The Skinny on Writing Your Resume
When a loved one asks about their weight, you’re in a dreadful position, but you’re stuck in a corner that requires a response. The counterpart dreaded question on the professional side is “When can I get your resume?” It’s an inevitable question, the prospect of which, for many, is considered worse than a root canal.
Yet it’s inevitable. The day will come when you need a serviceable resume. You should actually always have a serviceable resume handy so you can quickly respond to a shooting-star opportunity that unexpectedly drops in your lap.
So how do you whip up a great resume? Here are 2 preliminary tips:
- Hire a professional resume writer. Seriously. This is an effective cut-to-the-chase approach that gets it done. Resume writers are some of the best career professionals out there, and they’re incredibly adept at working with you to extract gold nuggets hiding within your career. They know what’s important and how to alchemize your background into a serviceable document, meaning the resume pops, gets skimmed in 6 seconds or less, and the reader goes back for a second read because it got their attention.
- Do It Yourself. Of course you can if you want to. To learn to write a modern resume, a great resource is “Modernize Your Resume…Get Noticed…Get Hired,” by Wendy Enelow and Louise Kursmark, recognized subject matter experts in the resume writing field. They explain the whys and hows of building a modern resume and have samples galore in this treasure trove book.
In either case, the content for a modern resume requires you to accumulate data of your achievements, accomplishment, and outcomes, quantified wherever possible. This data is the backbone of your career history and strength of your UVP (unique value proposition). The equally important data you’ll want to present is your target role or title, core competencies, and an honest, well-articulated description of the who, how, and/or why of you and what you bring to an organization. No clichés, and limited use of adjectives. Just good, solid information that substantially explains your career trend and aspects of your leadership.Ultimately, a great resume is in line with the broad trends of social media, where easily consumable content and authenticity reign to connect on a relevant plane and move forward into conversations that establish fit to the role and organization.
