How to Write Resumes That Win Work

Resume writing can seem like a thankless task. There is so much riding on it, so much you could say, but only once chance to catch attention. How can you translate your staid list of career dates and qualifications, roles and employers, personal skills and interests – all of those resume staples-  into something that will sing the right tune for your potential employer? Surely what you need is a style, or technique, that you can use to transform your uninspired resume, into something that will shout “hire me!” to all-comers.

Unfortunately, there is no one single ‘magic bullet’ resume, that will work for each and every job. The art of writing a resume, that wins you work, is to adapt. You cannot take a monolithic approach to the content, style and presentation of your resume. It must, instead, be carefully crafted to appeal to its audience. What is needed is for you to look at your skills, experience and personality through the eyes of your employer- and then to ask which of those are critical aspects that will excite their interest.

Although that may involve some serious role play, and hard word-craft, tailoring your resume to suit is essential – on two points. First, if your resume tells the story, that the hiring manager would like to hear, then you’ll be on the interview shortlist. And second, by stepping inside your prospective employer’s head, you have already done much of the spade-work for that all-important interview.

So take your standard resume, and put on the hat of your employer (who is, remember, looking for that ideal set of skills and experiences to match to the role) – then pull out from your resume the salient points that make you that ideal candidate. Once these raw materials for your resume are gathered, it’s time to move onto presentation. You need a format that will tell your career history, and achievements, as a story that will make sense to the reader.

If your career has been a steady progression, one that shows a demonstrable climb up the greasy pole, organize your resume to show this- and back each transition with an example of what earned you the promotion. Results that you achieved, for your previous employers, speak a thousand words to your prospective employer.

On the other hand, if you have jumped around from industry to industry, or have occasional career backwaters, avoid the chronological career history. Instead, pool those experiences and positions that have most relevance to the role in question – and highlight the links to the proposed role. This approach will also make sense if you are taking a sideways jump, onto a new career path, with this job application.

Language matters as well. For those positions that are managerial or organizational, make heavy use of statements of action, and relevant buzz-words. For those that are more technically orientated, load you resume with the most important and current technical terms- those that demonstrate you are at the top of your game in your chosen field. If your role is more creative, try to introduce a little diversity into your language- not so much that the resume is strained, but enough to show you can think outside of verbal cliches.

Finally, the presentation of your resume must be word-perfect. For all your efforts in painting the right picture to the employer, a minor detail will throw the whole presentation off-kilter. You must read, and reread your resume, weed out unsightly grammar, and then spell-check- again. Get a friend to read the draft resume, to ensure it flows as well as you intend. Remember that it is only through a powerful first impression that you get a chance to make that critical second impression- at the interview.

This is an article written by a stay at home dad who writes for a website providing tips on how to build muscle & how to get buff