In the midst of hundreds of resumes that any recruiter or employer receive for any given position, your resume needs to stand out from that crowd.
In other words, you must make the Recruitment Manager want to read your resume more thoroughly than just the rudimentary 10-20 seconds the vast majority of your competition will warrant.
The only way to achieve this is by designing an "accomplishment driven resume".
Now what makes a resume that focuses on achievements, so effective?
It can be said that most job seekers tend to list their responsibilities of their past and current positions without highlighting on their achievements. Although responsibilities are an important factor, the crux should be on achievements. If you are seeking a high-level position, it becomes even more necessary
In other words, you have to show proof of those results that you were able to achieve and that you would be able to repeat it should the future employer hire you.
Presentations and fancy dressed up resumes are just not enough. Of course, there are instances there when the odd one that has been selected just because of the fanciness, but these are only rare cases.
You must be in a position to describe how you have increased the company’s bottom line or managed any projects that lead to increase revenue and company savings. Of course then there is the case when you are able to show how you have restructured the organization, leading to increased employee morale and company profitability. Now the interviewer or resume reviewer must get the picture that you are capable to repeat these performances.
This is the kind of information that managers seek out amongst the clutter of resumes that they receive.
Another important aspect for an "accomplishment driven resume" is the resume format itself. Try not to mix your achievements and responsibilities together. In other words, you can write an overview of your responsibilities in a paragraph and then highlight your accomplishments with bullet points.
Basically, if everything looks the same, nothing will stand out.
By applying the above points, your potential employers would not only be able to see what you have achieved in the past, but what you could offer to them in the future as well.
Now that the achievement issue has been discussed, let’s get to the next step.
If you have been sending out your resume and not getting interviews, you can certainly blame your resume.
Without a good resume, companies virtually have no idea that you even exist - unless you are invited to an interview by the hiring authority, you may as well be invisible.
We live in a market economy and you must learn to market yourself effectively and aggressively or suffer in a 'go nowhere' job while your friends move on to new opportunities and brighter futures.
As a matter of fact, the primary job of your resume is to only open doors !
Now the question arises, whether you should write the resume yourself or hire a "professional resume writer".
There are chances that if you do the writing, that key elements could be missing and a jobseeker generally doesn't discover this until a good portion of time has been poured into the job search.
For example a job-search campaign can stretch out for weeks or months.
Let's look at some numbers that will determine whether a resume writing service is worth the investment.
First, the salary you are seeking, say $36,000.
Now, let's divide that number by 2,080 (based upon 8 hours per day, multiplied by 5 days and further multiplied by 52 weeks) and you will come up with $17.31 per hour (gross).
Every day, you will lose just over $138.45, and for every week, $692.30.
Let us say your job search takes 6 months, you will lose an estimated $18,000.
Compare these with the costs that you might have to shell out for hiring a “professional resume writer” and you will see that their charges come to only about (2) days of your expected salary.
Of course, there are the ones (like poor me!!) that you could get cheap, but then that requires a lot of research. Whenever, you do a research, you must remember to pay yourself as well.
Another grey area is the cover letter.
Since the cover letter is what most hiring managers read first, you have less than 10 seconds in which to make your reader want to put down your cover letter, pick up the phone and call you for a job interview. This 10 seconds makes or breaks you. It provides the information that hiring mangers use to make decisions on who gets called, interviewed, and hired.
It's your cover letter which decides that!
A cover letter with a concise format is easy to scan and shows respect for the reader's limited time.
Recruitment Managers don't have the time nor the inclination to sift through the hundreds of resumes they receive. If your resume is not available on the manager's desk at the correct time, with the correct format, the job assignment is going to go to the person whose resume and cover letter managed to get there first, even if you're the better person for the job.
Is this not better than waiting for an interview with your fingers crossed!
So, while resume preparation on your own is possible, there really is no substitute for letting a resume writer do it. Besides, if you are not getting any feedback on the resumes you have written, it is time you tried out a "professional resume writer".
Mainly because, it really doesn't pay to cut corners when it comes to your career.
If you still need more information, CONTACT ME, and perhaps we could discuss whether the fault lies with your resume !
In other words, you must make the Recruitment Manager want to read your resume more thoroughly than just the rudimentary 10-20 seconds the vast majority of your competition will warrant.
The only way to achieve this is by designing an "accomplishment driven resume".
Now what makes a resume that focuses on achievements, so effective?
It can be said that most job seekers tend to list their responsibilities of their past and current positions without highlighting on their achievements. Although responsibilities are an important factor, the crux should be on achievements. If you are seeking a high-level position, it becomes even more necessary
In other words, you have to show proof of those results that you were able to achieve and that you would be able to repeat it should the future employer hire you.
Presentations and fancy dressed up resumes are just not enough. Of course, there are instances there when the odd one that has been selected just because of the fanciness, but these are only rare cases.
You must be in a position to describe how you have increased the company’s bottom line or managed any projects that lead to increase revenue and company savings. Of course then there is the case when you are able to show how you have restructured the organization, leading to increased employee morale and company profitability. Now the interviewer or resume reviewer must get the picture that you are capable to repeat these performances.
This is the kind of information that managers seek out amongst the clutter of resumes that they receive.
Another important aspect for an "accomplishment driven resume" is the resume format itself. Try not to mix your achievements and responsibilities together. In other words, you can write an overview of your responsibilities in a paragraph and then highlight your accomplishments with bullet points.
Basically, if everything looks the same, nothing will stand out.
By applying the above points, your potential employers would not only be able to see what you have achieved in the past, but what you could offer to them in the future as well.
Now that the achievement issue has been discussed, let’s get to the next step.
If you have been sending out your resume and not getting interviews, you can certainly blame your resume.
Without a good resume, companies virtually have no idea that you even exist - unless you are invited to an interview by the hiring authority, you may as well be invisible.
We live in a market economy and you must learn to market yourself effectively and aggressively or suffer in a 'go nowhere' job while your friends move on to new opportunities and brighter futures.
As a matter of fact, the primary job of your resume is to only open doors !
Now the question arises, whether you should write the resume yourself or hire a "professional resume writer".
There are chances that if you do the writing, that key elements could be missing and a jobseeker generally doesn't discover this until a good portion of time has been poured into the job search.
For example a job-search campaign can stretch out for weeks or months.
Let's look at some numbers that will determine whether a resume writing service is worth the investment.
First, the salary you are seeking, say $36,000.
Now, let's divide that number by 2,080 (based upon 8 hours per day, multiplied by 5 days and further multiplied by 52 weeks) and you will come up with $17.31 per hour (gross).
Every day, you will lose just over $138.45, and for every week, $692.30.
Let us say your job search takes 6 months, you will lose an estimated $18,000.
Compare these with the costs that you might have to shell out for hiring a “professional resume writer” and you will see that their charges come to only about (2) days of your expected salary.
Of course, there are the ones (like poor me!!) that you could get cheap, but then that requires a lot of research. Whenever, you do a research, you must remember to pay yourself as well.
Another grey area is the cover letter.
Since the cover letter is what most hiring managers read first, you have less than 10 seconds in which to make your reader want to put down your cover letter, pick up the phone and call you for a job interview. This 10 seconds makes or breaks you. It provides the information that hiring mangers use to make decisions on who gets called, interviewed, and hired.
It's your cover letter which decides that!
A cover letter with a concise format is easy to scan and shows respect for the reader's limited time.
Recruitment Managers don't have the time nor the inclination to sift through the hundreds of resumes they receive. If your resume is not available on the manager's desk at the correct time, with the correct format, the job assignment is going to go to the person whose resume and cover letter managed to get there first, even if you're the better person for the job.
Is this not better than waiting for an interview with your fingers crossed!
So, while resume preparation on your own is possible, there really is no substitute for letting a resume writer do it. Besides, if you are not getting any feedback on the resumes you have written, it is time you tried out a "professional resume writer".
Mainly because, it really doesn't pay to cut corners when it comes to your career.
If you still need more information, CONTACT ME, and perhaps we could discuss whether the fault lies with your resume !
