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Focus Your Resume

After 20 or more years in the job market, you’ve picked up a lot of skills. One recent contact told me that she had worked in sales, management, website development, marketing, bookkeeping and purchasing at various companies over 30 years. How, she wondered, would she ever fit all that experience into one resume?

She was asking the wrong question. She should be asking, “What job do I want?”

If you have a multitude of skills and experiences, narrow them down to the ones that excite you most, that you’ve achieved the most in, that you can see yourself performing for the next 10, 15 or 20 years—and that employers and recruiters are looking for. Your resume should focus on those areas of expertise.

You may decide that you have two passions and need two resumes. For example, one resume might focus on your sales and management experience; the other might focus on marketing experience, including website development.

But a single resume that qualifies you for every position in every department in every company only serves to convince future employers that you’re a Jack of all trades and master of none. And nobody hires Jack.

Advice from Your Next Boss

What do companies look for when they read a resume? Recently I asked that question on an online business site. Replies came from 18 hiring and department managers working in colleges, electronics companies, banks, sales, engineering and human resources among others.

Overwhelmingly (11 out of 18), they first checked the resume to make sure the skills and experience met their needs as outlined in the job description. No one wants to hire a brain surgeon without a medical degree or a chef who’s never worked in a kitchen. Often, the responders defined “experience” as number of years in the field.

Does this mean you can submit a laundry list of skills and job titles and get hired? No.

After that first glance, most of the people responding looked for accomplishments or achievements. Your resume has to explain what you did with your skills. How did the company benefit?

Did you develop a new report, increase sales, interact well with your peers and managers, lead a team, volunteer in the community, meet deadlines, streamline a process, help make a project successful, complete a class, give a presentation, serve on a committee, receive praise from customers or earn a promotion? The way you used your skills to benefit your old company tells your new company what to expect. They know whether you’ll be a valuable addition to their team.

You may find it hard to boast about—or even recognize—your own accomplishments. If you need help, call or email Robin’s Resumes®. Together, we can make sure the marketplace knows just how valuable you are.

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