Resume Help Blog

Posts Tagged ‘professional resume writer’

Does your resume stand out from the rest or just look like everyone else? Your job credentials may be superior but unless your resume stands out the other candidate will get the job. With your resume writing being the key to getting your foot in the door, it is imperative that your first impression is one that will convince your potential employer that you are the one for the position. The best resumes – and not necessarily the best candidates – generate interviews. You need to know that only the top 5% of resumes get picked for interviews in the real world.

Exceptional achievements impress almost everyone. The stronger the results you have achieved, the more beneficial it is to open your resume with this information. Begin your resume with this to grab the attention of the reader.

Few people are impressed by a resume written with an overly detailed employment history or a lengthy list of irrelevant academic information. Streamline your resume to emphasize the information that is most relevant to the specific opportunity while making certain important facts are not buried in the text. Most people will tell you to keep your resume to a one page format, but if you have five years or more of employment history with significant accomplishments it’s OK to have two pages. Just be sure it isn’t boring reading.

Read over your resume repeatedly until you think it is perfect. If you just aren’t sure that it measures up, then it probably doesn’t. With the employment being as high as it is, it’s in your best interest to let a Professional Resume Writer prepare it. The number one resume killer is spelling and grammatical errors so especially watch for these. It can’t be said too often – don’t depend on the computer spell checker. If this isn’t your strong suit don’t be afraid to ask for help.

If you have ever watched any cooking shows on the cooking channel then you surely must know that the best chefs pay as much attention to presentation as to the cooking itself. The same applies here. Your presentation is the key to getting the reader’s attention. In other words make them want more. Use clear headings, bullet points, adequate margins, and a readable font to maximize your resume’s appeal. Use the “bold” sparingly.

I know that parts of this aretilce are so basic that it will appear to some of you as third grade curriculum. To others who may not have been in the work force for awhile it will be necessary reading. So with that said let’s begin.

What exactly is a resume and the purpose?

Simply put a resume is a review of your work history. This article is about “How To Write a Resume.”  It only explains the purpose of having one. If you have never written one then you need to do it right. Consider hiring a professional service to get you started.

If you have a long work history going back 20+ years it’s not necessary to review your whole life. Just the last four to five jobs you have held, the position, responsibilities, acknowledgments etc. It should be well written (we will show you how to do that further down). The purpose – is to get an interview! Like anything, you have about 15 – 20 seconds to grab the readers attention. Fail to do that and your resume goes in the trash.

Who needs a resume?

Anyone who needs a job, whether it is to change careers, or stay within the same type of job needs a resume. If you are new to the work force, whether just out of college or a stay at home mom/dad this gives you the opportunity to display your abilities and skills. Even if you are going to an interview through the referral of a friend you need a well written resume. If it is well written it will answer many questions the interviewer may have. Now if the position is making hamburgers at McDonalds or tacos at Taco Bell this won’t necessarily apply. For any other type of employment (manufacturing etc.) it is an absolute necessity, and it must be done right!

Can I write it myself or is it complex?

Anyone can write a resume themselves but will the person you want to impress read it? Well, that’s another story. Our goal is to offer help with this to make sure you have the best chance of gaining the interview. Even a first time job seeker needs the best resume they can have, and we don’t mean on fancy, watermarked paper. If your content doesn’t grab their attention your fancy paper won’t either.

Why might I need to have my resume professionally written?

If the job you are applying for pays minimum wage, then you don’t need to spend a lot of money for this service. A quality Resume Template is what you need. However, that doesn’t mean that you can sit down and in 15 minutes crank one out. The idea that you can successfully do this is a myth.

Over the years the type of resume required to obtain a quality job has changed. If you have never written a resume then you do need guidance in what the corporate world is looking for. You will only have 15 to 20 seconds to get the readers attention so quality counts.

You might think there’s never been a worse time to look for work in the traditional job market, with unemployment at 10.4% and no relief in sight.

But you would be only half right.

While there’s never been a worse time for traditional job-search methods, “Guerrilla” job hunters are enjoying consistent success — even in today’s awful economy.

Why?

Because Guerrillas choose not to participate in the recession.

To illustrate, here’s a recent story from our client files: Steve Cobain, from Pittsburgh, Penn.

Cobain was laid off as a financial services executive in December 2008, after which, he followed the standard advice given by a well-known outplacement firm. “They introduced me to the ‘new age’ of job search, which was mainly Internet-based. It focused on getting a resume out, playing a numbers game, going through advertised positions. And it was a very frustrating process,” he says.

How frustrating?

“In nine months, I looked on all the employment web sites, responded to 400 advertised openings and sent out about 1,500 resumes by email,” says Cobain. “That produced four job interviews and no offers.”

Frustrating, yes. And all too-common. — Repeat after me: If you do what everyone else is doing to look for work, you’ll get results like everyone else is getting.

And everyone else is taking 29.7 weeks — about 7 months — to find a job, according to February 2010 data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which tracks the average length of unemployment.

So, Cobain changed his job-search strategy and decided to “go Guerrilla” in December 2009, one year after being displaced.

He did five things differently. And he got six job offers in only six weeks. He’s now working again.

Want to know what he did?

1) Write a job shopping list

Most people take the “blind archery” approach to job hunting: They think, if they respond to enough postings and fire off enough resumes, they’ll hit the target eventually.

That’s what Cobain was taught in outplacement. But 1,500 resumes later, he had nothing to show for it.

Guerrillas know better. They create a targeted list of 10-20 employers, then go after them systematically.

What, you say? Your ideal employer isn’t hiring? Doesn’t matter.

Because the one-word antidote to a hiring freeze is “attrition.”

Guerrillas know that companies lose workers every day, week, or month, through resignations, death, or layoffs. By focusing their efforts on a shortlist of employers, Guerrillas contact hiring managers enough times to stay top of mind until a position opens up or is created for them.

2) Create a Guerrilla Resume

Ordinary black-and-white resumes, no matter how well-written, get ordinary results.

Guerrilla Resumes, using color graphics and logos, along with short quotes from past clients or managers, get extraordinary results, as Cobain found.

“Virtually everybody commented on the creativity of the Guerrilla Resume,” he says. “I had several people tell me that, instead of the position I was interviewing for, they should hire me into their marketing or PR group.”

3) Tell your network how to help

Guerrillas know that people in your network will help you, if you tell them exactly what to do.

Cobain got job leads for several weeks after sending a “chain email” to friends and past co-workers that said, in effect, “Here are the 10 employers I want to work for. Who do you know that I should be talking to there? And could you please forward this email to 10 other people?”

4) Get names of hiring managers

Cobain used online tools like LinkedIn and Zoominfo to find the names of executives who could either hire him for an unadvertised position or create one for him.

In most cases, they were VPs or CEOs at his target employers. In no cases were they HR people. Because hiring managers give orders on when and how to create jobs. HR managers only follow those orders.

5) Contact hiring managers, Guerrilla-style

Cobain used the Guerrilla “Coffee Cup Caper” with excellent results.

He inserted his Guerrilla Resume in a coffee cup, wrote a cover letter asking to meet for coffee, then sent all three in a box addressed by name to the hiring manager.

“I had numerous comments congratulating me on the creativity about how my resume arrived,” says Cobain. “Several people asked: ‘How did you find me? I usually don’t get resumes. How did you know I was the person you needed to come to?’”

So, what were the final results?

Cobain’s Guerrilla job search produced eight interviews, six offers, and a new job as a VP close to his Pittsburgh home — in six weeks. He started work on February 22, 2010.

Now, go out and make your own luck.