You can be better than the Babe!
Before you hit send on your keyboard, remember these steps.
1. Who are you? You certainly know your strong selling points and what they mean to you. Imagine the reader coming from a different country and not familiar with your company name or specific jargon.
This is exactly my point. Proof read your work and self-edit before you send it to the entire world. Most people don’t know how to read between the lines and if they do, they probably are reading in a different language.
2. Keep it simple stupid. That’s right. Giving too much information is just as bad as giving too little. The hiring manager wants your call to action bullets upfront and very personal. Don’t make them hunt you down like a wounded animal. That is too much work for someone to exert before you are on the payroll. And, fyi, they will hire you to make their life easier, not harder.
3. Don’t confuse the printer or computer with some fancy schmancy font that is too small and doesn’t come loaded on a regular computer. Being bold, different and an out of the box thinker should come through via your successes in the job, not muddled in an indistinguishable on a resume font.
4. Have you tied everything up neatly? Don’t include information that has nothing to do with the job at hand. If you hate working with animals, please don’t include the summer internship you were a dog walker. Your luck, the only thing that will register with the reader will be that and your next call is to walk her 3 barky barky dogs in the park. Focus on what you do the best and join all your experience in that same theme. Sort of like a story. It has a beginning, middle and an end. There is nothing to make me scratch my head and wonder, what does this mean?
5. Don’t depend on the kindness of the Internet or the resume screener to have pity on you and send it to the hiring manager without a good reason to do so. What worked 6 months ago is obsolete today. It doesn’t matter when you are reading this, what ever you did before is old and you need to think and work smarter. Find a packhorse to walk your resume in for you. Use networking sites to find people to befriend to get a leg up on the competition. And believe me, there is plenty of competition out there.
So, to recap, we have discussed that being focused on the skills that your potential new employer needs to know about you to offer you an interview is crucial to your success in finding gainful employment.
Giving people what they want in a clear format may not guarantee you a new job, but it will shorten the time between sending out a resume and getting the opportunity to interview.
Did you know that Babe Ruth (the ball player, not the candy bar) struck out 50% of the time? Truth. I bet if he practiced more and was focused, he might have lowered that percentage. And, he was really, really good! What do you think? Have you practiced enough?
Sari Neudorf, principal of SDN Consulting, combines 20 years of medical/pharmaceutical sales experience with professional certifications as a résumé writer and interview consultant to offer her clients insights and knowledge from both sides of the hiring table. She is the author of, “Increase Your Career Possibilities, An Insiders Guide to Interview Success” (Author House Publications) and has presented topics on interviewing strategies for the job seeker at universities and business groups. Identifying the transferable skills you want to repeat in your next career is the key to her success with her clients. Learn more about you can turn your career desire into your reality by going to www.sdnconsulting.biz.