Robin's Resumes (r)

Adding value to your Career Documentation | Career Coaching

4 Steps to a Resume That Advances Your Career

by Leave a Comment

If you are looking to move on to a more responsible, higher paid, or more interesting career, then your resume has to reflect your preparedness for that new role. Just as employees are told to “dress for success,” your resume must dress your past experience for your future role. Here are five important steps to take when writing or revising your resume for the job you want:

  1. Be clear about your goal. Research job titles and responsibilities for the position. Do not assume that every industry and business awards titles in the same way. In one company, a Director might outrank a Vice President—in another company, the responsibilities and rankings are reversed. Check job postings and advertisements for job responsibilities so that you know exactly what to highlight on your resume.
  2. Put the emphasis in your resume on skills, education, and accomplishments that match the position you’re aiming for. It’s great that you were chosen to select the new copier at work; but if that accomplishment is not relevant to the management job you want, leave it out. Use the space instead to focus on your leadership, mentorship, budgeting, and other skills that are transferrable and important to a management position. Or show how your role in selecting the copier illustrates your leadership, analysis, and communication skills. Whatever direction you choose, always keep your goal in mind.
  3. Make sure you are prepared. Once you are clear about your goals and the expectations of future employers, do everything you can to meet those expectations before you apply for a job. If opportunities arise in your current position to take more responsibility, grab them. If you need certifications or educational credits in a certain area, earn them. Begin a brag book to list current accomplishments that fit your goal before you forget those accomplishments or begin to downplay them in your mind.
  4. Resist the urge to panic or backpedal. If this is truly the next step in your career, embrace it. You don’t need to make excuses on your resume for any gap in your skills and accomplishments. Skills can be acquired, and accomplishments will come naturally as you grow into the job. Your resume is not the place to defend yourself. However, if you want to emphasize your practical experience over educational, or your ability to learn new skills over your lack, there are ways to do that.

If you are struggling to clarify your career goals, reframe your resume for the job you want, and emphasize the positive in your resume, please contact Robin’s Resumes®. We are here to help.

New Emphasis on Skills by Hiring Managers

by Leave a Comment

A recent article in BusinessNH Magazine discussed how colleges are rethinking degree programs to provide credentials in the specific skill sets that companies and hiring managers want most. The article told the story of a general manager in a large company who was asked what degree would be helpful for his employees. The manager could not name any degree, but he could give a list of specific skills.

Industry has long offered credentials in a specific skill set (think Lean, Six Sigma, or FINRA certifications) but colleges have always focused on degrees, not certifications. In fact, in many industries and positions, a degree bears little or no relationship whatever to the hard and soft skills required for success. This lack of relationship does not mean that a college degree has no value; however, colleges are now recognizing that, in many cases, credentials mean more to hiring managers and recruiters than a specific degree.

How does that affect your resume?

  • You should be aware that your college major is not a sentence for life! If you majored in accounting, for example, and truly dislike it, aim for another career, perhaps one where your accounting background is an asset but not what you do daily. It is the job of your resume to target the position you want while selling hiring managers and recruiters on the value-added that you offer.
  • If certifications in your field are offered at your college or in your industry, consider becoming certified in addition to or in place of pursuing a college degree. When you come to an employer with certifications in hand, you are automatically more desirable. It is the job of your resume to promote the certifications you have gained.
  • Any experience in the workplace is better than no experience because you acquire transferable skills in every position you hold. It is the job of your resume to convince employers that those skills are in fact transferable.

Robin’s Resumes® helps you to make sure that your skills are described in a way that makes you a valuable prospect for hiring managers—even in fields that differ from your degree. Contact us today.

Resume Q&A: How Do I Handle Many Short-Term Jobs?

by Leave a Comment

Q. I have bounced around a lot from job to job during my career, and now I am looking again. Part of the problem is that I get bored easily, sometimes I got laid off, but also I am in a career where people just do not stay long at any one company. How do I write my resume so that I do not come off as a flake or someone who gets fired from one company after another?

A. Four ways are available to you to turn your short-term jobs into an asset rather than a drawback.

First, if short-term jobs are common in your field, then you truly do not have a problem. In fact, you might have a problem if you did not move from job to job. Being laid off is not an issue, especially if you were able to find another job in your field fairly quickly, demonstrating your value.

Second, your job changes may have given you experience in industries and positions that other job applicants might not have. You may also have developed contacts, learned software programs, or acquired other knowledge and skills that your next employer would appreciate. Review your resume from that perspective: what have you gained during your frequent job changes and how would that benefit the next company you work for?

Third, if your job changes are the result of a career in consulting, consider grouping them under a “Consulting” headline that spans a greater period of time. That way, each company represents a new client, not a change in career.

Finally, if you are so bored with every job that you cannot wait to leave it, consider career coaching. You may have a lot of transferable skills now that can carry you into a career path that you will truly enjoy.

For help in making an asset of your short-term jobs or transitioning your career, please contact Robin’s Resumes® today.

Resumes for Sales Reps

by Leave a Comment

In some ways, sales representatives have an easier job quantifying their skills than many people in other positions. If you come in at or over sales goals; if you bring in hundreds or thousands of dollars of new business; if you have a high closing rate, you are already well on the way to convincing a company to hire you in a sales position.

If your measurable skills are confidential, give percentages or ranges (for example, “reached 130% over sales goal by closing a multimillion-dollar deal”).  You should be sure to mention any awards you have received. Awards testify to your ability without requiring specific numbers.

You may be expected to have familiarity with a particular product or service (for example, new or legacy software, pharmaceuticals, or financial packages) or familiarity with a territory, industry, and specific type of client. You may need skill in certain software programs such as Salesforce.com.

But good numbers and experience in preferred areas are not the only accomplishments that recruiters and hiring managers expect in a stellar sales representative. They are also interested in soft skills such as:

  • Your ability to communicate the customers
  • The depth and speed of your understanding of products and services
  • Your ability to adapt to the company culture
  • Your networking and pipeline development skills
  • Your ability to work with a team (remember: if your successes occurred as part of a team, they are still your successes)
  • Your negotiation and closing skills.

For sales reps, these soft skills—especially the ability to connect with current and potential customers—are just as important as measurable skills. Sales reps need to be good representatives of the company’s products, services, and culture at every interaction.

As always, customize your resume for the position you want by carefully reading job postings and advertisements for the keywords and key accomplishments that should find a place in your resume. That way your resume covers both the measurable skills and the soft skills that companies are demanding.

I have written resumes for sales representatives in many fields, including technology, pharmaceutical, healthcare, and finance/insurance. Please contact me if you need help positioning yourself as the sales rep that any company would be happy to hire.

Use Formatting Strategically on Your Resume

by Leave a Comment

According to several studies, hiring managers and recruiters spend less than 10 seconds scanning a resume before deciding that it deserves more careful reading. Those seconds are spent looking at five items: job titles company names, start/end dates, education, and then keywords (the words that appeared in the job listing as essential hard or soft skills and accomplishments).

Use Emphasis Wisely

Once you know where a recruiter or hiring manager will be looking, the importance of formatting (designing and organizing your resume) becomes clear. The easier it is for the recruiter to find your job titles, for example, the better. You can emphasize the five items of interest through the use of capital letters or small caps or bolding or italics—just be consistent and do not use too many types of emphasis at the same time.

Choose the Right Font

You also want to make sure that the font you choose is easy to read and that it prints out clearly on paper. A resume that looks best at 200% zoom on your computer is probably using too small a font.

If you make it past that first 10-second glance, you want to make sure that your accomplishments are easy to read. Bullets with short sentences are far more readable, and likely to be read than endless paragraphs of text.

Is the recruiter or hiring manager interested enough now to invite you to an interview? Make sure your contact information is formatted for easy reading and that it is placed where it is easy to find.

Format Your Resume for the ATS

Another concern related to resume format is whether the resume will pass through an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). Those systems choke on overly formatted resumes. In fact, tables, graphs, and other illustrations may cause the ATS to discard your resume regardless of how qualified you are. If you favor a resume format with a lot of graphic elements, save it for the interview stage, when you are face to face with the hiring manager or your future boss.

Conclusion

The resume format has a great effect on readability–and that improves the likelihood that a recruiters or hiring manager will keep reading. Have you used formatting strategically on your resume? If you are not sure, please contact Robin’s Resumes® so that we can help.

© 2006 - 2019 Robin's Resumes®
Visit Us On TwitterVisit Us On FacebookVisit Us On LinkedinVisit Us On Google PlusCheck Our FeedVisit Us On PinterestVisit Us On Youtube
This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you consent to our Privacy Policy and are not in the European Union. Read our Updated Privacy Policy on Our Process and Policies.