If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know how keenly we believe there’s no such thing as a generic or one-size-fits-all resume. We’ve seen how such a resume has an almost zero chance of getting you that job search holy grail: a job interview.
If your resume is to be powerfully persuasive, it must speak directly to its intended reader. Its effectiveness hinges on how well it answers the following critical concern: What are the positive results of your work performance? Put more plainly: Why do your professional accomplishments matter?
Note that:
- It doesn’t matter if you led a global team of 50 sales professionals… if said team missed its sales goals.
- It doesn’t matter if you designed and built a website for a Fortune 500 client… if it generated no additional site traffic or sales leads.
- It doesn’t matter if you wrote up 400 pages of business requirements… if no one used them.
- It doesn’t matter if you trained new hires… if those new hires were unable to do their jobs properly.
Don’t let your potential employers have any reason to doubt your competence.
Here is a “before and after” example that demonstrates the importance of emphasizing the positive in your resume. Consider this resume bullet point:
Oversaw purchase and organization-wide training/adoption of a client-management system.
Sure, it’s impressive that you were responsible for purchasing the system and getting everyone to use it, but nothing in this bullet shows why it matters.
Instead, how about this:
Oversaw purchase and organization-wide training/adoption of a client-management system that realized 90% adoption (from among 10,000 employees) and a full return-on-investment within nine months of procurement; system resulted in a 20% increase in repeat business and a 50% increase in productivity.
This is the information your reader needs to see to properly evaluate your prowess. It shows them not only what you did, but how well you did it.
Job seekers tend to assume that if you insert a rudimentary list of tasks on a resume, the recipient will automatically fill in the blanks — and in your favor. But how would the reader do that? Why should the reader do that?
Without putting too fine a point on it, it’s better to assume that any hiring person you contact has the innocence of a five-year-old child. (Click here to tweet this thought.) Pretend you’re relating a story and you’re its hero. You wouldn’t tell the story of Superman by simply pointing out that the guy can fly and see through walls. You’d also describe the evil villains he brought to justice and the potential earth-wide catastrophes he was able to prevent. You likewise need to describe your past glories in jaw-dropping detail (without, of course, stretching too far from the truth).
Such a recounting will not only make your reader’s eyes light up, but will distinguish you from the hundreds of blasé resumes sent from third-tier superheroes.
BUSINESS INSIDER
http://www.businessinsider.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment