Ruth Robb posted on March 30, 2011 09:07
Don’t be discouraged. It’s often the last key in the bunch that opens the lock. ~Author Unknown
Are you, having a difficult time figuring out what to include in your resume?
Do you, have a lot of skills that don’t seem to belong to just one job description?
Do you, feel that focusing on a specific skill set will decrease your chances of finding employment?
One of the biggest obstacles for job seekers that I’ve found is: understanding that targeting their resume will yield the largest number of favourable responses and offers to interview.
Contrary to popular belief, targeting or focusing a resume for a specific type of job will increase your chances of finding employment. The day of one resume fits all employers is over! Targeting does not mean you’re not diversified. When employers want something done, they want an expert and not someone who just appears to be decent at a lot of things. So excelling in one or two sets of skills is definitely an advantage, opposed to being a jack, or jill of all trades.
Yes! this means that you will most likely have to write more than one resume. I’d say at least one resume for each type of employment you are seeking, or tailor your resume to suit the job description. You'll get a better return for your time invested at the beginning, and likely end up wth a job interview in a significantly shorter period of time.
Step 1:
Get copies of each type of employment (job description or job posting) you’re interested in applying for.
Step 2:
Highlight all of the key skills and work descriptions from these postings.
Step 3:
Here are some great lists to work from.
Now, make a list of your best skills from the lists you looked at above.
Step 4:
Think about your previous work history, your duties, and the skills you needed to actually carry out those duties. Use the lists from Step 3 to help with putting together your personal list of skills.
Think about your duties in the context of what is called
The PAR formula:
P is for the Problem
A is for the Action
R is for the Results
Step 5:
Ask yourself some open ended questions about the duties you listed on your existing resume. For example:
- Did you take the initiative to solve a problem?
- Did you see an opportunity for improvement, develop a plan to seize an opportunity, and help carry it through to success?
- Did you develop or implement a new approach that improved daily quotas?
- Did you conceive and create a new function, service, procedure, or product that filled an important niche?
- Did you perform a challenging job with fewer resources or lower costs than it had previously been done for?
- Did you devise and carry through a complex plan or procedure, perhaps for the first time?
- Did you participate in an important project where your input was essential to its success?
- Did you implement or participate in any sales, profit, and/or cost saving recommendations?
Sometimes by adding the words resulted in at the end of your existing resume bullet points can get your creative ideas flowing.
Step 6:
If you were diligent about completing Step 5, you will have quite a lengthy list of accomplishments for each job you’ve done. Also, you will have a list of core skills from Step 3.
Step 7:
Now, we’ll move on to targeting your resume. Pick out, and match as many skills and accomplishments from your lists as possible that are related to, or directly match, the list of key words you identified from the job posting in Step 2. This will be the basis of your targeted resume.
It’s hard work making the initial lists and thinking up accomplishment statements, but well worth the effort. Recently I had one client comment that after making these types of suggested changes to his resume, he received two interview offers within the same week he sent out his new resume.
Here are some resume samples to inspire you.
Damn Good Resume
Until Next Time
Be Well
~The Advisor