A Career Coach Who Understands

How to write a powerful resume:

Writing a resume can be a bit intimidating if you are new to job hunting or if you have been job searching for a while with little or no results. Using a “one-size-fits-all” resume might be a big mistake when you are looking at a variety of employment opportunities.

You should always tailor your resume to the position you are applying for. This does not mean that you have to write a new resume for every situation, but it does mean you should “tweak” it to make it more meaningful to the person who will be reviewing it.

It does take a little more time to customize your resume for each job you are applying for, but if your resume is more powerful and effective you should not have to send out as many. The key is to do as much research as possible on your potential employers.

The more you know about the company, the products and the position, the better able you are to give them what they are looking for in your resume and land that critical job interview. Once you know more about the employer you can then decide on the format you will use.

Should You Focus Your Resume on Job Skills vs Work Experience?

I suggest you write two resumes. One focusing on your job experience and the other focusing on your acquired job skills. When you find an employer who is most interested in hiring employees with plenty of job experience, you naturally will give them the resume which details your employment record in chronological order so they can see at a glance how experienced you are. For all others, you should put the highlight on the skill sets you have that pertain to the position you are applying for and how you attained them.

Keep your resume brief, concise and specific. You must keep in mind that the company likely will receive hundreds of applications for every position that is available. Make it easy for them to select you over someone else by organizing your information so they can take in as much of the important information in the shortest amount of time. If they can see at a glance that you might be a good match, your resume will quickly be put in the pile of “possible candidates” for more consideration.

Support your skills with numbers and percentages whenever possible. For example: Instead of putting “office supervisor” you might put “Office management supporting a staff of 25 clerical workers”.  “Regional sales” might be better represented as “Managed the South Central area comprising of 120 key accounts generating $1.5 million in annual revenue”.

By including these key numbers in your resume, you are giving the prospective employer a glimpse into how well you did your job without having to go into lengthy detail on job performance. This is what makes your resume stand out above all of the others and will help them see the benefits of hiring you.

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