS!
If you try to write a “universal” or “general” résumé, you will almost always fail. You will feel scattered and unfocused as you write, and you will most likely not succeed in obtaining job interviews.
If you are applying to multiple types of jobs because you are not sure what direction you’re headed in, take a step back and consider whether you might want to get some career coaching before you sit down to write your résumé or pay someone else to write your résumé. Clarity of purpose is key when you start your job search. You might still apply to more than one type of job; just be clear about your intention when doing so.
If you want a recommendation for a career coach, contact us at TEESupport@TheEssayExpert.com. We will give you a list of people who can help.
You might want to try some exercises that you can do on your own. We recommend Mary Elizabeth Bradford’s Award-Winning program, the Job Search Success System,1 which provides worksheets and audio modules to support you through every step of your job search.
Once you know your target or targets, you can begin tailoring your résumé. Many of the tips in this book will help you think through how to match your experience to your desired job description(s)! Part of knowing your target is determining whether it is an appropriate fit for your skills and experience. Take an honest assessment of whether you are a match for the position. You might discover that you are not the best fit and that your energy would be better spent on a different application. An article in Forbes magazine covered this issue well: “3 Things That Will Get Your Résumé Thrown in the Trash.”2 While it’s good to aim high, it’s important to achieve a balance between reaching for the next challenge and barking up the wrong tree.
TIP #3:
KNOW WHAT MAKES YOU STAND OUT
Before you start writing your résumé, I recommend that you do some soul searching. Mary Elizabeth Bradford’s Job Search Success System3 provides questionnaires and forms to help you in that process. Here are some of the questions you will want to answer:
• What makes you unique? (What do you have that distinguishes you from the applicant sitting next to you with the same experience?)
• What are five characteristics that best describe you when you are at work?
• What is the biggest ROI (Return on Investment) an employer will get from you?
• What have you been complimented on at work?
• What do your friends and colleagues say about you when they compliment you?
• Describe an ideal workday. What tasks would you be doing? What would your interactions be like?
There are some work personality assessments you might consider doing, whether on your own or with an executive career coach. The Essay Expert administers the DISC Profile Assessment, which gives you a clear picture of your leadership strengths and challenges in the workplace based on four characteristics: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness. The DISC profile pinpoints what your “natural” working style is versus the style you have adapted for the work environment. The assessment is very enlightening in evaluating your leadership style and potential.
Another assessment is the 360 assessment, which asks you to reach out to friends and colleagues who give their opinions about your strengths and challenges. This assessment is very valuable as well, as it provides outside perspective on what you truly have to offer. You might be surprised by what you find out.
If any of these assessments interest you, contact TEESupport@TheEssayExpert.com. We will arrange for you to proceed with the assessment most appropriate for you.
Once you have a handle on what you have to offer a potential employer and what you seek in your work environment, you will have much more power in writing a résumé that brings forth your strengths.
TIP #4:
GATHER INFORMATION FIRST
Before you start writing your résumé, you need to gather information. Start with the basics: your company names (spell them right!), position titles, and dates. Then move on to what you accomplished in each of your positions. Here are some questions to ask and answer about each of your positions:
• How would you describe the company? How big is it? What is the size/value of accounts? How many clients served? What were annual revenues or profits?
• Why were you hired/what were you hired to do? What are/were your job duties?
• Did you have any notable clients?
• How much money did you make/save your company? How much did you generate in sales? Did profits, revenues, sales, or customer numbers increase due to your efforts or programs you implemented? Did you break any records?
• Did you implement a program that improved something by a certain percentage? Did you save a certain amount of time with a process you created or redesigned (to make a process more efficient)? What did this area look like before, and what does it look like now?
• Which accomplishment(s) are you most proud of at this job? Be specific. You may want to write these in the following “CAR” format: C = Challenge (think of a challenge you faced or problem you had to resolve)
A = Action (which action did you take?)
R = Results (what were the results of the action you took?)
Note: You might also have heard of these as “STAR” (Situation—Task—Action—Results) or “PAR” (Problem—Action—Results) stories.
• Did you receive any awards? What were they for?
• How did you grow and develop into a more valuable, more knowledgeable, more skilled commodity?
Once you answer these questions for all your positions, you will have most of the material you need to sit down and write your résumé.
For a more structured approach, you may want to try The Essay Expert’s DIY résumé questionnaires. These questionnaires help you create a STELLAR executive résumé for just a fraction of the cost of working directly with a résumé writer. If you are ready to take on the challenge of writing your own résumé now, these services are available at theessayexpert.com:
• General Résumé Questionnaire: $97 (VP and C-Level, Sales & Marketing, Accounting & Finance)4
• IT Résumé Questionnaire: $47
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1 http://theessayexpert.com/job-search-success-system/
2 http://www.forbes.com/sites/dailymuse/2013/01/24/3-things-that-will-get-your-résumé-thrown-in-the-trash/
3 http://theessayexpert.com/job-search-success-system/
4 http://theessayexpert.com/product/general-résumé-questionnaire/
5 http://theessayexpert.com/product/it-résumé-questionnaire/