My offer to critique your resume for free and offer my professional advice on how to improve it still stands. Just email a copy to review@firstimpressionsresumes.biz and I will let you know if you have a winning resume. If I think it is subpar for who you are or the job you are seeking, I will advise you on ways to improve it in order to impress a busy recruiter or important decision maker. For those of you who have come to the realization that you need professional help to get back to work sooner rather than later - but can’t afford the prohibitive cost of many resume services - I will work with you to get you the help you need at a price you can afford.
Today we are back to lessons learned from song lyrics.
“Spent some time feeling inferior, standing in front of my mirror,
Combed my hair in a thousand ways, but I came out looking just the same.
Every picture tells a story don’t it.” Rod Stewart
When I heard this song on the radio a few days ago it got me to thinking about an especially rough session I had with a client the day after Labor Day.
She was a 30 something college educated manager with 15 years of experience in several roles all in one company, and she had been looking for a job since being downsized back in late May.
When I called her to discuss her resume I found it trite and boring, so my first question to her was, “did you write this yourself and why did you choose this style.”
Not surprisingly she responded that she wrote it herself and edited and rewritten at least 100 times since June and every version still could not get it right. I think this is an exaggeration, but two dozen rewrites each would not shock me after 20 minutes on the phone with her.
Then I began my critique. I told her that all she did was reiterate the same responsibilities she had in each role and showed no track record of accomplishments. Then I asked her why she had not included any accomplishments and she said she had none. This I could not believe, after all you don’t keep your job in a successful Fortune 500 company without doing something right
I tried to explain to her that what her resumes depicted in a very detailed fashion, was the responsibilities of every customer service coordinator and every call center manager I have met; however she failed to tell me who she was and what made her special and a better candidate then other applicants applying for the same job. I then spent a few minutes telling her that a resume is a snapshot and should tell a story of who YOU are and not the job you have held.
I then went over the summary statement of her resume and asked her how many people it described besides her? She said it described quite a number of people she know, and sadly many of them worked for her.
She thanked me and then hired me to write a new resume for her. Later that day we discussed her achievements, discussed what she liked and disliked about her former jobs and looked at over a dozen jobs she had applied for to see what storey the audience wanted to be told, and how she was the perfect storyteller. Then we collaborated on writing a resume that told the storey of what she was all about, and you has had three interviews since then.
So remember this important piece of advice when you write your own resume or have it professionally written for you; the key to being a good resume writer is being a good storyteller. ARE YOU?!
Author:
Perry Newman, CPC, the driving force behind First Impressions Resumes, is a well established resume writer and executive career coach with extensive experience in numerous industries. He can be reached for a complimentary consultation at perry@firstimpressionsresumes.biz or by calling 646-894-4101.
