Take the Leap! Going Beyond the Job Description
Once again I received a resume with a copy and paste of a client’s job descriptions for the past 8 years; this is a very common occurrence. I provided her with questions to uncover the scope of responsibility, accomplishments, and all the ways she excelled in each position. After a 20-minute interview with my client, we uncovered numerous golden nuggets showing how she went above and beyond the job description. After all that detective work, the client asked me, “Are you sure this is going to make a difference? Is it good to show these numbers and details?” After a long internal sigh, I exclaimed, “Yes, this is what will earn you an interview.”
4 Reasons You Need a New Resume
I recently finished a resume revision for a customer who needed an immediate update for an unexpected job opportunity. He was not actively looking for work, but the position sounded ideal. Unfortunately, he hadn’t revised his resume in years and the interview was scheduled to take place within days. We were able to make the tight deadline for him; however, the experience made him realize the importance of keeping his resume up to date. By planning for the unexpected, you can save yourself a lot of trouble.
3 Steps to Enhance the Achievements on your Resume
When competing with candidates who have similar skills to your own, it is absolutely critical to highlight your achievements in a compelling way; you want to stand out from the crowd. A resume without achievements may provide information surrounding your previous duties, but it will not effectively illustrate the value you are capable of bringing to a role. Why are you better than the next guy (or gal)?
3 Ways to Make Sure Your Résumé Gets Noticed
I recently saw a movie where the job seeker printed her résumé out on pink paper and sprayed perfume on it. (OK, it was Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde – I admit it.) While this technique will certainly get you noticed by hiring managers, I don’t recommend it for the senior level corporate professional. So what steps can you take to make sure that your résumé gets the attention it deserves?
Resume How To : Preventing Swiss Cheese
There are many reasons why your career history may have gaps; but that doesn’t mean your resume has to look like Swiss cheese.There are a variety of ways you can fill in the holes, so to speak, in order to make yourself more attractive to potential employers. These methods don’t include lying, of course. That is a sure fire way to put your career and your personal brand in jeopardy!
Resume Results that Get Results
One of the most common errors of omission that I see on the resume that come across my desk is the lack of quantifiable results. Most candidates focus on what they did at their previous jobs rather than what they achieved. They discuss duties and responsibilities, but what really gets hiring managers excited is your results. Otherwise, why would they consider interviewing your for the role?
Executive Decision: Hiring a Resume Resource
As a senior level executive, no doubt you have made many decisions throughout your career that have influenced business outcomes. Hopefully you have a good track record under your belt. If not, odds are you have learned from your mistakes.
Resume Do’s and Don’ts for Executives with Start Up Woes
If you are like many senior level executives who have demonstrated their risk tolerance by joining a start-up company, you may find that your resume has a few not so glamorous gaps that need to be explained. While failure rates vary, there is no getting around the fact that start-ups are filled with rocky terrain that can sometimes cause a career landslide.
Best Practices for Updating an Executive Level Resume
As time goes by, it is natural that you will have accrued a lot of achievements in your career. Of course, you will not be able to reference everything – your resume would read like a Tolstoy novel. As you might imagine, opinions differ on the optimal length for an executive level resume; common sense tells us that hiring managers do not want to ‘read’ through a lengthy document that delves into the minutiae. They want ‘a taste, not the plate’. In other words, the resume should be the appetizer; your interview is the main course.
3 Simple Tricks to Make Your Resume Pop
I have written a lot of blog articles about resumes over the past several years and given you a lot of advice; but today’s blog is going to focus on some simple fixes that can make your resume shine in comparison to the competition. A few things that if done properly can make your resume pop!
Useful Cover Letter and Resume Tips for Nonprofit Careers
Guest Post: Useful Cover Letter and Resume Tips for Nonprofit Careers
by Brian Jenkins, BrainTrack.com
Nonprofit employers evaluate resumes and cover letters differently than most corporate employers. They want to get a sense of who you are and what you are passionate about along with a detailed description of your skills and work experience. Nonprofits are seeking employees who are committed to their mission and want to make a positive social impact.
New Year, New Resume – 5 Must Do’s
If you are like most people, you have probably been putting off revising your resume during the holiday season.
Now that the New Year is upon us, it is time to consider the key elements that will make your new 2011 resume more effective and lead you down a fresh career path.
Top Proofreading Tips for Your Resume
After you have re-read your resume at least 40 or 50 times, the words tend to become a big blur. However, even one misspelled word or grammatical error can cost you an interview. Perfection is the goal when it comes to resume writing. It is for this reason that our firm employs a professional proofreader to review all our resumes.
Key Ways to Maximize Your Resume
Maximizing your résumé, including presentation and content is the ticket to the interview. This is the only thing you have complete control over during the interview process. More importantly, it speaks volumes about your attention to detail and highlights (hopefully) your achievements in a meaningful way. Here are some tips to help your résumé stand out from the crowd and really make you shine like a nice new penny:
3 Ways to Boost Your Resume’s Impact
An effective resume, one that succeeds across the areas of structure, language, and content, will maximize your response rate when submitting and shorten the duration of your job search. What does it take to boost your resume’s impact? Here are 3 proven tips:
To Lie or Not to Lie
I work with clients occasionally that ask me to lie, or at least greatly exaggerate items on their resume.
4 Tips To Make Your Resume Scream, “Talk To Me!”
It has been said many times and in many ways, your resume is not to be designed to land you any job. It is not a biography. It is not a sales letter. Consider it more of your personal billboard. It will need to be seen, and a specific message received, probably more than once. The sales process of you convincing a prospective employer they were right in calling you in for more information, and then selling them on all the benefits to be gained by hiring you, will take place in the interview.
How to Make Your Resume Rock, Not Flop
Strong content with an aesthetically pleasing format is by far the best way to generate interest and get the interview. Having written and reviewed thousands of resumes (over 10,000 at this point!) I am still amazed by how many common errors are made on resumes and cover letters – the kinds of errors that will immediately send your resume to the trashcan. Making your resume ‘reader-friendly’ complemented by a strong proofreading (resulting in zero errors) will solidify your first place position in the interview line.
What to Consider When Writing Your Resume
What should you consider when writing your resume? Some people just don’t know where to get started. Of course it is difficult to write about yourself in a way the glorifies what you do. You don’t want to come across as arrogant. Have no fear; your resume is the one place where this is acceptable! The reader should have a clear picture of what you achieved in your professional roles to demonstrate just how wonderful you are!
Here are some instructions to help you:
Resume Tips for Recent College Grads
Graduating from college is an exciting, but also scary time. For as many people that have a clear picture of what they want to do, there are infinitely more people who are unsure as to the career path they want to take. College is a wonderful experience; and certainly you gain a lot of experience, meet people, learn to study (and hopefully not have to pull too many ‘all-nighter’s), and perhaps even get some part-time working experience so you have some extra cash. Even with all of the classes and a chosen major, sometimes the path is not so clear. One thing is very clear though – whether you have known from a young age exactly what you will be ‘when you grow up’ or if you are still exploring you interests – you will need a resume as you start your quest for entry-level employment.
This blog's author, Debra Wheatman of Careers Done Write, provides executive career services including resume and cover letter preparation, job search / interviewing strategies and professional branding including how to effectively use LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media in your career.
Visit CareersDoneWrite.com to learn more about how we can put your career in gear with interview catching resumes and professionally written career documents.