Resume writers and career coaches must be raking in the bucks, I'm half thinking I should become one. It's a good honest way to make a living while helping people in need. There's just one thing; I think people need to be able to write their own resumes.
And, yes, I know I'll be catching a bunch of flack from those who make a hard earned living doing this kind of work; and, no, I'm not trying to put them out of business. But, if predictions are right, you're not only going to change jobs many, many times in your lifetime, but you'll have 5 or 6 different careers as well. Putting a resume together is a skill that you're going to need.
Wikipedia says that a resume is "a document that contains a summary or listing of relevant job experience and education. " I think the word RELEVANT is key. I get piles of resumes every day, and I have no idea why half of them were sent to me.
Imagine if you were looking to hire a surgeon and a sushi chef applied for the job because he saw words like "precise" and "sharp instrument" in the job description. I laughed about this with the VP of Staffing of a Global 50 firm the other day; he said that the resumes that come in through his company's portal don't even come that close to being "hit", and that his staff doesn't have time to sort through the misses.
"Don't people get it," he said, "that it's up to a job candidate to make it obvious to me that they have the experience, skills, and training to do the job they're applying for?"
And it's with this thought in mind, that I say that a single version of a resume probably won't serve you in today's marketplace. Two or three versions probably won't be enough either, unless you're applying for only two or three jobs.
I say that for each position you apply for, you should create a different resume. Though its contents won't vary much (your education, training and skill sets don't fundamentally change from day to day), the presentation of those contents should.
And it's not too much to ask; after all, we live in a cut-and-paste, soft-copy world. There are tools like Microsoft Office Online and Emurse available to us, at little or no cost, 24/7. There's no excuse for failing to present yourself as the perfect (or at least 80%) fit for a job; unless, of course, you aren't. If that's the case, don't waste your own, or anyone else's time; go find a job you do fit instead.
Comments