Posts tagged ‘resume’
Does your resume need an executive summary?
There’s much debate by hiring managers and resume writers over whether it’s worthwhile to include an executive summary on your resume.
I’m in the camp that it helps customize your resume for a given job.
Here’s a great little article from the Harvard Business Review “Yes, Your Resume Needs a Summary” – give it a read!
Stats on the job market
A little depressing, but important to know.
This article from Dime Crunch states that the average job search is lasting 211 days and that there are 11.5 million receiving unemployment benefits right now, with more than 1.5 million expecting their benefits to run out in March.
Knowing that, ramp up your job search!
Revise your resume, get networking and improve your interviewing skills.
Need help? Let me know!
Identifying, qualifying and quantifying your achievements
The first thing I ask people to do when they want to update their resume, is to give me a description of their work history and achievements.
For most everyone, it’s pretty easy for them to tell me the dates and places where they have worked, past job titles and companies. But it’s that achievements part that is hard for them to come up with.
Use this list to figure out what you’ve accomplished. Once you have the list, try to weave accomplishments in with your job responsibilities and duties.
Actions: Did you…
- open new accounts?
- create an infrastructure for any function(s)?
- design and/or implement standard operating procedures?
- develop the professional capabilities of people who were then promoted to positions of greater accountability and/or who outperformed peers?
- add new products?
- develop or strengthen vendor partnerships?
- launch a new brand?
- develop a training program?
- initiate and/or manage a major project?
- renegotiate contracts?
- reengineer business processes?
- restructure organizations?
- write or redesign job descriptions?
- reach new audiences?
- grow subscribers or membership base?
- improve the accuracy of sales forecasts?
- start a new division?
- grow your referral base?
- begin sourcing or production in a new region or country?
- start outsourcing tasks?
- expand your presence to a new geographic territory?
- establish quality standards?
- start evaluating vendor performance?
- write an employee or vendor manual?
- design forms or templates?
- introduce and/or direct programs that resulted in achievement of certain industry standards?
- expand or consolidate your vendor base?
- accelerate product development?
- implement new technology-based solutions or lead technology integrations?
- win support from internal or external groups?
- create a reference library or archives of key information?
- improve inventory accuracy?
- decrease order-to-delivery lead times or speed-to-market times?
- design and/or institute order tracking or call tracking systems?
- start a safety program?
- automate a process previously performed manually?
- eliminate unnecessary or redundant processes?
- design a business continuity plan?
- get rid of unprofitable product lines or customer accounts?
- align services with customer requirements?
Results: As a result of these actions, did you…
- increase sales/profits?
- reduce costs?
- grow market share?
- increase service levels?
- achieve better quality or consistency?
- improve safety and/or reduce risk?
- boost productivity?
- lower employee turnover?
- improve company’s reputation?
- position the company for future growth?
This list is adapted from a WiseBread blog post.
Top Job Search Faux Pas from NPR
* Not having an updated profile, with recommendations, on sites like LinkedIn or similar sites relating to your line of work
* Having a husband-and-wife e-mail address
* Having an AOL address. Some executives say those are very outdated.
* Not doing extensive research about the company, its culture and the position you’re applying for
* Not filing your resume digitally, even if you bring paper backups
* “Cold” e-mailing executives with whom you’ve never made a prior connection, either online or in person
* Asking an executive you’re hoping will hire you to be your “friend” on Facebook
Read the entire article here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105483848
Important things you need to have on your resume
Sure it’s important to include your name, contact information, work history, education and key responsibilities.
The biggest mistake people make is leaving out their key differentiators.
What do employers really want to know about you? They want to know that you produce results.
- What problems have you solved?
- Did you serve as a project or team leader? Mentor to others?
- Have you helped the company save money, improve efficiency or increase productivity?
And it doesn’t stop here. Anywhere that you can, you need to quantify and quality your achievements:
- How many dollars did you save the company by your efforts?
- How much in additional business did you bring in?
- What was the percentage increase you brought about in productivity, safety, efficiency…?
In a tight job market, and as a young person just starting out in general, it’s important to include these extras to make you stand out in a sea of typical resumes and typical candidates.
Updating your resume after your first job
Making the transition from “recent graduate” to full-fledged “business professional” can be tough. The resume you have when you first get out of school may not have a lot of relevant job experience. Sure that part time job got you through school, but most employers aren’t really interested in your summer as a wedding caterer or camp counselor by the time you hit 25.
That being said, while you’re busy growing up and become a professional, your resume also needs to grow up. Here’s how you do it:
- If you haven’t already, get rid of anything highschool related. No one cares what your GPA was junior year or that you were captain of the math team. If you went to a prestigious high school (like many people in St. Louis), think about getting active in the alumni association and putting that in a Community Involvement section.
- Unless you had a very important leadership or employment role, you can probably remove most of your club or social involvement from college too. If you were a part of a Greek organization that may help for networking, get involved in the alumni association and put that in your Community Involvement section too.
- Move your education information down underneath your work experience. Now that you have job experience, that’s a lot more important that your liberal arts degree that everyone else has, too.
- Add an executive summary displaying your key skills and traits as well as your specific objectives for career development. Let’s face it, after graduation your objective literally translated to “please give me a job, any job.” Now that you’ve been out in the real world for a couple years, it’s important to know where you want to go next and what you’ll bring to your next employer.
To demonstrate the before and after of a resume makeover after a first job, check out Chris Mann’s new resume and his first resume out of school.
Still not sure how to make your resume mature with your career? E-mail me.
Advice on making a job switch in a tough market
Read Amy Hoover’s latest article “Salary and Title Expectations” on her Talent Zoo “Career Oxygen” blog for some great advice on how to make a job switch in a tough market.
I have a lot of friends that have been out of school for about 2 years now that are ready to make a move to a second job, but aren’t sure about what to do in an unstable market. Hoover’s article explains what to expect from the process, including moves that can help or hurt your career in the long term.
Colette’s Resume
Colette sent me an email after seeing some of my Resume Rehab blog posts. She is getting ready to apply to grad school and needed to get her resume ready.
She already had lots of great information on her resume – lots of great work and volunteer experience. I simply edited it down and rearranged it a little bit. Some of the things I did included removing articles like “a, an, the” and redundancies like mentioning the organization’s name in your responsibilities. You’ll also see that I limited the resume to one page. This will also help keep the reader’s attention. Finally, I did some text formatting work to maximize space and ease of reading.
If she wanted, she could flip-flop the Professional Experience and the Education sections. Putting Education lower on the resume de-emphasizes the fact that you are a recent graduate and puts more of a focus on your work experience.
Best of luck to Colette in grad school land!
You heard the woman
It’s already Christmastime! And chances are if you’re unemployed or thinking about making a career change – there’s a lot on your mind during this holiday break.
I just read this great article from Heidi Ehlers over at Talent Zoo about how to “Get Your Shiznit Together” during the next couple weeks.
Make a fashion statement with your resume
According to CNN, she’s been looking for a job for a year and applying to 40 jobs every day. Then last week she got an idea after seeing a man wearing an “Unemployed” shirt. So she put her resume on the front of a shirt and her cover letter on the back. Now she hangs out at coffee shops and busy intersections trying to get the attention of potential employers.
She also has her resume on her car window and sent postcards to potential employers.
“If I can sell myself this well, I can sell your company this well as well,” she said.
Resume Rehab by Colleen 