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By Bruce B. Scoville, Career Advancement Specialist, Barton Industries
Employment today is fiercely competitive. To execute a successful job transition, you must refine your presentation to "Stand Out From The Crowd." A stand-out presentation means employers and recruiters will think of you first. It means employers move you to their short-list during the selection process. It means you'll receive the most lucrative offers. With all these benefits its obvious you want to stand-out from the crowd, but how? To stand-out, you need to project the "image of success." The best way to project that image is through
preparation.
Employers know what they want.
They want people who have been successful. The interviewee who describes prior success, and demonstrates how preparation allowed for that success, will convince interviewers that "blind-dumb" luck had nothing to do with it. If employers were forced to hire by reviewing a resume only, most people would NEVER be hired! Most resumes are poor presentations, but don't count on everyone else's being worse than yours!
A "Stand-Out" resume sends the message, "I Know How To Communicate!"
How did you create your last resume? I'll bet you modeled it after one that caught your eye! (Don't feel bad. That's how most of us started too!) You focused on the Format instead of the Content! Resume samples, templates and software packages do job-searchers a terrible disservice! They imply that the Format of a resume is more important than the Content. This deludes job-seekers into thinking they are creating a document (the resume) which will be effective (get interviews)! Popping up a form and filling out information until a form appears full is the worst way to prepare a resume!
Employers see resumes every day! Most feel the format doesn't make that much difference! What they're looking for is someone who can communicate! This brings us back to preparation!
Preparation Pays Dividends
Time spent during the preparation phase pays HUGE dividends during a job search!
Preparation invested will reward you during all phases for your search. Your resume will "Stand-Out" as a winner, your interviews by phone and in person will be scripted for success because you have prepared a "sales brochure" on yourself!
Prepare With Lists
I recommend job-searchers begin by making a few lists. The first is a list of "Positions Held". The next list should cover "Education", then "Awards" and finally "Notable Achievements". Notable Achievements are a key to showing employers you have prepared for this job-search! "Notable Achievements" should include all accomplishments you've made either as an individual or as a part of a team you participated in, or managed. Include approximate date, company and position held at the time of the achievement. A notable achievement doesn't need to be something as large as inventing the fax machine or a cure for the common cold. A notable achievement is a program or event or result, which made a difference to the company or the people within it. If you feel a sense of accomplishment when you think of it, you should probably write it down on the Notable Achievement Sheet. You'll soon recognize this list is normally used as "bullet" points in a traditional resume. Make this list as lengthy as possible. Don't worry that there are too many, or that some Notable Achievements are not as impressive as others are.
When a "traditional" resume is created, the author will stop listing "bullets" to keep the section to a particular size. This size is based on whatever the author feels a section length should be. This feeling is based upon other resumes the author has read. When using only bullets to create a resume, the length must be restricted. A reader can only retain a limited number of facts presented in this "machine-gun" fashion.
Using a Story-Format Resume
Using a story format resume, a reader can retain many more facts. The reader will actually appreciate these additional facts because this information is now painting a picture of your work history, rather than cluttering up his mind with facts. Think about a novel you've read. During the first chapter you absorbed and retained much more information about the lead character than you ever could if the information had been listed "bullet" style. Why? Your mind was able to build a complex picture of interrelated information about the character. A picture like this will always stay with the reader longer, and have a deeper impact.
Write a paragraph about each Noteworthy Achievement.
Your paragraph about each noteworthy achievement should describe how the achievement helped the company. Don't worry if the paragraphs have a tendency to cover the same ground or overlap on certain topics. Like all positions, yours was a collage of interrelated responsibilities, so naturally there will be some repetition.
Sort your Paragraphs.
Start with the paragraphs that contain the most important information. These will be the paragraphs that tell of accomplishments important to the position and, possibly, those that relate to your overall employment story.
Combine Related Paragraphs.
After you have sorted your paragraphs, look for those that cover related information. Combine these, and you'll create a concise, easy-to-read story.
Reduce! Reduce! Reduce!
To make your story as clear as it can be, look especially for this unnecessary baggage:
º Wordiness: Are you using warm-up phrases? Do extra "the's," "I's," and "Then's," creep into your writing? Are you using active, forceful language rather than passive, wordy language? For example, it's much better to say, "I increased sales by 40% that year," than "Sales were increased 40% by me during that year." So cut away any extra words while maintaining your story line. Once you have made all of your points, and made the story direction clear, always reduce your writing to its most concise without subtracting from your story.
º Adjectives: Are you using too many descriptive words? Your reader will know how much and how great simply by reading your story. Solid information convinces better than flowery descriptions. Rather than write about "magnificent" increases in efficiency, tell your reader what you improved, how you improved it, and how much you improved it. Your reader will be the judge of just how grand your achievement was. Just tell your story effectively, and the reader will get the message.
What if you don't do it yourself?
Should you decide to use a professional resume writer, the investment you've made preparing these lists will provide the in-depth information a professional writer needs to make you and your resume "Stand-Out!"
More Help Available
For additional information on this subject, job tips and to learn how to find the job of your dreams, please visit Mr. Scoville's web site by
clicking here.
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