Organizations don’t hire resumes. They hire people. However resumes get you in the door. You get yourself hired. Bottom line is you and your resume need to look their best.
Lets focus on a good resume: Do not write the resume for yourself. Write it for the organizations that you want to pursue. Put yourself in the seats of the hiring managers, and envision what they want in their next great superstar. Do your homework before you make any contact with the company or people. You need to know about the organization and people that you are submitting your candidacy to and what they look for.
Don’t fool yourself, and pursue careers and organizations that are totally out of your reach. You will only become frustrated as the 'no's' come in. And worse, you will most likely fail if you do get hired.
You should perform a gap analysis on yourself. Be completely honest and map your qualifications and work experience to the opportunities you seek. Determine what the gaps are and if you can fill them through classes, other work experience, or that you can genuinely grow into that position. Now you can begin to write your resume. Include an objective which states what you can do for the organization. Summarize your qualifications, skills and abilities and how they complement you achieving the objectives you can fulfill for the organization. Quantify all your achievements so the organization understands the scale of your success and it maps to its requirements. Tell them where you have been work wise and how long you were there. Importantly, use action words and sentences for everything you write.
Hiring managers don’t want to know you attended meetings they want to know what you accomplished. Be concise. Remember, you are using the resume to get the meeting. It doesn’t get you hired. (I will write more next steps in the future. So sign up for our email feeds).
Next entry we will summarize the resume.
The Art and Science of Career Planning: The Resume
