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The Difference a Professional Resume Makes

Aug 23 2020

Most job seekers come to a professional resume writer with a resume in hand, one they first wrote after they graduated college umpteen years ago or one they wrote using an online template or “free” service or with the advice of multiple friends and relatives. After months pass with no offers, they begin to wonder if the resume is to blame.

They are probably right.

Here are three main differences that a professional resume makes.

A Professional Resume Makes You Stand Out in a Good Way

Instead of crazy fonts, design, multiple colors, and even artwork, a professional resume relies on presenting you as an individual with individual skills—right from the beginning with the summary.

All too often, do-it-yourselfers (DIYs) start their resume with vague statements about hard work and teamwork, or with an old fashioned desire to “develop my talents in” or without any summary at all. A professional resume writer notes your specific contributions and skills and how they will benefit the company you are applying to:

Before: Hard-working manager who wants to contribute team leadership skills to a company where I can grow into an executive position.

After: Accomplished Sales Manager with 15+ years of experience delivering up to 120% above quota in retail environments, concentrating on home appliances, décor, and furniture.

The reliance on details and accomplishments that are specific to your career carries through the entire resume and makes you stand out from the pack.

A Professional Resume Looks Professional

A professional resume has a consistent format, font, use of bolding, choice of bullets, and headline style. It uses a variety of verbs (generated, increased, secured, slashed, managed, grew, developed, etc.) that keep the interest of the reader. If a gap or overlap in employment or an appearance of job-hopping needs to be explained, a professional resume knows how to do that honestly while making sure that it supports rather than undermining your career.

In addition, a professional resume is proofread. The smallest error—a period left off the end of a sentence, a letter missing from or added to a word (for example, fiance instead of finance), or an inconsistency in dates—will make a hiring manager think twice. If you claim you are attentive to details, communicate clearly, and always deliver great results, you do not want your resume to contradict you.

A Professional Resume Truly Covers Your Career

You never want to lie in a resume, but you do want to let hiring managers and recruiters know how awesome you are. You may have difficulty with “bragging,” or you may go overboard and take credit for results you could not possibly have contributed to. A professional resume writer helps you find just the right balance.

A professional resume writer also interviews you to determine if you have left out any facts that should be included; if you have downplayed a contribution that deserves stronger mention; or if you have repeated yourself unnecessarily. With the help of a professional resume writer, you can make sure that your resume and online presence are consistent—for example, your resume and LinkedIn profile show the same person with the same skills, education, job history, and accomplishments.

Are you ready to work to create a professional resume? Contact Robin’s Resumes® and find out what a professional resume writer and career coach can do for you.

Resume Q&A: How Do I Target My Resume for The Job I Want?

Jun 21 2020

Q. I recently graduated with a bachelor of science degree in biology, with a minor in finance, and I could go anywhere with that combination. I could be a research assistant, technical writer, benefits manager in a pharmaceutical company—the job opportunities are wonderful. Right now, I do not have a clue where I will be applying for a job. So how can I possibly target my resume for the job I want?

A. The answer to your question is right in the question itself: you need to figure out what job you want before you can write a resume for it. You list three out of many career paths open to you. Which has the most appeal? The companies you apply to will not look at your resume and figure out where to place you in their organization. Instead, they want to know where you want to be placed.

So before you target your resume, you have to target your career path. Ask yourself these five questions:

What courses did you enjoy the most or excel at? Maybe you excelled more in finance or biology or an entirely different field. Most of us choose careers based on our strengths.
What do you want out of a career? What is most important: a chance to progress, high salary, specific location (not all jobs are available in all locations), or something else?
Which careers appeal most to you? Research specific job opportunities in biology and finance, read advertisements and job postings, and talk to people in the field. Does the reality match your idea of the right career?
What further education, licenses, or certifications would you need for the career? Do you have the financial resources, time, and interest to meet those criteria?
What types of companies appeal to you most? Are you committed, for example, to environmentally sensitive companies or developing new drugs or showing a company how to become financially sound? Do you prefer large companies or small ones?

When you have a handle on what you want, you will be able to target your resume for positions that meet as many of your criteria as possible. You might need two resumes: one for your science-focused preferences and one for your financial-focused preferences. But having more than two resumes is a clue that you have not really answered the five questions.

Robin’s Resumes® provides career coaching as well as professional written, targeted resumes. If you need help in focusing both your career and your resume, please contact us.

Best Ways to Find a Job

May 24 2020

Three things are absolutely essential to find a job:

A professional resume
Personal networking
Online presence

The professional resume is important for several reasons that go beyond the expectations of hiring managers and recruiters. You will need a standard, professional resume to reply to advertisements, job postings, and inquiries. But you will also need it to refresh your own memory about your achievements and skills (we all tend to forget what we have accomplished over the years). Also, you can hand it out to your personal and professional networks, and you can post it online so that everyone knows what type of jobs fit your background.

What makes a resume professional? It is clearly written in a standard format acceptable to recruiters, hiring managers, and Applicant Tracking Systems; details your skills and accomplishments; focuses on the job you want; is easy to read and understand (even technical resumes); does not have typos or grammatical mistakes; contains keywords as part of the flow; and addresses any gaps or problems in your past career in the most positive way.

Personal networking means that you speak directly to individuals in your field. It does not mean that you go up to perfect strangers and say, “I need a job. Do you have one?” Instead, you are building relationships. Great places for personal networking include professional organizations, Chambers of Commerce, state and local unemployment services, college career services (for college students and alumni), and your personal friends and family.

Note that 49 percent of senior managers consider networking or connecting with current employees at a company to be the top job-search tactic. This goes for both in-person and online networking, but you should do both to find a job.

Online networking includes not only professional sites like LinkedIn but social sites and online portfolios or personal websites. In fact, 47 percent of senior managers recommend providing access to an online portfolio or personal website. However, your presence on these sites—whether social or personal—must still be professional and consistent with your resume.

A SHRM survey found that 90% of recruiters and 77% of businesses seek job applicants on social media—many of them before ever seeing a resume. LinkedIn is first, but other social media are also important because they give a broader picture of the candidate. When you are trying to find a job, make sure all your social media supports you as a professional, skilled, and broad-minded person—or limit access until your job search is over.

Robin’s Resumes® provides career advice and support as well as writing professional resumes and professional LinkedIn profiles. We can help you find a job—hopefully, the job of your dreams.

What a Poor Resume Costs You

Apr 15 2018

What is a poor resume costing you?

First and foremost, a poor resume could cost you a new job. Poor resumes are unfocused: they fail to aim at a specific job and they fail to show how your accomplishments, education, hard skills, and soft skills prepare you for that job. Recruiters and hiring managers are not mind readers. A professional resume will tell them why you are their best candidate.

Which leads us to the second cost: self-esteem. A great resume describes your career in a way that makes you yourself aware of everything you have to offer. When it comes time for an interview, a professional resume prepares you to talk about your career positively. You begin to see that you actually have progressed over the years and contributed to each company. Any hiccup is just that—a hiccup.

The third way in which a poor resume costs you is credibility. Even if you have high self-esteem and a great career, a poor resume can undermine all your efforts in your job hunt. Moreover, if social media and networking sites, such as LinkedIn, present you in an entirely different light, recruiters and hiring managers become confused about which image to believe. A professional resume writer ensures that your presentation is consistent from paper to Internet to in-person interview.

Fourth, a poor resume costs you opportunities to change to a new career, a new geography, or a new industry. Many hard and soft skills are transferable. Are you unhappy where you are now? Your professional resume will stay upbeat—and keep you and future employers upbeat by showing that your value transcends the situation, role, geography, or industry you happen to find yourself in currently.

Fifth, a poor resume interferes with networking relationships. How are your former peers and supervisors, your family and friends, and your current network supposed to support your job search when they do not understand what you do or how valuable you are? If a poor resume confuses hiring managers and recruiters—who are familiar with your field and position—then just imagine how it confuses your network who are trying so hard to support you.

Last but never least, a poor resume costs you income. Most companies set a range for positions based on experience and education and their perception of your fit. A poor resume lets the company contemplate a low offer; a great resume generates a great offer.

When a poor resume causes that much damage, you know you need a professional resume. Robin’s Resumes® specializes in creating resumes that capture and keep the attention of recruiters and hiring managers, grow self-esteem and credibility, ease transitions, and support networking. Contact us today.

A Professional Resume: What It Means and How to Create It

Sep 21 2014

A professional looking and sounding resume is as important as a professional wardrobe when you are looking for a job. What makes a resume professional?

First, the contact information is professional, with an email address that consists of your name, not some cute phrase or an address you share with your entire family (such as TheSmithFamily@yahoo.com).

Second, the content conforms to expectations for professional resumes. Work history is given in reverse chronological order; the first person singular (“I”) is not used; each bullet point starts with a verb; job descriptions stress achievements; and so on.

Third, a professional resume is proofread by a human being, not software. Running an online spell check or grammar check is not proofreading. The spell checker will not catch “manager” spelled as “manger” or “secret” spelled as “secrete” and online grammar checkers are, frankly, worthless.

Fourth, a professional resume is targeted for the job and the industry. Recruiters and hiring managers are quick to discern resumes that are “one size fits all,” including an absence of keywords and overload of information that is not relevant to the job.

Fifth, professional format consists of a familiar, clear type and a simple design that can be read by electronic Applicant Tracking Systems. An unprofessional format might have too much bolding, italics, and underlining; hard to read fonts; no balance between print and white space; inconsistent alignment (sometimes justified, sometimes ragged right); or inconsistent bullets (round, square, large, small).

As a professional resume writer, I have produced thousands of professional resumes for individuals at every stage of their careers. I look forward to helping you; contact me today.