Your resume is an advertisement – Advanced Concept or is it?
A very smart woman and dear friend said something to me a few days ago that sparked an idea. The concept is advanced and absolutely fitting for the economic times we are in. The concept I will be discussing with you might be dismissed as common sense or common knowledge, but I believe that it will make a fundamental difference in your personal success if you are looking for a new job, career or sources of additional income.
Your resume is an advertisement and your best marketing tool. Yes, a resume is an ad. The sole reason for your CV is to sell yourself, your benefits, your capabilities, and your personal image to a potential employer or customer if we are talking about a sales letter.
It’s amazing when you consider some of the resumes that people send out. The silent killer of opportunities is spelling errors, grammatical errors, overstating your roles or putting irrelevant information in your resume. If you worked at McDonalds when you were 16, that’s fine, if you were fired from a job that could potentially give you a bad referral, leave it out. If you’re fresh out of college, focus on the current computer skills or new software you know how to use.
What is an advertisement? My view on this is simple. An advertisement is designed to do one thing. Create a call to action. Get the reader to call, to email, to buy, and in this case, buy you. Buy your services; your help which is needed in a particular role or position. The sole purpose of a resume is to get to the next step, the interview. If done right, the interviewer should be sold on you from the resume and the interview becomes a series of checks and balances. The interviewer is then working with you to see that the fit is indeed good and to see what ideas or suggestions you have to offer to the mix.
Just the change in mind set will improve your chances at getting what you are looking for. A clean, easy read with a spark of energy will do wonders. Eliminate all negatives from your resume. Have at least two or three people that are close friends review and critique you CV. Ask them if it represents the image that you portray. Does the resume hint at the person you want to become? Does it offer some insight into the benefits of hiring you over the next person? I speak a lot about positive state of mind in my stories and articles. I don’t just talk it, I live it. Push hard but be clear in your direction and in your intentions. Do things of value and drop things that aren’t.
Shawn
Bonus Suggestion…
A good friend of mine named Daryl, talked to me at the recent Stompernet conference in Atlanta, about a new tool that he is using. It’s a goal setting and tracking journal that runs completely online. He gave me a tour and I was intrigued by the simplicity of setting it up, but at the same time, the level of detail that it required the user to input to get it rolling. The tool is called Life Tick website www.lifetick.com I’m not selling anything or saying that it works, but I signed up based on one of my person goals of always increasing my personal clarity. Clear goals happen quickly. I’ll keep you posted on how it works out.
Tags: lifetick, stompernet