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5 Reasons Why Your Resume Isn’t Working

Jul 09 2017

You haven’t sent your resume out. Your resume can only start working for you when you actually send it to prospective employers. If you are trying to please multiple reviewers, anxious about every comma and period, or worried about presenting yourself correctly, you need the objective help of a professional resume writer.
You don’t know what employers are looking for. Research the companies and positions you are applying for. Read job postings and advertisements. You must know what companies want when they advertise for a specific job opening so that your resume covers those basics or bridges any gap between what you offer and the job demands.
Your resume is too vague. The jargon of the moment—proactive, results oriented—is very tempting but it doesn’t reveal who you are and what you have accomplished. Give specific results first and then explain how you achieved them: “Cut overhead in half by moving payroll function to outside vendor and eliminating 2 internal positions.”
Your resume is too confusing. What type of position are you looking for? What skills, experience, and education do you have for that position? Which of your past achievements are most predictive of your future success? If you don’t know, and simply throw everything into the resume in hopes that employers will sort it out, you are wasting everyone’s time.
You send your resume out only in response to job postings or advertisements. Your resume is an important tool for your job search. You should email it to friends and family, make sure that your LinkedIn or other online profile supports it, carry it with you to networking events, and use it as the basis for your elevator speech. Your research into companies (see #2 above) may reveal that they have a problem you can fix: Don’t wait for them to post a job, but contact them now about your ability to solve their problem.

When your resume isn’t working, you need the help of a professional resume writer. Contact Robin’s Resumes®. We’re here to help.

Is Your Resume Readable?

Dec 23 2012

A resume is a written document and, like all written documents, it has to be readable. A readable document is grammatical, logical, concise, and interesting. Let’s take each of those qualities in turn.

The grammar you use in speech or in a quick email to family and friends is not the formal grammar a resume requires. Online grammar checkers are useless. If your formal grammar is sketchy, please consult a professional writer.

Logical writing is organized. Whether that organization is present to past, most relevant to least relevant, or most impressive to least impressive will depend on what your resume is trying to accomplish. But once you settle on your logic, don’t violate it.

Concise writing eliminates excess words and information. For example, in the phrase “new innovative technology,” the word “new” is redundant; the word “innovative” means “something new.” Concise writing focuses on the skills and accomplishments that bear directly on the job opening.

Interesting writing keeps the audience in mind. What is the company interested in hearing about you, as revealed in their advertisements, job postings, and website? For companies, numbers are almost always interesting ($50,000 budget; 5 direct reports; 6 months; 15 customers; 3 countries). Interesting writing is also varied. In a resume, that means using a variety of strong verbs rather than relying on weak phrases like “was responsible for” or “played a role in.”

Professional resume writers know how to make a resume grammatical, logical, concise, and interesting, as well as accurate. Visit the Robin’s Resumes® website for examples of readable civilian and federal resumes. Then contact me to help you with your resume.

Why Are You Writing Your Resume?

Dec 16 2012

Do you know why you are writing a resume? If you answer, “to tell a company about me,” you are missing the most important point of a resume.

When writing their own resume, many people become so wrapped up in listing all their skills and accomplishments that they forget their audience—the company they are trying to impress.

That company wants to find an employee who can deliver the specific skills and education they want, who has demonstrated an ability to use those specific skills to benefit past employers, and who will fit the company’s culture. Any other skills, education, accomplishments, and attitudes are nice to know but not immediately relevant. You want to use the limited space of your resume to relate the parts of your work history that are most important to the company you are contacting.

What is important to the company? You may get clues from the company’s advertisements, job postings, websites, LinkedIn page, or press releases. Use those clues to write a resume that sparks a company’s interest.

To learn how Robin’s Resumes® can help you, contact me today.