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What Do You Do at Your Job?

At the root of any resume are two questions: What do you do? What do you want to do? The answers to those questions will tell the company and interviewer what you have to offer and will guide you in targeting your resume toward what a company needs.

Move Beyond Skills

When you are trying to convey what you do under individual job descriptions, you must move beyond your everyday responsibilities, those things that anyone would do in your position. For example, you are a sales manager so naturally you would network, management relationships, perhaps build a team, and sell. If you are technology executive, you would select and implement technologies, develop applications, help direct long-term technology strategies, and show expertise in a number of programs.

All of that information consists of skills and experience that any applicant would be expected to show. What your resume must show is how you applied your skill and experience to benefit the company. Did you improve productivity 25%? Did you deliver 110% of your sales quota? Did you expand territories or equip users with more efficient systems that saved $1M annually? What do you do to improve your company, team, stakeholders, or results?

Create a One-Minute Pitch

You might also be helped by trying to condense what you do into a one-minute pitch that could become the basis for your resume’s summary. A short pitch should not consist solely of numbers, although you might want to include a key achievement or mention your years of experience. It should convey the areas of expertise that most align with the job you want. A summary should entice potential employers to read further. What do you bring to the table and how will that help the company?

Consider the Where & When

Finally, when you think about what you do, consider the where and when also. Have you worked for large companies, important divisions, or small companies? Were you promoted particularly rapidly? Is there a clear trajectory as you moved from one company to another in either job title or responsibility? Did your receive recognition from bosses, customers, or industry peers along the way? Were you asked to stay on after a merger or recruited by a former boss? All of these events indicate ways in which others recognize and appreciate what you do.

Robin’s Resumes® takes the information you provide about your career and makes sure that the resulting resume matches both what you do and what you want to do, so that potential employers understand what a valuable addition you would be to their company.

Resume Advice 101 for College Graduates

Most college graduates have already begun to send out resumes, and a few may even have job offers pending. If your resume is not drawing in interviews and seems to have vanished into a deep well, here are a few strategies for re-energizing your job search.

  1. Get a second opinion. Do you know anyone in the field you are trying to enter? Ask if they would take a look at your resume. Often, college graduates send out a resume that is suitable for handing to companies who visit the campus but is not suitable for responding to job postings. Or the resume will overlook information vital to the industry and position the college graduate is interested in. If you do not have a knowledgeable source willing to review your resume, consider hiring Robin’s Resumes®. I have resume writing experience in many fields in many industries: I know what hiring managers and recruiters—and Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)—are looking for.
  2. Read, read, read. First, read your resume to make sure it is consistent and correct in format, grammar, and spelling. Never rely solely on online spell checkers and grammar checkers. Spell checkers will overlook words that are spelled correctly but are still wrong (for example, manger instead of manager or fiancé instead of finance), and grammar checkers will always lead you astray. Second, read job postings carefully to make sure your resume includes the key (and truthful) skills, experience, and accomplishments that employers are asking for. Again, if you are not confident about your grammar, spelling, formatting, or resume strategy, consider talking to me at Robin’s Resumes®.
  3. Focus your search. Determine what you really want to do. Applying for everything — and taking the first job offered, without consideration may not be the right path for you. If you first determine what you want to do, and then write a resume that highlights those skills for an employer, you are most likely to find the job you want. Even though it may seem that writing a “general” resume would offer the most opportunities to you, I have found the folks who focus land jobs they want faster. Companies and people tend to hire folks they know want the job they are offering. If you need help in determining your career field, consider hiring Robin’s Resumes® for your career coaching needs.
  4. Investigate other ways to apply. If you rely on your resume alone, you are overlooking networking, social media, and personal contacts as sources for information on jobs and ways to promote yourself. Based on numerous studies, you can increase your chances to get a job at least 80% if you network to it first. If you need advice on how to jump-start your search, I can help.
  5. Take a different path. Sometimes you simply do not have the education, skills, and experience that employees want. You can rectify that by taking courses; volunteering for positions at nonprofits that will hone your skills; and accumulating experience that is transferrable to the field or industry that truly interests you. Your rise to the top of the resume pile may be slower, but it will happen.

Robin’s Resumes® is dedicated to helping college graduates survive and thrive in the marketplace. Let me know how I can help you.

Resume Horror Stories

Welcome back to our yearly expose of resume horror stories.

Resume Horror #1: Inappropriate Portfolio

A young man applied for a job interview as a graphic designer for a consulting firm in the gas and oil industry. His resume included a link to his portfolio—which consisted of lovely pictures of nudes and landscapes. If you are providing a portfolio, make sure it is aligned with the goals and customers of the company.

Resume Horror #2: Nonexistent Links

A woman with lots of experience was applying for a job as a copyeditor. Her resume included links to previous online projects, but some of them were so old that they no longer worked. If you provide links, limit them to the most relevant and recent, and make absolutely sure they are working.

Resume Horror #3: Ego First

Enthusiasm is a great quality, but one job applicant for a leadership role took it a little too far by spending most of his resume boasting about his success as a marathoner. While companies want to know you are well rounded and determined, they also appreciate restraint. Plus resume space is limited; you should use most of it to show that you have the skills, education, and experience the company specified in their job posting.

Resume Horror #4. Detail Overload

Yes, the old rule demanding a one-page resume is out the door. But one executive assistant decided that allowed her to detail every task she performed over the past 10 years—creating a highly repetitive resume of four pages. If you are going to send someone a four-page resume, make sure you have the interesting content to justify it and that you are as concise as you possibly can be.

Resume Horror #5. Where and When did you Work?

The applicant updated his old resume but forgot to change the verb tense (from present to past) for his older job in Florida. Even worse, he failed to change the employment dates of the Florida job. The resume seemed to say he was holding down two full-time jobs at once—the old one in Florida (“2005 to Present”) that he actually left in 2010 and the current one in Illinois (“2010 to Present”).

Want to avoid becoming a resume horror story? Contact Robin’s Resumes® today.

Seven Wrong Ideas about Resumes and How to Fix Them

Happy Fourth of July! It is always good to celebrate freedom, including our freedom from wrong ideas about resumes. It is time to overthrow them! Think how much happier you will be when you no longer believe that:

  1. Resumes are magic. Unfortunately, even the best resume does not come with a magic wand to gain you the perfect position. It should be able to get you interviews, but it cannot ace the interview for you (unless it is a federal position where interviewing is optional). And there are many, many reasons why companies reject candidates that have nothing to do with the quality of the candidate or the resume.
  2. One resume fits all. Instead, you should be customizing your resume for the jobs you are most interested in by making sure your resume contains the skills, education, accomplishments, and previous experience that employers are looking for in your field and industry—and in the job announcement.
  3. Small mistakes do not matter. The truth is that hiring managers and recruiters are overwhelmed with candidates; small mistakes may give them just the opportunity they need to reject your application. Proofread your resume carefully.
  4. Bragging is a bad thing. On the contrary, you should be collecting a brag book starting now for your current job, for every job you have held in the past, and for every job you will hold in the future. That book will remind you of your accomplishments. You never want to exaggerate or lie, but you do need to show hiring managers and recruiters how you used your skills and how you contributed to your company’s success.
  5. Resumes should hide layoffs and other gaps in employment. In this age of turnover and change, being laid off is no longer a barrier to employment—everyone is laid off at some point. You should explain gaps in employment, not hide them. They will come out anyway.
  6. No one can improve a bad resume. You would be surprised at what a professional resume writer can do. We interview you to find those gems of experience and skill you may have overlooked. We know the right phrases and words to add zest to your resume. Give a professional resume writer a try!

Foreign Language/Travel on Your Resume

Your ability to understand a foreign language, at any level of comprehension, and your experiences with foreign travel are valuable assets in today’s job market for several reasons.

An Asset to Global and Domestic Companies

First, both inside and outside the US, individuals appreciate someone who can understand their language. The US itself is a melting pot; and US-based employees, customers, and vendors may speak English as a second language.

Second, when competition for jobs is high, the ability to understand another language and the willingness to travel (or work) abroad may help to distinguish your candidacy for the job from all the other candidates.

Third, both foreign travel and understanding a second language are signs that you have coping skills, a love of learning, and flexibility, all highly valued characteristics in an employee. They show both the willingness and the ability to communicate with people, as well as an interest in and acceptance of other cultures.

Fourth, the internet has enabled many more companies to become international, regardless of their size.

Level of Language Skills

On your resume, you should clearly indicate the level of your foreign language skill: conversational and fluent are the two most common categories. However, you may be able to read but not speak a language or you may have only basic conversational skills; you should still mention the skill you do have. If a country has more than one language (for example, both Mandarin and Cantonese are prevalent in China and North America), specify the language(s) you are familiar with (rather than saying, “Chinese”).

Foreign Travel

If you have volunteered or worked abroad or if working abroad is one of your goals, foreign travel has even more relevance on your resume. Even if you are not fluent in other languages, you may find that your travel experiences have value during your job search and interview. Select stories from foreign travel illustrate your ability to adapt to new experiences, overcome barriers like differences in language, negotiate, and plan.

Robin’s Resumes® can help you find the best way to present your foreign language and travel experience in your resume. Contact us today.