Wednesday’s Q&A
Question: I was recently interviewed on an internet radio show. The show regularly features entrepreneurs and asks questions about entrepreneurial experience and their specific company. The first question asked was, “What is the most important thing to keep in mind when writing your resume?”
Answer: The most important factor is the focus of the resume. You’ll want to develop a very specific snapshot of the skills and experience sought for the position you are looking for. A concise resume will have what the reader is looking for, will grab their attention and will get the interview offer.
First, you will need to know what you want to do in your next position. Will it be the same as y our current or last job? Are you looking to move up the ladder or maybe change careers altogether? For some the answer will be easy and involve little or no thought. For others, this process may take a while to decide what job is right for you at this time in your career and life.
Once you’ve made your decision, determine what skills and experience will be needed to succeed in this job. In reality, you should already be aware of what the job description is if you are changing careers or even moving up your industry’s ladder. This is importance for your resume development because you will want to showcase the skills, requirements, experience and achievements that are being sought for the position you are looking to find.
Having a targeted resume is critical to an effective job search. If your focus reflects past positions you will only attract the same type of job. If you want to move forward you’ll have to look forward to see what skills will be needed for your next career and use your experiences to highlight these skills that will be used in your new position.
This can be hard for job seekers that have 10 or 20 years of experience in a couple of different areas or have really outstanding achievements that are not relevant to their current search. Their ego will want to include all of their best achievements even if they won’t really help to get the job they are seeking now. Including irrelevant information will actually water-down the resume and make it less concise, clear, and focused, and may even cause your resume to be over looked.
So find your target and keep your resume centered on this focus while developing your resume for the most effective and powerful document.
Shine On!
