Resume 101 – How to Land that Job and Keep it Too!
June 4, 2009
We are pleased to have guest blogger Beverly Molander, President, Next Step Network. LLC, who will share with us how to write that DREAM resume that will help you land that job and keep it too! Enjoy! Linda
Most of my clients come to me after they have spent hours trying to make themselves look good on their résumé and then realize that their product is blah, boring or unbelievable. Some feel uncomfortable because they have time gaps or painful job experiences that might hinder them from being hired. In their minds, they have already lost the job they want so badly, and it all goes downhill from there.
That is why I say that a résumé is a psychological tool. By writing a résumé that works for you, your confidence increases dramatically; and that helps you through the résumé submission process as well as the interview. By writing the right résumé, you are putting yourself in motion…already moving towards your Next Step.
As a résumé expert, working with clients on taking that Next Step, I remind them, “Focus, not on where you have been, but more importantly, where you want to go.”
Your résumé is not about your past as much as it is your future. When it comes to writing about your past experience, you can quickly build an “information logjam” – a whole pile of details that keeps you stuck and doesn’t allow you to flow freely on to your next job.
It’s time to highlight the experiences you’ve had that will move your forward, and slough off the things that are no longer necessary.
Lots of factors enter into creating a résumé that works for you, and finding your focus is just the first step in clearing the clutter.
Now you are ready to develop your Summary of Qualifications, where you can bring out general attributes that will catch the reader’s eye. The Summary takes the place of an Objective, which is usually either too specific (“senior management position in a mid-sized accounting firm”) or too broad (“to work for a company where I can use my best abilities to further company growth” – YAWN!).
In a Summary of Qualifications, you can highlight the generalized knowledge, skills, and abilities that they want and that you can bring to the table. If there are specific attributes, like exceptional training, foreign language, international experience, or experience with Fortune 100 companies, short mention of these can call positive attention to you. That encourages the reader to look more closely at you as a job candidate. Phrases like background in, professional experience in, skilled in, ability to, proven abilities in, will help you come up with a great paragraph with approximately five sentences or bullets.
As you move into the Professional Experience category, make sure that, when you list your jobs in reverse chronological order (most recent first), you look back at the Summary so you can justify what you said with cold, hard, honest facts.
There are many more variables to consider in résumé writing; however, these ideas can get you started on the right foot, so you can get ready to take your Next Step!
Our guest blogger, Beverly Molander is a resume and Next Step expert. She owned The Résumé Company for 15 years before shifting her focus to Next Step Network, inspiring people to take that Next Step in their personal or professional lives. She can be reached at (404) 931-7333 or molander@nextstepnetwork.net.
