Is your Resume Effective?

Are you relying on your umpteen years of experience alone to get employers excited?

They won't be.


There are lots of people out there who write resumes. But when your career is on the line, get help from an expert. I'm a published professional writer with nearly 20 years of resume writing experience.
(847) 673-0339

Sure your experience is important, but employers want to hear about results. You were in charge of a department of 30 people? Great. But what do you do with that department? What did they accomplish? How is it better for you having been there?

Consider this. Blind taste tests show most people prefer Pepsi, but more people buy Coke. Why? Coke has found the right words and images to grab people's hearts - and dollars. If you're going to get hired any time soon, you have to do this too.

Did you write a vague resume so you can fit in most anywhere?

Bad idea. This is no time to be a chameleon. You need laser focus. You must boldly proclaim who you are. If you're confused, there's no shame in that. Just don't stay that way. Get help from a career coach. If you want to talk to us, see the information about our Career Action Plan Meeting.hyperlink

Is your resume on message? Many resumes are full of irrelevant information. The employer doesn't need to know about those jobs before you switched careers 20 years ago. They don't need dreadfully-long descriptions of your duties. Every word in the resume should contribute to the image you are creating.

Does your resume target the right audience? However great you might be, most employers don't want to hire you. So, who are the ones who might - and what do they want?

Many job hunters pull out their old resume, slop their latest job on top - and they're done! Wrong!



Have you asked these four key questions:

How have I changed over the years?
How have the markets changed?
What do the employers I'm targeting want?
What do I most want to sell?

Have you included too many/too few jobs on your resume?

How many jobs should you include? There's no one right answer. It depends on you and your experience. Writing a resume is like a photographer shooting the best angle.

Resumes are usually loaded with the wrong information, like that entry-level job held from 1982 -1985 that no one cares about. Today's savvy job hunters focus on the last ten or fifteen years. But cutting material from your resume should be done with a surgeon's scalpel, not a meat axe. For some candidates, that entry level job is VERY relevant and belongs on the resume.

Is your resume confusing?
Lots of resumes are full of excessive jargon and abbreviations. An important player in the hiring process (someone in HR, for example) may be utterly clueless about what you are talking about. That doesn't bode well for you.

Your resume must speak the boss's language
You had an impressive title? Lots of responsibility? Guess what. Chances are, your competition does too. The boss wants to know about results.

So talk the boss's language.
Some people say, "People in sales can show impressive achievements, but I just do my job. I don't have any results."

That's no excuse.

Years ago, I wrote these results for a young college grad who'd been a waitress job at a pizza joint:

Developed a regular base of customers who requested her to be their waitress
Receiving more tips--by far--than anyone else
Chosen to train new staff and be lead server for large parties
Oversaw restaurant in manager's absence
If a waitress can show impressive results, there's no reason someone at your level can't.

Your results must be clear. I've seen too many outstanding achievements expressed in bland, murky language - with no power.

Your resume must have the right keywords Today's employers often scan resumes electronically - so, if you don't have the right keywords, your resume will disappear into a dark hole in a database, never more to be seen.

Want to get started on your resume? Call me. (847) 673-0339.