The Power of a Customized Résumé Distinguishing yourself from the competition is often a matter of going the extra mile to tailor your marketing materials to each targeted job or organization. Take the case of Frank, a job seeker with a background as a lawyer, corporate trainer, and human resources manager. Frank was downsized from his position in human resources with a major company. As he began his search, he was open to any position related to any aspects of his background, as long as the work involved managing diversity programs or preventing or fighting employment discrimination, as that was his primary area of expertise and something he believed strongly about. To market himself best, Frank created five versions of his résumé. There was the résumé for legal positions in corporations; one for work as a lawyer in a law firm; one focusing solely on corporate training; one emphasizing human resources; and another with equal emphasis on training and HR. Even beyond those five basic versions, Frank often tailored the content of each slightly to highlight or de-emphasize various aspects of his background as relevant to the job or employer at hand. He consistently received positive feedback about how focused his résumés were and ended up landing a position with which he was very happy (in human resources, managing diversity programs).
Build a case with asset statements Although employers are certainly interested in knowing what your responsibilities and day-to-day tasks are or have been on past jobs, which skills and abilities you have, and what credentials you hold, such as degrees or certifications, they are usually more interested in hearing about your accomplishments. They care more about your past performance at a given task and the results you brought about, than about the task itself. By hearing about the outcomes of your past efforts, they can envision how you could be of benefit to them in the future. It’s about showing off your assets. In Chapter 4, “Your Marketing Plan’s Secret Weapon,” you’ll learn how to put together asset statements that help you convey your skills, knowledge, and positive personal qualities in a way that is relevant and meaningful for a prospective employer.
Successful job seekers have the best tools Whether it’s a home repair project or open heart surgery, everyone knows how important it is to have tools that are handy, in good working order, and are the right ones for the job. Well, a job search is the same. Too many job seekers slap together a quick résumé and call it a day. But, there’s much more to effective job hunting than a slipshod résumé. Not only does the résumé need to be a powerful marketing document, a host of other self-marketing tools also go into your job search toolkit. By taking care of these from the outset, you’ll get off to the right start in your search and won’t find yourself playing catch-up as the need for each arises. Checklist 1.1 shows what a complete job search toolkit would contain. You won’t necessarily need to use all items on the list, but you’ll need most. (The optional items tend to be a bio, which is usually required only for executives; letters of recommendation, which are not necessary if you have a list of references who can be reached by telephone; and a portfolio, which is helpful but not essential.) All of these items are discussed in Chapter 5, as well as defined briefly later in this chapter.
Checklist 1.1. A Complete Job Search Toolkit
Resumé(s)
Self-marketing sound bite—written
Self-marketing sound bite—spoken
Job seeker business card
Reference list
Letters of recommendation
Bio
Marketing brief
Approach letter / Cover letter template(s)
Follow-up letter template(s)
Portfolio
Make your résumé a marketing document
Chapter 5 covers résumés in depth, including the best overall strategies for developing a résumé as well as a step-by-step guide to creating one. For now, you need to be aware only that a strong résumé can make or break your search if you end up using many nonpersonal job search methods, such as direct mail campaigns, answering ads online or in newspapers, or circulating the résumé at job fairs or among recruiters. In those cases, you are not already a known quantity to the reader, so your résumé serves as the only introduction of you. It, therefore, must be easy to read, hit only the highlights (not every detail of your career history), and present information that is relevant to the employer and the position in question. If you find that most of your job search activities center around networking, your résumé is important but becomes a little less critical. You are more likely to be introducing yourself to new people by phone, email, or in person, or re-introducing yourself to people who already know you and don’t need to see your résumé right away, if at all. In those cases, a marketing brief can be more effective. Marketing briefs are defined in the “Assemble a Complete Self-Marketing Package” section of this chapter and are discussed in more detail in online Bonus Chapter 3. “If a candidate can’t get his or her point across concisely in a résumé, or if the résumé is too cluttered and long, I won’t read it. I receive so many résumés that I must be able to skim it in 10–20 seconds and glean the most critical information.” —John, Senior Corporate Recruiter
Watch Out!
Résumés for electronic transmission (sent within an email rather than as an attachment, or uploaded to a Web site) are often referred to as “text only” résumés. This is a dangerous misnomer. There’s much more to creating an eRésumé than saving it in text-only format. Be sure to read Chapter 10 for more information. Successful job seekers also have an electronic résumé, or “eRésumé.” The eRésumé is in a different technical format than the traditional résumé, a format that ensures the content will be readable when it is transmitted electronically. You’ll need an eRésumé whenever someone says they won’t accept an attached document and must receive the résumé within the body (the message field) of the email. The eRésumé is also used when you post your résumé online in a résumé bank or upload it to a Web site to apply for a position in a job bank. The eRésumé also works well when you know, or suspect, that your résumé will be scanned electronically to go into a résumé database rather than read initially by a person. When and how to use an eRésumé, not to mention how to develop one, can be confusing, but everything you need to know to demystify the process is discussed in Chapter 5.
Click Here to Purchase this Book