Marketing Yourself Through a Well-Written Resume
The Process of Marketing Yourself Through a Well-Written Resume
The main purpose of a resume is to market yourself to prospective employers. You want to communicate to the employers your desirability as a future employee because of your outstanding skills set including education, experience and training. Your resume will then take you to the next level of the hiring process – an interview – which will hopefully lead to a new job.
And because you are marketing yourself, you must know what marketing is. Simply put, marketing is the process of getting the target customers and clients interested in the products and services with the ultimate aim being to make them loyal patrons. The main emphasis in the definition is PROCESS and, as such, we shall discuss the process of making a resume that will truly serve as your very own marketing tool for employment. Here then are the four main steps in the resume process.
Establish Your Employment Goal
The first step is to establish your employment goal. Your goal must reflect the balance between being specific and being general in its statement. You will then have a specific goal that will keep you focused on one hand and a general goal that will keep your priorities flexible on the other hand. (With the current economic crisis, it pays to be flexible in your job choices)
For example, your goal can be a customer service representative in a bank – this is your specific goal. Conversational Hypnosis Your general goal will then be to be able to work in the financial services sector aside from banks in a similar capacity.
Identify the Skills Required by the Employer
This is the easiest step in the process for an obvious reason. You have so many resources available in this regard that it will be a poor reflection upon your own skills set if you are unable to gather the required information.
First, the employer lists down several of the skills, capabilities and personal attributes required of the open position that applicants must possess before being considered for employment. These could be excellent interpersonal skills, skills in sales and marketing, technical skills, computer skills or even the skills required to make traditional rugs, depending on the position required. Even skills that are particular to the local market can be required such as the ability to deal with water damage orlando. Second, the industry where the employer belongs to also has many similar positions as the one you are applying for and, thus, you can make a list of the other possible skills desired by the employer. For example the other possible skills a chiropractor would need are obviously have the medical skills required to perform chiropractic work but they may also need to have skills in chiropractic marketing to attract new clients, not to mention people skills to handle people both old and young who are probably in pain.
Indeed, your thorough research into what the employer desires in a future employee is the cornerstone of your success in actually being hired for the job.
Identify Your Skills Meeting the Needs of the Employer
Then, you must conduct a skills assessment. This is the process of identifying your skills that match the required skills set forth by the employer. You are basically persuading the employer that you have the best value in the market in terms of the skills, abilities and capabilities that you can bring into the company. These days your opportunity to display your value to the employer is at interview and interviews can be in person, via the telephone and even via video conference with several key company stakeholders and video conference support is always available for employers and candidates in order to make the experience as smooth as possible.
Write Your Unique Resume
When all of the abovementioned steps have been done, you can then sit down and start writing your resume. Although a generalized resume will be more convenient, we always recommend writing a new resume – or at least, tweaking your general resume – that will fit each of the employer’s needs. Argan Oil We highly advise against submitting a resume best suited for a job in a bank to a fast-food company, for example.
Now, as to writing the resume itself, this will require another article due to the lengthy discussion involved. But if you have undergone the first three steps in the right manner, then you are more likely to write the best resume that will get you hired. Fat Loss 4 Idiots
Putting Yourself in the Employer’s Shoes in Writing Resumes
We cannot overemphasize the importance of writing resumes from the perspective of the employer. Such importance comes from the fact that you want to impress the employer and, thus, you must appeal to his sensibilities, requirements and preferences for a possible employee. Here then are the most useful tips in putting yourself in the shoes of the employer to impress him.
Get to the Point
Hiring managers have little time to wade through a voluminous cover letter with an attached resume. Whether you are an apprentice builder with only 2 years experience or a double glazing specialist with 20 years experience or an expert salesman at selling water tanks you need to keep your resume succinct and to the point. Keep in mind that there are literally hundreds of individuals applying for one position so reading each and every word on all the resumes is impractical, to say the least. This is true even when you are the most qualified person on the roster.
So when you are writing your resume, you have to make sure that it is:
• Direct to the point
• Easy to read
• Organized in a logical manner
Or as we say it more bluntly, keep it short and sweet. Aruba The most important thing in the resume is that it contains all the essential information that will get you to the next level of the hiring process – the interview, of course.
Think of the Employer’s Desired Skills
As much as possible, you must prepare a new resume for each job so that the employer’s needs in a potential employee are met. This is because each job requires a specific set of skills, abilities and capabilities even when the jobs being offered sound similar. For example a job for an SEO agency in Los Angeles may have different requirements to a job in SEO Dallas due to the requirements for local search in the area. You are being hired for your personal and professional attributes in relation to the job and, hence, you must emphasize these qualities.
Even when you think that your previous work experience did not equip you with the desired skills, you will be surprised to know that these are transferable. For example, if your only work experience was working in a service crew in a fast-food company, your skills in efficient customer services and effective team work can be transferred to your desired job as a sales representative for a detox diet company or as a customer service representative in a bank. Technical skills are also highly sought after and transferable such as a job for an electronic payment service such as Crescent Processing may be looking for anyone that has previously worked in IT support or software programming in any field and they intend to train the successful applicant on the specifics of their system.
Thus, before writing your resume, we suggest taking the following preliminary steps:
• List down the required skills of the employer
• List down your skills learned from previous and present work experiences (This is called skills assessment)
• Match your skills with those required by the employer.
The last step will require certain English communication skills such as right grammar, right spelling and right use of words in a context. Use strong words that show leadership, competency and ability such as “organized”, “led” and “designed”, among others. Esramag Take note that most employers want employees who can work with minimal supervision.
Follow the Rules of Resume Form
You may want to stand out from the horde of applicants by making your resume colorful with varied fonts, colors and highlights. However, we strongly suggest against it because you will stand out but in a negative way. Also be aware that there are different resume formats for different professions/industries. A resume for a job in chiropractic marketing would need to be formatted to reflect both skills as a chiropractor and as a marketer whereas if you were applying for a position in flooring Garland you would need to highlight your skills in the flooring industry and show experience in the Garland area. We recommend following the rules of which the most important are:
• Stick to 1-2 pages of the resume (3 is the absolute maximum)
• Use 8.5×11 white paper of good quality (Scented and colored papers are a no-no)
• Use a laser printer for clear quality
• Use equal margins on each side.
Indeed, when it comes to resumes, the substance of the contents matter as much as the form it is presented on.
For great examples of resumes click here
Styles of Resume for Different Purposes
Your resume is your best marketing tool in getting yourself hired for the particular job you are applying for. As such, you will want to present yourself in a manner that works best for your ultimate goal. In this regard, you have three ways – or styles – in which to present the information in your resume.
Keep in mind that each style of resume has its own pros and cons. You Plus Us You must then choose the style that best suits the requirements of a job according to the employer’s perspective. For example, a manufacturing company prefers the functional resume while a biomedical company requires a chronological resume even when the positions are similar, say, for an office receptionist working part-time.
Chronological Resume
The chronological resume is the most commonly used because of the many benefits it brings. It highlights your employment history and, thus, is highly recommended if your employment experience reflects a consistent related history. Apartments Madrid You are also able to emphasize job duties as well as the skills learned along the way that can be applied to the position you are applying for.
But there are disadvantages to using this format. If your work experience is unrelated to the job, it is instantly evident. If you also have gaps in work experience because of your studies, these gaps will also show. Plus, you will have lesser opportunity to highlight your applicable skills even if there are many.
To offset these disadvantages, we suggest using the related experience chronological sub-type. In Pet Loss You will then be able to separate your resume into “Related Experience” and “Other Experience”, thus, making your presentation of the relevant information favorable.
Functional Resume
As a student, you can use this format to your advantage although we have to emphasize that it is not as accepted by employers as the other two types. Basically, your focus is on highlighting your related skills. You divide the resume into two sections, namely, Related Skills and Work History.
On the Related Skills section, you list down your experiences in education, training and work experiences as well as volunteer and extracurricular activities. You can also include more information about specific fields you may have worked in such as Business Intelligence. Your main goal here is to highlight the skills you have acquired with these aspects in your life.
On the Work History section, you will then list down the information about where and when you acquired your skills. This section must only include the barebones basic of job title, employer name and employment dates.
You should consider the functional format only when you have little to no direct experience with the job you are applying for, which is true for most new graduates. But be careful in using words as the employer will be aware of any employment issues you may create in the future.
Combination Resume
If you want to stand out from the rest of the horde who uses the two abovementioned resume styles, go for the combination style. The combination resume highlights your skills and achievements in different categories and then gives information on the where and when of these aspects. To put it another way, the first page is a functional resume while the second page is a chronological resume.
So, which of these 3 styles of resumes do we recommend? Firstly we recommend you keep reading about different types of resumes – What is a great resume? We suggest going through the time and effort in developing the combination resume and we can assure you that it produces more favorable results.
A professionally-made or a do-it-yourself resume?
In the world of employment, there is always a competition. If you want to land a dream job in the US or in any European countries, you need to have a good resume because the competition is tough. A great resume is your key tool to getting that job you’ve always been dreaming of. Should you hire a professional resume writer or write your own resume? Before you answer this question, read on and decide after.
The Advantages of Hiring a Professional Resume Writer
1. If you don’t get any phone calls from the companies or positions you have applied for, chances are, you have a poor resume. With the help of professional resume writers, they can translate your boring resume to an impressive one. A resume make-over is simply what it takes and a professional writer can do the job for you.
2. When a newly edited resume is given to you by a professional resume writer, you can now compare your old resume with the new one, taking into consideration your past mistakes, By doing so, it will guide you in making your own resume in the future when there is a need for you to update it.
How to Find a Resume Writer?
Of course, the internet has always been a great place to look for possible solutions to a question. You can look for possible choices of professional resume writers online that guarantee great output. Remember to be cautious about writers who claim to be professional ones, but in fact, who are not. It takes great skills and expertise to be able to produce a great resume, so choose a reliable professional resume writer to do the job for you. To check if the writer is a professional writer you might like to see if they have written fiction stories or books or if they sell textbooks they have written. From this you can judge their writing style and proficiency. The amount of money you will spend for hiring a writer is nothing compared to the salary you can get from getting the job you are dreaming of in the US or in any European countries.
A great resume must be able to sell you and answer the primary questions that employers or companies usually have. No matter how you send your resume, may it be through email, mail, or in person, it is important to submit a document that can beat all other competing resumes.
If you have expertise and experience in writing a great resume, that’s an advantage. It can help you save money. In some professions, especially technical ones such as online CRM software development or software for electronic payment systems such as those used by the Crescent Processing Company, you may need to write the resume yourself as the average resume writer simply wouldn’t have the technical know-how to produce a comprehensive resume that accurately reflects your skills. However if you opt for a do-it-yourself resume, you should be careful in looking for resume samples in books because they might be outdated ones. The internet is a great place to look for relevant resume samples to guide you.
Should you hire a professional resume writer or write your own resume? You have read the advantages and ways of hiring a professional resume writer. On the other hand, if you believe you have the necessary expertise in writing a great resume, doing it all by yourself is also good training. Whether you are opting to hire a professional writer or not, the choice is always yours. Just come up with a great and impressive yet honest resume – it will surely land you a dream job in the US or in a European country.