Is every job you submit your resume to the same? Of course, they are not.



If all these job descriptions are different, why do you submit the same resume?

Every day, people send the same generic resume out as though each position was identical and each employer was attempting to hire identical skills and attributes. Too often, the results they receive are like the broken watch that is right twice a day?hit or miss success.

They list their name, address, phone numbers and email address, list an objective, education, and chronology of experience with dates of employment. The resume includes some successes or accomplishments. This is their resume.

In the days prior to computers when changing a resume required you to re-type different versions, this made sense. Today, when computers allow you to customize, spell and grammar check documents so easily, you are missing opportunities and costing yourself money by being lazy and not tailoring your resume for each opportunity in which you are interested.

Here are several steps that you can do to improve your resume and get better results.

1.Each employer will be interested in different attributes of your experience. They often indicate it by the items they describe in their job advertisement. Emphasize the experiences that you have that relate to the skills being sought and the functions you will perform in the job they will ask you to perform.

2.If you are applying for a staff position, emphasize your staff experience and minimize your management experience.

3.If a company is hiring used to be a leader, write about your recent leadership job profile and the challenges you had to face in your previous job and how you tackled them efficiently.

4.Employers are more interested in your recent work, rather than work you did many years ago. Use more space in your resume to highlight your recent experience, rather than things you did before Richard Nixon became President.

5.Describe your successes or achievements concretely, like setting a goal where you make them specific, measurable and achievable within a specific period.

6.Reducing costs is a nice start but it is more powerful to describe something as reducing operational costs globally by 2%, increased departmental sales by 27% resulting in . . . You get the idea.

7.Ask someone you trust to analyze what you have written. Too often, people believe that they can do everything by themselves without asking for help. Ask a friend in your industry to comment on what you have written to insure you are on target and are not missing the mark.

When you go to a restaurant and order a meal, you have the expectation that it will be prepared in a way that will please you. The presentation of the meal is also important part of this meal. Writing a great resume requires that you be the chef and prepare a meal that is both visually appealing and tastes great too!

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