Roundhouse kick to the head Resumes

Forewarned is forearmed! (See information on how to create e-z to scan, success-filled resumes at the bottom of the article.)

Research shows that only one interview is granted for every 200 resumes received by the average employer. Research also tells us that your resume will be quickly scanned, rather than read – the reader takes from 3 to 8 seconds. This is all the time you have to impress a hiring manager to read pursue your resume further. What this means is that the decision to interview a candidate is usually based on an overall first impression of the resume, a quick screening that so impresses the reader and convinces them of the candidate’s qualifications that an interview results. As a result, the top half of the first page of your resume will either make you or break you. By the time they have read the first few lines, you have either caught their interest, or your resume has failed. That is why we say that your resume is an ad. You hope it will have the same result as a well-written ad: to get the reader to respond.

To write an winning resume, you have to learn how to tell a prospective employer what you can do for them while pointing out what qualifications you have that match the job description. The new resume doesn’t follow the old standards – it grabs the reader’s attention and gets you put in the “yes” pile.

By starting with your current resume and some effort, you can make a resume that you’re confident that shows who you are and what you can do.

Each advertised position gets a ton of resume responses from those who are underqualified but hopeful to overqualified and close to perfection. All of these resumes are your competition. The hiring manager has to read all of these unless they have an assistant who will prescreen them first.

With a job description in front of them, someone is going to scan your resume starting with the email subject. For information about emailing etiquette, read our article. They may or may not know what all of the job necessities are or mean, so they’re looking for a resume that matches up quickly with the job description. This is your starting point:

THE OBJECTIVE/SUMMARY

A powerful objective that really tells what you’re looking for versus the standard “seeking a position as” that is 50 words or less is going to get the reader’s attention. Bolding any words that match the qualifcations from the job ad is easy on the eye and jumps out especially to someone unfamiliar with your occupation. This may be the only section fully read by the employer, so it should be very strong and convincing.

PREVIOUS EMPLOYMENT, SKILLS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS

This is the part where you demonstrate what you can bring to the employer by proving what you’ve accomplished in the past. You tell which skills you used that match the ones mentioned in the job ad or description and THEN you show your accomplishments that set you apart from the rest of the herd. The basic formula is:

1. Problem/ Challenge
2. The actions you took 
3. The outcome

In the combination objective/summary, you gave an overview. Now you tell the rest of the best of your story. Let them know what results you produced, what happened as a result of your efforts, what you are especially gifted or experienced at doing. Make sure that you are validating the most important highlights from your objective/summary.

EDUCATION

Be sure to keep the education section concise and clean. If you won any awards or published articles, list them seperately. Putting a grade point average is a personal choice but not necessarily needed especially if you won awards that will indicate your scholastic brilliance in a different section.

DO’s AND DON’Ts

DO spell and grammar check your resume

DO keep it to 2 pages or less if you can

DO apply this to any position – you’re selling yourself and listing previous job accomplishments is going to tell the employer they need you

DO make a different resume for each different job title that you’re applying for – “general” resumes don’t get interviews, they get “kept on file”.

DO include if your degree is from overseas and has been equivalency assessed by a North American certified institution such as WES

DO separate relevant work experience from non-relevant work experience

DON’T lie on your resume

DON’T add your photo

DON’T put personal information ie: marital status, Social Insurance Numbers, number of children, political or religious affiliation information on your resume

DON’T save your resume as “resume” – save it with your name and which position/job that it applies to

DON’T send wpd or obscure formats – send .doc or .pdf so that they can easily be opened or parsed by the reader. If you were the person reading 1000 resumes, you wouldn’t search for an program to read a resume, you’d delete it too, wouldn’t you?

Check out the resume sample before and after – apply this to your own resume. Get noticed and get the job with a winning resume!

 Before: Boring, average, unimpressive.

AFTER: WOW! Look how much money this guy could make us/save us! Impressive!

See original article at http://platinumstaffingsolutions.ca/articles-for-job-hunters/writing-a-winning-resume

THIS is the book that can show you how to turn your successes into numbers that win the interviews AND the jobs!