Taking The Resume Reader’s Needs Into Consideration

Before you write your own resume, examine professionally written resume samples to get ideas about writing styles and eye-catching resume formats. Then, write your resume with the reader in mind. If they are seeking someone with your background and skill set, be sure to make that the focus of your resume.

Do not use the resume templates that come with your word processor. They look like everyone else’s resume on the hiring manager’s desk.

Take the extra time needed to add visual appeal to your resume. If you are not able to do this effectively, you should seriously consider retaining the services of a professional resume writer. Be sure to ask them if they specialize in creating eye-catching resume formats in addition to their writing services.

Your goal should be to make a connection between what the hiring manager is seeking and what you have to offer in those select areas.

To get that message across at first glance, make your objective clear and highly visible. You can do this by creating a job title and positioning it prominently below your name and address. It tells the hiring manager what you are all about and sets the tone for the rest of the resume.

RESUME HEADING
Your resume heading should in bold and all caps such as this: REGIONAL SALES MANAGER

PROFILE
Your Profile or Summary section is a coutesy to the reader. It allows them to sum you up in short order. This important section sets the tone for the resume and highlights your key qualifications. This way the hiring manager can quickly get a sense who you professionally without having to read the entire resume.

Specifically, this section should list your number of years of experience, industry, credentials, and key attributes that are essential to the position you are targeting. For example, if the position is sales, your attributes would be strong communicator, strategic negotiator, and ability to establish and build key business relationships.

KEYWORDS
Keywords or industry jargon can be included in your Summary or throughout your entire resume (recommended) so you can communicate your select areas of skills by listing appropriate areas of interest specific to the job.

In the case scenario for a sales professional, these keywords might be as follows: relationship building, territory sales management, client consultation, public speaking, sales presentations, contract negotiations, value-added selling, client training and support. One of the best sources to find relevant keywords is in job ads.

ACHIEVEMENTS
This is no time to be shy and modest. You will want to toot your horn a bit by including your most impressive achievements. Your accomplishments should be presented in a factual or story telling way that gives the reader the sense that you do more than just your basic responsibilities and are not a clock watcher.

ACTION VERBS
Do not make the mistake of starting every sentence off with “responsible for”. That is understood. Try playing with action verbs such as led, directed, supervised, spearheaded, steered, guided, and executed. Instead of writing a sentence like this: Responsible for distribution operations throughout the Metro New York Area, consider revising it to read like this: Managed distribution operations throughout the Metro New York Area. Here is another example: Led the success of distribution operations throughout the Metro New York Area.

CONSISTENCY
Watch for consistency in present and past tense. If you are no longer with a company, be sure to make it past tense. Just as important, triple check for typos. Have someone else read your resume for misspellings, dates, missing periods and obviously poor grammar.

Again, review professionally written resume samples to get ideas about writing styles and eye-catching resume formats. But, make the effort to make it your own.

Information about the Author:

Career and Employment Articles: http://www.article-buzz.com

The Secrets Of Spinning Resume Blemishes

Writing up your resume is a daunting and frustrating task at times, but it can become a real panic situation if you have gaps in your work experience or lack qualifications. You may even have left a previous employment on bad terms. Having a blemish on your resume isn’t any reason to feel you can’t aim for another good job, and there are ways to spin your resume to make it (and you) look attractive to a potential employer.

Large, hard-to-explain gaps in your work history from periods in your life where you were unemployed can be corrected in a manner of ways. You certainly can minimize the damage gaps do to your chances of getting a job.

The first thing to do with your resume is to measure time spent on a job in years, rather than months. When noting the length of time you spent at a company, show the year you began the job and the year you left, rather than showing the year and the month.

Sometimes, people leave the workforce for a number of years, for a wide variety of reasons. Raising children is a good example of why many women tend to have years of no work history on their resume. Extensive travel is another, freelance ventures, or taking courses and getting some education are other reasons you may have gaps in your employment experience.

Don’t be afraid to explain the reasons that you weren’t employed, and in fact, each of these reasons taught you certain skills or brought you qualifications and maturity that will be a bonus for any company. Even if you took time off work to do absolutely nothing, try to find some sort of explanation for the period of time, such as getting back on your feet and restructuring your life.

The opposite situation that causes employers reading your resume to raise an eyebrow is having too many jobs, reflecting that you’ve been moving from one company to another at an accelerated pace. Going from company to company or touching on many types of jobs is known as job hopping, and potential employers get the impression you may not be around at their company for long.

As with gaps in your work history, note the time spent on the job in years rather than months, to try and fool the eye into thinking you stayed at jobs longer than you really did. Noting things in years will also help to try and focus your resume on your skills rather than your experience and erase any jobs that were too short term to make any real impact on your work history.

Limited qualifications, be they in training, education, or experience can also present a problem for your resume. In this situation, you’ll want to emphasize your experiences other than conventional qualifications, along with whatever qualifications you do meet, while writing your resume and attending a job interview. Additionally, emphasizing skills over experience will also help your resume.

Never lie about a situation or gloss over a bad past, such as leaving a previous employer’s company on bitter terms. You’re not obligated to let a potential employer contact a past one, but should you have a tarnished work history, be prepared to answer questions as to why you left the job and under what circumstances.

Remember one thing, if this is your situation: You don’t have to tell your employer the full reasons for leaving, and you can spin the happenings around, bringing out the positive things you learned in your previous job. Be subtle with anything you put on your resume that you’re trying to spin into something attractive, and be as honest as you can, all the while giving out the best information possible and holding back what might cost you the job.

Article Source: http://www.articlesauce.com

John Edmond owns and writes regularly for Careerbuilder Jobs where you can find more information and advice on all aspects of a careers and a job searching.

The Amazing Secret of Mass Distributing Your Job Resumes: DON’T!

OK. We’ve all been told that mass distributing your job resumes is the way to go. Right? The theory goes like this . . . the more job resumes you can paper the market with, the better your chances are of getting a job.

You know, that approach actually used to work . . . back in the last century! You could count on the numbers eventually working for you with some predictability. But those days are gone forever. Different century. Different market.

Yet, it’s amazing to me how many job seekers hold on to the illusion that somehow I can make the job resume numbers work for me. It’s a crapshoot! It doesn’t work for you. And it doesn’t work the employers.

Here’s why.

From the employer’s side–employers today are much more sophisticated and require much more from a job candidate than a resume. No one is going to hire you based on your resume. Employers aren’t really interested in what you used to do for someone else. They want to see how you’re going to fit into their team. And they won’t learn that from your resume.

From the job candidate’s side–your million-dollar resume won’t even be seen by the person who makes the hiring decision. It’ll be screened by some personnel staffer or low level assistant. Along with hundreds of other resumes. When you submit a resume you’ve just put yourself right in the middle of the fiercest competition–right where you DON’T want to be!

So, what’s a serious job seeker to do, if a resume isn’t the way to go?

Well, the answer is . . . use an exciting alternative job search strategy! One that gets you in front the person who’ll actually be making the hiring decision about you–but without requiring him/her to wade through all the competition to get to you.

For example, you approach your job search by targeting the precise companies you want to work for and then single out the exact decision-makers who could be your next boss. And then meet with him/her. Sounds like a great way to go, doesn’t it? I mean you have direct access to your next boss without any competition.

So the secret is how to do that.

The good news is that there’s a proven system that can have you meeting face-to-face with selected decision-makers in a matter of days. You can be entertaining a high-paying job offer in as little as two weeks!

So, abandon the notion of mass distributing your job resumes and jump aboard the innovative 21st Century alternative job search program. You’ll be amazed at how fast you’ll see real results!

Article Source: http://www.articlesauce.com

Paul Megan writes for EEI, the world-class pioneer in alternative job search techniques and non-traditional career advancement strategies . . . since 1985. Grab our stunning FREE REPORT: “How To Find A Job In As Little As 14 Days!” Click on RSS for instant info! www.fastest-job-search.com

The Purpose of Your Resume

The Purpose of your resume

You should only build a resume for one purpose – to get an interview.
Keep this purpose in mind as you read the article below:

Why did I say ‘build’ a resume and not ‘write’ a resume?

A resume is not a story, it is not written with stream of consciousness like a novel. Resumes are built in a purposeful, strategic way to sell your strengths and eliminate your weaknesses. The best resumes turn your Tasks and Responsibilities into Accomplishments and Results

A resume should not be purely chronological – that is a big mistake. I don’t know anyone who has had a consistent rise in significant accomplishment over a long career. Most people, including you, have nuggets of brilliance – accomplished at many different times throughout your life.

Your resume should be a highlight reel not an autobiography. The strategy is to match significant keywords, (Knowledge Skills and Abilities), to your accomplishments. You can’t do this with a chronological resume,

The only purpose a chronology has in today’s job market is to help the reader understand when you moved from job to job and which job you had first, second, and third. The chronology doesn’t explain a thing about who you are and what you accomplished. Neither does your longevity. Some people accomplish more in six months than others do in five years.

Never confuse a job title with an accomplishment.

Resumes must be functional to attract attention. Many say it’s the first third of the page that sells – if you can’t grab the reader at the top, the list of facts at the bottom will never be read. That is why it is critical to sell your key accomplishments and KSA,s up front.

Use the following checklist to help you think outside the margins of your resume:

1. Prepare a profile that matches your background to the job description.
2. Prioritize your tasks and responsibilities to match the job description.
3. Only list tasks that are relevant to the job you are applying for.
4. Select tasks that you can back up – preferably with a strong accomplishment.
5. Use a qualifying line to describe how you were selected for the job.

Example:
ABC tech Firm – 2006-2007
Technical Writer
Hired by the V.P of Documentation to improve RFP efficiency and develop a document reuse policy.

This line adds a little zing because it gives the reader some insight into your story. Be prepared to add more details at an interview. This short descriptor can help you build interest in your story. First, you name drop a little. In other words, you tell the reader who hired you and the title they command.

Second, the reader/interviewer may want to know how you increased efficiency and how you developed that reuse policy. The strategy is to place ideas and questions in the readers head. Just make sure you have the answers.
Your resume must be constructed – ‘built’ in such a way that it structures the conversation before you get to the interview.

The Interview process is like dating. You wouldn’t sit down on a first date and say – “let me tell you what my worst qualities are”. Yet, people do this all the time on their resumes.

Now, let’s continue with the checklist:
6. List all tasks in the active voice. For example Developed, Initiated, Directed, Organized
7. Never say ‘responsible for’ just use the action word.
8. List your accomplishments before you build your resume. I guarantee that this is the most difficult part of the process.
9. Select the strongest accomplishment and place it after your keyword table- (more on this in my next article), and before your chronological list.

Wait a minute – I thought you said chronology doesn’t’ matter. I didn’t say that. What I meant was it is the least important part – but an essential price of admission.

10. Identify your Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSA’s), by using the Occupational ONET Online database. This is an excellent repository developed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), and contains occupational information that can be an invaluable resource for education and research.

When you are ready, please visit http://www.ONETOnline.org
Now, lets continue.

11. Smooth out small gaps in employment by using annual dates i.e., (2006-2007) instead of the month and date.
12. List awards and citations/achievements only if they compliment the job you are seeking.
13. A note on Education. Include all completed degrees, regardless of subject matter. All employers value education. One caveat: Don’t include Certifications that do not apply to the industry in question.

Example: I am a professional writer and in addition to my B.S. and M.A. I am a certified professional Coder (CPC). This is a health care certification. The only time I include it on my resume is when I am approached about a writing opportunity that requires some understanding of health care issues.

Finally, remember that building a resume is one of the most difficult jobs you will do – if its done right. Its not easy to capture the essence of a persons talents and abilities in one or two pages, especially if you are a mid-career professional. There is no recipe. The checklist I provided is only a guide. Always practice good judgment and use what works for you.

Information about the Author:

Career and Employment Articles: http://www.article-buzz.com

What Resume Writers Don?t Want You to Know!

I came across a fascinating statistic recently. Resume writers beware. This is information they’d prefer you didn’t know. Here it is.

Robert Half Executive Director, Katherine Spencer, said in Certification Magazine that it’s estimated that between 70 and 80 percent of all jobs are filled by people who first heard about the position through word of mouth.

Kinda shoots holes in the whole notion that your resume gets you a job. The amazing thing is this information is not new. We discovered along time ago that you don’t get a job with a resume. Why? Because today’s savvy employers rely on much more to make a hiring decision.

For example, they want to know that you’re interested enough in being part of the team that you’ve taken the time to learn something about the organization and its goals. They want to hear you discuss how you’re going to make a difference to their organization. Resume writers can’t provide that.

But the truly amazing part is that most job candidates who have acquired a face-to-face meeting with a decision-maker who could be their next boss did so because some person intervened–not a resume. That intervention could be information or referral provided by a relative, friend, neighbor, religious or political leader, service club member, someone they do business with, etc.

In fact, Ms Spencer’s statistic, which should give serious pause to resume writers, is an authentication of the “alternative job search” and “non-traditional career advancement” movement. That’s because we discovered many years ago that the job market follows the same marketing rules as the business market.

You don’t seriously grow a business by shot gunning and mass distributing untargeted information randomly to lots of people in the hope that someone will buy what you’re selling. Businesses don’t do that if they want to stay in business. Or they’re willing to burn up their budget while waiting to see who calls in.

Businesses succeed through person-to-person contact. It’s called sales. And the same thing is true of finding a job. Resume writers cannot provide a substitute for personal intervention. Nothing is going to happen for you based on a resume–unless you’ve got weeks and months to wait for results from this crapshoot.

But the good news is there’s a systematic approach that takes advantage of the real way the job market works. It uses 21st Century strategies and techniques to accomplish the goal of getting you a job offer . . . and in record time!

It’s built on the credible statistic that most jobs are ultimately obtained through word of mouth. This amazing system is really a simple, step-by-step approach using proven marketing principles. They’re easy to master. And you see results almost immediately. In fact, you can be meeting face-to-face with your next boss in a matter of days. And entertaining a good job offer is as little as two weeks! Resume writers go figure.

Information about the Author:

Career and Employment Articles: http://www.article-buzz.com

Resume Writing and Preparation is Free Online

Creating a strong resume is a very important part of applying for a job, either online or off line. There are many resume writing services that will help you build an impressive resume for job interviews.

You can also learn how to write a resume for free by surfing the Internet for resume writing help. Many sites will show you tips and advice on choosing a resume style that works best for you.

You can also find samples of resumes, resume templates, resume software, and examples of resume cover sheets or letters.

Whether you?re looking to create a business resume, marketing resume, military resume, electronic resume, accounting resume, nursing resume, acting resume, sales resume, teacher resume, executive resume, student resume or a customer service resume, you can find great advice online with a little research.

When preparing your resume, keep in mind that employers use resumes for several purposes:

** Screen Applicants ? Most employers will only look at a resume for about 30 seconds to determine whether or not an applicant is a good fit for their organization.

** Develop Interview Questions ? Statements on your resume can be used to formulate questions they may ask during an interview.

** Communication Skills ? Employers want to see how well you express yourself.

** Qualifications ? Employers will reference your resume when making hiring decisions based on how closely your qualifications match their needs.

Writing a resume isn?t easy, but by studying various tips and advice, you can learn to create a type of resume that will get you one step closer to your ultimate goal of finding a great job.

Article Source: http://www.itempad.com

Article res has been removed due to spammers exploiting this site and stealing itempads pr rank. Link Res will be returned once the database has been purged of bad links probably after the next google update. We do not believe in using nofollow. We are sorry for this temp problem. But once the database has been cleaned all links by writers will have a higher value. We hope you understand and continue to submit your articles. If you would like a permenet link on itempad Please email admin

Free Resume Examples — Are You Getting The Most Out Of Them?

Are free resume examples the answer to the jobseeker’s dreams? You’d think so, by the number of books on the subject to be found online or at your local library or bookstore. Just imagine: resume samples for almost any industry or profession, ‘before’ and ‘after’ versions with critiques by professional resume writers … manna from heaven!

Well, up to a point. Many resume examples are excellent models of design, presentation and technique — and there’s a lot to be learned by seeing what has worked well for other job applicants. But like most good tools, it’s important to know how to use them well.

Most well-designed resumes are the result of many hours of development to create a profile which uniquely represents its subject. This usually involves:

* analysis of the industry or job-specific requirements

* appraisal of the applicant’s attributes and work history

* promotion of accomplishments and skills to match an employers’ needs.

But when a job applicant is faced with the challenge of producing a quality resume in a short space of time, their first recourse may be to look through some resume examples to find a style that appeals. The trouble is, creating your own resume by simply rehashing someone else’s is unlikely to result in a document that sells you to an employer on the basis of your individual qualities and achievements.

So how do you get the best out of resume examples?

One of the biggest advantages of sample resumes is that they help to imagine what it must be like to be a recruiter. Faced with dozens — if not hundreds — of resumes, you’re likely to scan each one to pick out the few that match what you’re looking for. So when you stand for a few moments in your ‘employer’s shoes’, you get to assess the impact of different presentation formats: what’s aesthetically pleasing, what layouts are best for reading quickly, how to pack a punch with powerful language.

But the savvy reader can get a lot more out of a sample resume than just an appreciation of its style. The real value comes when you take the time to peel back the layers of the resume ‘onion’ — for example:

* Does the resume show how the employer will benefit from hiring the applicant?

* Does it sell this benefit by highlighting the value the applicant added in previous positions?

It’s an example of the ‘hidden gold’ in sample resumes — and the secret to one of your most powerful techniques: the ability to create and influence your reader’s perception of who you are.

So be proactive and take the time to dig up the buried treasure in those resume examples. You’ll be learning to select appropriate aspects of your unique skill set and present them persuasively to your prospective employer — marketing yourself, in fact!

Information about the Author:

Career and Employment Articles: http://www.article-buzz.com

The Amazing Secret of Mass Distributing Your Job Resumes: DON?T!

OK. We’ve all been told that mass distributing your job resumes is the way to go. Right? The theory goes like this . . . the more job resumes you can paper the market with, the better your chances are of getting a job.

You know, that approach actually used to work . . . back in the last century! You could count on the numbers eventually working for you with some predictability. But those days are gone forever. Different century. Different market.

Yet, it’s amazing to me how many job seekers hold on to the illusion that somehow I can make the job resume numbers work for me. It’s a crapshoot! It doesn’t work for you. And it doesn’t work the employers.

Here’s why.

From the employer’s side–employers today are much more sophisticated and require much more from a job candidate than a resume. No one is going to hire you based on your resume. Employers aren’t really interested in what you used to do for someone else. They want to see how you’re going to fit into their team. And they won’t learn that from your resume.

From the job candidate’s side–your million-dollar resume won’t even be seen by the person who makes the hiring decision. It’ll be screened by some personnel staffer or low level assistant. Along with hundreds of other resumes. When you submit a resume you’ve just put yourself right in the middle of the fiercest competition–right where you DON’T want to be!

So, what’s a serious job seeker to do, if a resume isn’t the way to go?

Well, the answer is . . . use an exciting alternative job search strategy! One that gets you in front the person who’ll actually be making the hiring decision about you–but without requiring him/her to wade through all the competition to get to you.

For example, you approach your job search by targeting the precise companies you want to work for and then single out the exact decision-makers who could be your next boss. And then meet with him/her. Sounds like a great way to go, doesn’t it? I mean you have direct access to your next boss without any competition.

So the secret is how to do that.

The good news is that there’s a proven system that can have you meeting face-to-face with selected decision-makers in a matter of days. You can be entertaining a high-paying job offer in as little as two weeks!

So, abandon the notion of mass distributing your job resumes and jump aboard the innovative 21st Century alternative job search program. You’ll be amazed at how fast you’ll see real results!

Information about the Author:

Career and Employment Articles: http://www.article-buzz.com

Creative Resume Writing Tips To Get You Noticed

When you are job hunting, your resume is a valuable tool. While just about everyone has a resume, few people know just how to write one correctly. If your resume has not been getting you the interviews that you want, it may need a little polishing. Follow these tips to perk up your resume and get you noticed!

1. Focus your resume to reflect the job that you want. Generic resumes may be easy and convenient, but they are not efficient. Review the job description for the position for which you are applying. Think: knowledge, skills and abilities and allow your resume to reflect your knowledge, skills and abilities for each requirement. Use industry buzzwords and show what you know that directly pertains to the position.

2. Focus and keep your objective short and to the point. Your employment objective should be directed towards your intended position and tie it into your experience, education and skills. Use power words like qualified, experienced and dynamic. One or two lines is all you should include and definitely not more than three. Just make sure that those fews lines make a real impact to get their attention to get to the interview, making them want to know you more.

3. Use your personal resume as a marketing tool. You want your resume to sell yourself to the interviewers. Structure your resume in a way that it is easy to read, gets the interviewer’s attention and gets you an interview. Use bulleted lists and brief descriptions to highlight your experience and skills. You are not creating a book, so don’t go into great detail.

4. Your resume is written to get you the job interview, not the job itself. You don’t have to provide all of the details every duty for every job you have ever held. Call to attention the jobs that you have had that tie into the position you are seeking. You can mention the other positions to fill in gaps in time, but don’t feel compelled to get into great detail about those positions. List your main jobs in one section of the resume and list the less important one under a heading “Other Employment” or something similar.

5. Utilize action words. Your resume will really stand out when you use action words such as negotiated, implemented, conceptualized and streamlined in your descriptions. These action words let your interviewer know that you are a “doer” and that you are assertive. Make sure that you use words that demonstrate what you have accomplished and can do, don’t just tell.

6. List your strengths in the upper third of your resume. You have about 30 seconds to wow the interviewer when they pick up your resume before they either move on to the next resume or pick up the phone to set up an interview with you. With that in mind have a powerful objective and move right into your experience and skills. Use symbols like %, # and $ to stand out in a resume. For example, you led a team that increased sales by 20%.

7. Create your resume to be easy to read. Stay away from long paragraphs and use bullet points to highlight instead. Be concise and get to the point. You want it to be easy to read and understand. Make sure that you don’t say anything to detract attention from what you can do and your qualifications.

Let your resume show who you are and what you can do. Use it to sell yourself and get your foot in the door with an interview. Keep it simple and to the point and try to keep it to one page. Use these tips to polish your resume and get the job that you want.

Article Source: http://www.itempad.com

Article res has been removed due to spammers exploiting this site and stealing itempads pr rank. Link Res will be returned once the database has been purged of bad links probably after the next google update. We do not believe in using nofollow. We are sorry for this temp problem. But once the database has been cleaned all links by writers will have a higher value. We hope you understand and continue to submit your articles. If you would like a permenet link on itempad Please email admin

The Executive Resume . . . It Better Be Hot Stuff!

It’s been said that there’s really no significant difference between an executive resume and a standard one.

Wrong!

If you qualify to be job hunting at the executive level, there’s a whole other set of expectations that apply only to you. Of course, these expectations go way beyond your resume. But this key document has to position you in the mind of the decision-maker as someone who is ready to step in and hit the ground running.

In preparing an executive resume you want to remember that an employer is going to looking at you not for what you’ve done, but for what you can do going forward. In other words, it’s a big mistake to focus on what you used to do for someone else and hope that will sell you to your prospective boss.

For example, the common wisdom is that your executive resume has to lead off with a lively “objective” statement. Nothing could be further from the truth. An employer could care less what you hope to get out the job or where you see yourself going with your career.

Instead, you want to lead off with an exciting summary or positioning statement that succinctly and enthusiastically announces what you’ve got going for you that can make a difference to your new boss and his/her organization.

And make sure your executive resume is short. Never more than two pages no matter how extensive your career and work history has been. Make it easy to read with plenty of white space. The reason for this is that resumes are initially scanned in 50 seconds or less.

An executive resume is expected to do more than pump up your pride in your accomplishments. An employer is looking for very specific, quantified background information that clearly zeroes in on how you can answer the needs of a prospective employer.

In fact, we often recommend to our executive resume customers that they present a carefully crafted proposal instead of (or in addition to) a resume. The proposal identifies corporate concerns and then outlines how you will solve key problems faced by the organization.

This kind of approach carries a lot more weight with decision-makers than a routine executive resume because it shows that you’ve taken the time to learn something about the organization and its leadership. And you’re willing to demonstrate your skills in coming up with a solution to pressing issues.

Now, the good news is that there is an amazing executive job search system that can show you how to be face-to-face with senior decision-makers in a matter of days!

Article Source: http://www.articlesauce.com

Paul Megan writes for EEI, the world-class pioneer in alternative job search techniques and non-traditional career advancement strategies . . . since 1985. Grab our stunning FREE REPORT: “How To Find A Job In As Little As 14 Days!” Click on RSS for instant info! www.fastest-job-search.com

Next Page »