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Turning Military Experience Into Civilian Skills

July 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment

One of the most difficult parts of shifting from a military to civilian workforce is creating a suitable resume.  It’s not a question of whether or not your previous experience is useful, but rather how to translate it into an effective resume.  Turning military experience into civilian skills can be extremely difficult, but it doesn’t have to be.  There are some simple steps that can go a long way in getting your resume into shape and crafted effectively for a civilian employment opportunity.  Here are a few tips that can ease the transition and boost your odds of landing the job that you want.

Use What You Already Know and Have Already Done

For some reason, a lot of people end up ignoring what they learned in the military because they don’t know how to turn their military experience into civilian skills.  This is a huge setback and should be avoided.  The first step needs to be identifying all of the skills that you learned in the military.  If you can’t identify exactly what skills you have, then it won’t matter how you translate them on your resume.

Shifting to General Language

Once you have all of your military experience identified and organized, the next step is altering the language so that it is more understandable by a civilian.  The first part of this process is to simply strip out all of the military specific language.  This includes any abbreviation and acronyms.  If it isn’t a skill that exists in the civilian workforce, then you will need to change it.  The next part of this process is actually changing the way that you phrase things.  You are essentially demilitarizing your entire work history.

Connecting Your Skills to a Purpose

Now that you have the descriptive aspect of your skills in order, the next step is to connect them with a specific purpose.  You need to take a close look at your skills and find a direct connection to a job function that you will be asked to do.  The more closely you can manage this, the better your resume will do.  To be fair, this step is true of all resume writing, however it is consistently a weakness for people who are turning their military experience into civilian skills.  The three types of skills that you want to give special attention to are technical skills, interpersonal skills, and leadership skills.  No position in the military exists that won’t give you at least a handful of skills in each of these categories, so play them up whenever possible.

The biggest fact to keep in mind is that all you are really doing is changing the way that you state your experience.  When turning military experience into civilian skills, it is really just a name-game.  You are finding a way to relate military phrasing and descriptions to the average person.  Once you are able to do this, there is no reason that you can’t create a relevant and effective resume for any position in the civilian workforce.

If you need help, you can hire a resume writing service help you create  your civilian resume.

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10 Simple Steps to Professional Resume Creation

July 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

We all know that 1st impressions count! What does your current resume say about you in the eyes of a potential employer? Is your resume conveying your brand? Is it tailored to the job or industry you are targeting? Is it updated? Each of these factors will impact your ability to create the powerful intended first impression. To create a powerful resume, follow the steps outlined below.

1.    Contact Information- Why this may seem simple and straightforward, many job applicants fail to include their most up-to-date information. At the top of your resume, be sure to include your full name, mailing address, telephone number (cell and/or home), and active email address. You can choose to center your contact information or you can center left, using different sizes of font to create visual interest.
2.    Establish Objectives- Before writing your resume, give some thought at to what kinds of positions you are applying for, your qualifications and your overall job search objectives. As you begin to compile information about yourself and your career history, begin by writing it all down; you can always condense it as you begin to write. There is some debate about the ideal resume length- some say 1 page, some say that it is okay to have a longer resume. As you develop a career history, it becomes challenging to limit your information to a single page. The main thing to keep in mind with regard to length is that the writing should be condense- don’t include words just for words sake. Include only the relevant information on this important document.
3.    Resume Keywords- With the increased number of online job searches and employers utilizing the internet when searching for qualified candidates, it is important to incorporate targeted keywords into your resume’s content. Be sure to incorporate keywords that will likely appear in your ideal job postings to increase the likelihood of a match.
4.    Career Objective- This is an optional section of your resume as some applicants choose to incorporate this information in their cover letters. Both styles are acceptable, so be sure to choose the one that best matches your personality and the industry and/or position you are applying for. If you choose to include a resume objective section, it is vital that this information be custom tailored to the position you are applying for. Some sample resumes objectives could include:
a.    “To obtain a position at XYZ Company that will maximize my management/sales/customer service skills and experience.”
b.    “To secure a position as (_____)”
The most important consideration when creating your resume objective is to summarize both what you are looking for and to point out what skill sets, training or experience that you have that matches the opportunity. Search for online samples within your chosen career for inspiration. Create a draft and ask trusted friends, family and industry mentors for their opinions. This will help you tremendously in creating a final piece of copy.
5.    Executive Summary- This section is used to summarize the candidates experience within a few sentences, and is often the first section reviewed by potential employers. Be sure to capture your expertise and experience within 2-3 sentences in order to increase your opportunity for further consideration. For example, you may choose to note your language skills, your career accomplishments, any education or training that sets you apart from other candidates, military service and anything else that would summarize you as a candidate.
6.    Education- It is important to place the most important information within a resume first. If you are a recent college graduate, you may decide that this information is more credible or vital for your job search than employment history. However, the further that you get in your career, the less important education becomes to a potential employer. When noting your educational experience, be sure to include the college or university attended, the degree obtained and the field the degree was awarded. It is not necessary to include the date of graduation and is in fact, not recommended as it can be a factor in indicating your age to an employer.
7.    Experience- This section should include your career history, beginning with the most recent. Include the basic information which includes the name of the employer, the years of employment, the city of employment and your position(s) held. In addition to this basic information, it is critical to include how you contributed to the organization. Did you win any awards or receive any accolades? If you were in sales, what were your results? Be sure to highlight not only accomplishments but how you met and overcame challenges. To add a punch to this section, include dollar amounts, percentages, statistics and timeframes.
8.    Extracurricular Activities- It is in this section that you can highlight your outside interests, leadership positions held within the community and overall involvement. Be sure to include recent activities, awards or accolades received, and leadership positions.
9.    References- It is not recommended that you include actual references on your resume, but rather the notation that “References are Available Upon Request”. Have 3-5 references available in the event that an employer asks you to furnish them. Of course, ask your reference for permission prior to using their names!
10.    Proofread- Once you have created your basic resume framework, proofread! Nothing turns off a potential employer than spelling and grammar mistakes within a resume. As stated earlier, this is your first impression; you don’t want your first impression to state that you make errors when creating important documents!

By following these 10 resume creation steps, you should have a document that will represent you well within the marketplace. However, if your self-created resume isn’t capturing the attention you desire, consider hiring a resume professional to edit your content. Remember- your career is your financial gateway to the future you desire. So, spending time creating and editing this document will pay huge dividends over the course of your career!

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A Powerful Resume Depends Upon What Happens Before You Write a Word

July 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The most important work that goes into composing an effective resume comes before sitting down to write anything.  One must know with exactness the job being sought.  In some ears this might sound like a point too obvious to mention, but it is one Wizdom, Inc. career counselor Jane Goodman finds herself emphasizing over and over again.  “This is a resume I see all of the time:  the resume in search of an employer to identify the job that corresponds to it.”

Job identification is not the employer’s responsibility.  And yet the single most common resume mistake is the failure to clearly describe the position sought.  According to Jane Goodman, “I am always seeing resumes that state the applicant’s educational and work experience, and sometimes this experience is quite varied, but not a title, the name of the position desired.”  This leaves it to the prospective employer to imagine what position would best match the resume, and this expectation—that a hiring manager will perform this service–is simply unrealistic.  Even if the assumption is made that your resume finds its way into the hands of the proper person, this person has available, in all likelihood, too many resumes to spend much time on any given one.  According to a recent survey, the average recruiter spends six minutes looking at a resume, the average HR person significantly less time (90 seconds).  A resume needs to be responsive to the targeted entity, the organization to which it is addressed. It needs to demonstrate, at a bare minimum, enough familiarity with the reader’s concerns (e.g. the hiring manager of a company) to identify a position that is in fact available or that could well become available.  The cover letter is the place to demonstrate an even greater familiarity.

Life isn’t always linear.  Not every job applicant knew as a freshman in high school or college what would serve as a lifelong career.  According to a University of Oregon study, the average undergraduate changes his or her major three times prior to graduating.  As such, the task of being a resume writer can have an important ancillary usefulness.  Students don’t tend to take the time to research the careers that are open to them.  Indeed, they seem to know very little about rather practical economic matters.  One might want, for instance, to be a documentary filmmaker.  If so, it would be valuable to understand certain basic facts.  Documentary filmmaking has undergone massive decentralization, and while the availability of documentaries to a wide audience has never been greater, thanks to the ease of publishing on the Internet, there is no guarantee whatever that a living wage is in the works. It might be a better choice to aim for something else, for the position that stands the best chance of leading to documentary filmmaking but that doesn’t involve as many risks.

The approach that has been taken in the hypothetical case of the one who wants to be a documentary filmmaker is applicable universally.  Before an effective resume has been written, the resume writer has to be clear about his or her goal, and that means taking the time to be informed, doing some research.  In this case all kinds of empirical evidence supports the ancient Platonic principle: to know the good is to do the good.  Students who fail to identify “the good,” the desired outcome—usually in career terms—for a college education are far less likely than their peers to graduate.  According to a University of Texas at Austin study, undergraduates who could name the exact job desired, as long as there was a logical connection between the course of study and entrance requirements for the job, were four times as likely to graduate and, according to the Yankee Group, applicants who are not clear about the position for which they are applying are twenty times more likely to have trouble securing work, as reflected in both the occurrence and length of unemployment.

Consider the fundamental logic that informs any good resume by way of an example, that of someone seeking a position as an instructional designer.  To apply for such a position, the applicant must know what organizations are in need of someone in this capacity as well as the details of the job description for each organization.  A job description is not standard.  In other words, every organization has a different idea of what constitutes instructional design—the place of the instructional designer within the overall architecture of the organization, the nature of the content of instruction, the kind of platform that is already in place for the delivery of courses, the kind of relationship that exists between the instructional designer and IT, etc.  Let’s say that a large local company uses Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro for its courses, that the courses are for its sales force, and that the position available is junior instructional designer.  A junior instructional designer is not likely to have to coordinate the demands of IT, training, and corporate executives.  He or she is not likely to be involved in budgetary considerations. Hence nothing need be said about managerial competencies or experience in matters budgetary.  However, your resume should clearly state that you have experience using Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro, that you are knowledgeable about the latest teaching methods, that you are more than merely familiar with the course content (i.e., sales) and, above all else, that you are applying for the open position of junior instructional designer.

An open secret among instructional designers is that most of them are self-taught.  They had some teaching experience, sometimes online, and then they quite deliberately set out to learn about the subject matter (in our example, sales) and the relevant technology.  There are very valuable books on the basics of instructional design, and the platforms are almost invariably available online to download and study.  Numerous tutorials on instructional design and the requisite software (e.g. Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro) can be viewed on YouTube.

To write a resume that will attract attention and produce interviews, you must first be clear about the position you seek as well as the job description that characterizes that position with the specific organization at issue.  You have to name the desired position in your cover letter and on your resume, and then marshal all the evidence you can that you possess the experience sought.  There is no substitute for clarity.  There is no substitute for specificity.  And resumes that are both clear and specific are winners.

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Resume Ideas For Telecommunications Positions

June 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Telecommunications has come a long way since Samuel Morse and the telegraph in 1837, Bell patented the telephone in 1876, Marconi won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1909 for his role in the advent of wireless radio communications and Baird demonstrated what was to become known as the television in 1925. Today, telecommunications is worth almost $4 trillion a year. Naturally, experts in this field are clamouring for an opportunity to show their worth and grab a piece of this most lucrative of pies. If you are applying for any telecommunications job, expect to be up against stiff competition. This means you must create a résumé that showcases your talent while not coming across as generic.

Objective
Aside from the usual contact information, you must also have an objective. This is essentially a method of showing your skills and talents in a way that not only marks you out as an ideal candidate, but as the only realistic choice. It is imperative that you also show practical examples of your skills being effective in previous jobs. For example, if you say that you have worked in Information Technology, also mention how you were responsible for a decrease in maintenance costs as well as improving customer service relations. This shows the company that your skills are valuable.

Show Why They Need You
When listing your previous jobs, always include a detailed analysis of your responsibilities. Explain your duties in previous telecommunications jobs and how they impacted the operations of your former employer. If you received acclamation or other rewards as a result of your work, be sure to mention them. If you programmed circuits and telephones, installed and configured computer products or were a major part of the customer relations team, show how your job performance led to overall improvements in the company.

Qualifications
Follow this up with your academic qualifications. There is no need to go back further than high school. In fact, results further back than third level are irrelevant though you do need to mention the high school you attended and show that you did attain a diploma. Telecommunications companies usually only want candidates with  a Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree and will care not a jot about what you scored on the SAT’s. If you carry other qualifications from courses relevant to telecommunications, mention these also.

Plugging The Gaps
If you have any gaps in your resume, fill them with explanations of any job or course you were involved in which somehow relates to telecommunications. It doesn’t matter how tenuous the link is, it is better than having glaring gaps which will cause the recruitment manager to start asking questions. In the event that you switched jobs a number of times in a short period, be sure to have an explanation for it. Perhaps you were relocated or else it was a specifically short-term contract. Whatever the reason, never blame a member of staff from a previous organization.

Include your core competencies such as having excellent communication skills or vast experience when dealing with Software Development. Include some activities and the names of any professional organizations you are a member of. Use words such as ‘Professional’, ‘Applications’ and ‘Flexible’ throughout your résumé. These tips should help you rise to the top of the inevitably large number of applicants that come the way of any telecommunications company.

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Resume Sending Services

March 30, 2011 By 1 Comment

Resume sending services have become increasingly popular as the process of getting your resume noticed continues to evolve.  The days of looking through the classified ads and dropping off your resume are gone.  While there are still some situations where this possible, it is not nearly as effective as it used to be.  Today every opening received hundreds and possibly thousands of resumes which has made job hunting more of a numbers game than ever.  There are several benefits that you can take advantage of with resume sending services, however there are also some potential drawbacks as well.

Benefits of Resume Sending Services

1.    Playing the Odds
For most people it is harder to get an invitation to interview today than ever before.  With so much competition in the marketplace it is essential that you get your resume in front of as many people as possible.  Resume sending services have the ability to take your resume and distribute it to thousands of potential employers within a matter of days.

2.    Additional Services
Another huge benefit of resume sending services is that many of them will include additional services as well, some may even be complimentary.  One of the most important services would be resume editing and formatting.  With this service, your resume could get the face-lift that it needs to stand out.  Additionally, if you send them a regular Word document, they will often take it and turn it into several other commonly used file types, such as a PDF.

3.    Private Postings
Another benefit of using resume sending services is that they will often find out about job openings that are filled without ever actually posting the opening.  This allows your resume to get into the hands of employers with much less competition than if you only targeting publicly advertised openings.

Potential Drawbacks of Resume Sending Services

1.    Not Specific
One potential problem of resume sending services is that they do not target your resume towards openings in a specific industry.  Keep in mind that this is only true for some services not all of them.  If you are applying for a job as an administrative assistant then it doesn’t do you any good to have your resume sent to 100 openings for a skilled labor position.  Not only are you not qualified for this type of position, you also may not have any interest in it, even if you do somehow get an interview.

2.    No Customization
Another problem is that blasting out a general resume doesn’t allow it to be customized for a specific job opening.  While it is important to get your resume in front of as many people as possible, it is equally important that it makes a statement once it does.

As you can see, there are some definite advantages to using resume sending services, however there are some potential drawbacks as well.  With such a wide variance is the price of this type of service, it is important to make sure that you are getting what you pay for.

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Quality Online Resume Services

March 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Quality online resume services are not all that hard to come by these days. What is important to know though is who the best of the best is. In the past few years, as with many other things online, there has been an explosion of online resume services and some are obviously going to be better than others.

A quality online resume service will cover everything from helping you with your resume to actually creating your resume for you. Really, whatever your needs are resume wise, they should be able to assist you.

While there are certainly going to be pros and cons to any online resume service you choose, you do need to insist on quality. Here are three of highest quality online resume services that you will find:

1.    ResumeWiters.com: This online resume service is perfect for the price. They are right in the middle of the road as far as cost goes and their turnaround time is usually only 72 hours. They also offer rush service and their satisfaction rate is currently over 99 percent. If you are not happy with what they produce, they do offer a re-write service. In fact, they guarantee the resume they create for you will generate interviews or they offer to re-write your resume for free until it does.
2.    Career Plus Resumes: This online resume service is even faster than the first one with a typical turnaround time of between 24 and 48 hours. That means that even if you are in a rush, you can get a high quality resume done in a short amount of time. With prices starting under $90, this online resume service is one that anyone can easily get quality and reliability out of. Form entry level all the way up to Government work, this online resume service is one of the best in customer satisfaction at 99.9 percent overall satisfaction.
3.    Great Resumes Fast: This online resume service incorporates your resume and your personal branding. While they take a bit longer that the other two on turnaround time at three to five days, the quality of the end product is usually worth the wait. Additionally, they offer a rush service for a little more money to those who need a quality resume now. Featured on CNN.com and Monster.com, this online resume service has a package to fit everyone’s needs.

While you can look around for hours at the various online resume services, you will be hard pressed to find any that can match the quality and professionalism of these top three.

Your resume is the single most important tool that you can have at your disposal when you are on the hunt for a quality job. In order to ensure that you are getting a quality resume when you decide to work with an online resume service, you have to ensure that you are working with an online resume service that is of high quality. Working with anything less than the best when it comes to your resume is simply a waste of your time and your efforts.

Use an online backup service to safeguard your resume and all other important computer files,

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The Art Of Resume Writing

March 5, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Resume writing is arguably a difficult skill to master. From a ‘sales’ point of view, when it comes to selling oneself, many people do not know where to begin. As opposed to selling a product or a service which can be hyped up effectively in order to enhance sales, applying similar methods to resume writing can be met with a degree of contempt if done incorrectly.

Resume writing requires a certain amount of writing etiquette that brings out a personality reflecting confidence and passion, without crossing the fine line of arrogance. After all, a resume is the first impression that any job seeker will make when it comes to catching the eye of any potential employer. Thankfully, job seekers are no longer alone when it comes to resume writing. A number of services now exist to help facilitate resume writing, providing job seekers with accessibility to a well written, well constructed resume to suit any industry type. When it comes to resume writing, seeking the advice of an employment agency is arguably a beneficial starting point.

Employment agencies provide a broad range of services, from helping people get back into employment and helping those looking to take the first step onto the job ladder. Part of the service many now offer is help and advice relating to resume writing. With a number of advisers on hand covering all industry sectors, years of combined knowledge and expertise serve to provide an ideal platform for writing an effective resume. Skilled employment agency advisers are able to offer advice and guidance on how to construct and present a resume that not only complements the skills and qualifications of the individual, but also brings the resume to life before the eyes of potential employers. A well thought out and planned resume that captures relevant information is important in the art of resume writing.

Identifying one’s own unique selling points is a difficult task to undertake, therefore, having a secondary input when building a resume can make all the difference between an adequate and an impressive resume. Furthermore, having an unbiased and impartial resume writing partner means that all irrelevant information found on a resume can be sifted out. Should employing the services of an employment agency not be an option, it is advantageous to consider enlisting the help of family and friends. It may well be that your family members or friends work in a similar field to an industry that that you are looking to enter, meaning they may be knowledgeable in what a potential employer will look for in a candidate. However, a matter of caution should be advised when asking a family or friend to help with resume writing in case they tackle the task from a biased viewpoint. Rather than looking for someone to agree that a resume looks good and reads well, it is crucial that you seek the advice of those able to offer a constructive insight to your resume writing. It is important to rely on someone that can provide honest feedback when it comes to resume writing. Settling for an average resume, can ultimately lead to average responses to any applications you complete. Therefore, it is imperative to realize that those who put the effort into resume writing will subsequently reap the rewards of time well spent.

Today’s job market is fiercely competitive meaning that an impressively and professionally written resume is a must in order to get to the top of the pack. Remember, a resume is not used to obtain a job, but to obtain an interview for a potential new role. Additional information the employer needs can be divulged during a successful interview. By researching into your desired industry and field and applying this knowledge in your resume writing, you will not only possess an effective resume, but may also hold the resume that will land you your dream role.

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How to Navigate the Sea of Resume Writing Services

January 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Your resume is essential to your job hunt.  In fact, many believe that a resume is the most important part of the job search.  As you apply for jobs, your resume and cover letter are potential employers only way of getting to know you a little better.  A strong presentation is essential to make your resume stick out to those that will receive it.

It doesn’t matter what employment stage you are in, an ideal resume can be created to showcase your abilities.  This is true of recent graduates, those still in college or just looking for a new job.  Often a skilled resume writer can be your key to landing the ideal position.

Resume writing professionals are more than just a proofreading service.  They do more than just type up your resume for you.  These services take your experience, your objectives and your strengths and creates a strong resume guaranteed to impress potential employers.  These services are skilled at helping you to sell yourself to potential employers.

Have you ever tried writing a resume on your own?  Let me tell you, it isn’t always an easy process.  Skilled resume writers know what they are doing and can make your resume much better than you could if you attempted to tackle the project alone.  If you wouldn’t dream of writing your own legal contracts or sales documents, why would you even attempt to write your own resume?  It just isn’t the best choice.

If you are wondering what exactly a resume writer will help you with, here a few areas of expertise that they will offer.

•    Determine Strengths- Your resume writer will talk with you to determine your strengths so that they can sell you in the best manner.
•    Choose the Best Format-  Since there are many formats available, your writer will work with you to determine your needs and the best resume format to fulfill them.
•    Create a Stunning Objective- An attention grabbing objective will help recruiters to pay attention to your resume.
•    Carefully Use Persuasive Language and Tone- Resume writers understand how to use persuasive language to sell you to future employers.
•    Personalize- If you want to stand out, personalize your resume.  Your resume writer will help you to create the best resume to really show off your individuality.
•    Create a Variety of Formats- You may need resumes in specific formats for specific jobs.  Resume services will help you get your resume in the format you need for each position without hours of research.
•    Change and Revise as Needed

Your resume won’t stand alone.  In addition to your carefully crafted resume, you will also need to carefully search for jobs, create a stunning cover letter and look for work in the right places.  A resume professional or writing service may be able to help you fulfill these goals as well.

Resume writing services often can be employment specialists that will help you with the entire job application process.  They can offer additional services including career search consultation, cover letter writing, distribution and interview skills.

Choose Your Service Wisely
Make sure you carefully choose your resume writing service.  After all they may be the key to finding your next job.  As you look for potential services, consider the following:
•    Well Written Literature is a Must- Find a resume writing service that can present themselves well.  Choose a service or writer with well written, professional literature.  Make sure they know how to sell their services to you since you are considering using them to sell yourself to others.
•    Check Out the Reputation- Check any potential services for potential problems.  Run a search and look for potential complaints.
•    Experience is a Must- Choose a resume writing service with the experience you need.  You are paying for a professional- make sure they have the qualifications to match.
•    Knowledge is Key- Choose a service with skilled and educated workers.  Choose a writer with skills, education and certification.  This way you can be sure you are getting what you pay for.  Otherwise, you are just wasting your money.
•    Time and Attention- You are spending a lot of money on your resume.  Make sure you find a writer that will pay attention to you and customize your resume.  After all you don’t want a writer that is just going to plug your information into a form.
You are wise.  Use your judgment and these factors to choose the service that feels right.  You want a writer that makes you feel comfortable since they will be working with you to create your ideal resume.

If you are serious about your job search, show it in your preparation.  Hiring a professional leads to a more professional final product.  It can help you find a job more quickly and more effectively than if you were to do it on your own.  Don’t ruin your chance of landing that job by misspelling a word or forgetting some important details.

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Successful Résumé Writing

December 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

For many of us, gaining our dream job can be no easy feat. In today’s employment field, due to the high level of competition we face from other potential candidates, an employer will require viewing our resume before they decide to invite us for that all important interview.

Although our resume is a great way in which to present our skills and talents to our potential employer, for some, this can pose an issue if they are unable to present their self as the ideal candidate through written words. Some will find that they come across better through face-to-face encounters as they are able to articulate in speech their skills, experience and suitability for the role and combine this with gestures, tone of voice and facial expressions to make a professional impression. However, with today’s employers focusing very much on our resume before agreeing to meet with us, many are finding it difficult to get their name on an interviewees listing.

In order to create a successful and professional resume, you must firstly approach your resume as a kind of one off conversation. On receiving your resume and cover letter (where applicable), an employer will analyze how it has been presented, review it’s content and then depending on their findings, your resume and therefore your candidate application will either be accepted or rejected. The main difference between holding a face-to-face conversation with the employer and your resume, is that you are not provided with an opportunity to change any statements you have made or elaborate further, meaning that the information that you do provide within your resume must be informative, coherent and most of all, relevant. Each job that you apply for will require the candidate to have different skills, qualifications and attributes and so your resume must reflect these requirements effectively. Therefore, a ‘tailor made’ resume will be much more successful than one that is generic.

A common reason for an applicant not gaining a role often stems down to his or her lack of experience for the role. If you doe not posses the required level of experience, there are a number of ways in which you can identify other skill areas you have which can help to portray you as a desirable candidate for the role. Listing your personal attributes and disciplines and how this benefits you in a working environment can help show how your skills can be effectively applied within the role in question. This is also the time in which to present yourself as a good team player and individual worker. Although listing how you were successful in your past roles can be beneficial, you should only emphasize on these points if they relate directly to the role in which you are applying for.

Your main goals when writing your resume is to instantly gain the attention of the employer. The further down your resume an employer reads, the more they will learn about you and your suitability for the role. Often a resume will be merely glanced at or even ignored altogether and so the words you choose and the general presentation you adopt is crucial.  In order to reach this stage, you must simply, sell yourself. Your resume should not be viewed as a generic application form, but instead, as an opportunity in which to sell you and your brand as the ideal candidate. Your resume is the only thing of which an employer can create an image of you and so your main goal is to present yourself as professional, experienced and capable in an attempt to persuade him that you are the ideal potential candidate.

A resume is indeed a record of your academic and working experiences, but it should first and foremost, be recognized as an image of you as a candidate. How you portray yourself within your resume will paint an image as to the type of character and worker that you are. So, when it comes to writing a successful resume, it is not about what you put in, but more so about the passion and execution in which you throw into your presentation of you.

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Resume Writing Guide: Customizing Your Resume and Cover Letter

July 31, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Your best way to grab a potential employer’s attention is to target your resume and cover letter to the specific job.  Here’s how.

It is a frustrating fact of life that competition in the job market is tough right now.  Practically every one of us has the experience of submitting a resume and never hearing anything back.  Most of the time this is because the hiring manager is drowning in resumes!  They are so overwhelmed with responses that they simply pick out the first few that look good enough to interview.

Obviously, with these odds, it is extremely important to write a resume and cover letter that will grab the hiring manager’s attention within the first few seconds.  The best way to do that is to customize both documents so that they target the specific ad.  Don’t list your qualifications and expect the hiring manager to make the leap to realizing you are perfect for the position; make it obvious by writing your resume and cover letter in direct response to their ad.

Here are a few tips to get you started.

1) Study the job ad closely.

This requires more than a quick reading of the ad.  When you are studying an ad, you are looking for two things: the skills the position requires, and the specific phrases the hiring manager or HR person used in the ad.  Both will need to be incorporated into your resume and cover letter, so don’t be shy about circling or highlighting the important bits!

For instance, if the ad states that they want someone who is familiar with specific computer software, that definitely should be one of the skills listed on your resume.  Likewise, if they say they want someone with good time management skills, why reinvent the wheel?  If they used that phrase in the ad, most likely they will be looking for it when they skim your cover letter and resume.  Using the same keywords from the ad won’t seem unoriginal, as many jobseekers fear, but it will show them that you were paying attention to the ad — and believe me, potential employers notice when you don’t.

2) Remember the 30-second rule.

For the most part, hiring managers only devote a few seconds to every resume they look at.  They skim your cover letter and read the summary section of your resume, and if there isn’t anything to jump out and grab their attention, they go on to the next applicant.  You only have about 30 seconds and a handful of lines of print in which to make your first impression.

No prospective employer is going to read your entire cover letter or resume if it’s not immediately obvious that you meet the needs for the position.  In other words, you need to get right to the point.  Your cover letter should indicate in the first or second paragraph that you have the requested skills, such as years of experience, specialized skills, etc.  Likewise, the bullet points in your summary should highlight the skills you have that the ad specifically says they are looking for; if the ad lists many skills, choose the most important ones and fit the rest into the later sections of your resume.  Your summary should only be about 3 to 5 bullet points long.

3) Remember to sell yourself.

The ultimate goal of your cover letter and resume is to sell yourself as being the best possible candidate for the job.  Remember that famous JFK line, “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country”?  Take that advice to heart: When you are composing a cover letter and resume, you should be asking what you can do for this employer.

In other words, remember to focus not on you — what experience YOU have, qualities that describe YOU — but on what you will bring to the position.  Don’t say in your cover letter that you have lots of experience; state what your experience will mean for your employer.  Quantitative statements are also good, as they give the hiring manager a tangible idea of your capabilities.

4) Take your time.

The obvious drawback of customizing your resume and cover letter is that it takes more time.  You can minimize the time by having a resume and cover letter template, with your basic information and a sketch of your cover letter.  That way, you only have to change the details before sending the documents out.  Even so, it could take half an hour or an hour to apply for a single job.

Sending out the same documents to every employer is much faster; you can apply to 30 jobs in the blink of an eye.  But what is the point, if your resume isn’t even going to get noticed?  An hour spent crafting a targeted resume that is more likely to land you an interview is much better time spent than an hour sending out a dozen or more resumes that never get so much as a second glance.

Customizing your resume and cover letter is not an easy task to undertake — no one ever said it would be.  But when you take the time to do so, it shows, and you are much more likely to impress prospective employers and stand out from the competition.

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