Tag: Resume

What You Never Knew About Resume Writing

In 2011, almost all resume writers have failed to understand that nearly all resumes are written online. Simply knowing this can give the job seeker an amazing advantage.

 

For instance, a mere 30% of website readers scroll down on any given web page. Therefore, the job applicant can have 2, 3 or even 100 pages, but it doesn’t matter if they don’t get the most important information to the top.

 

Moreover, the Western world reads left to right, obviously starting on the top left starting with the upper left corner.

 

Because of this, the resume writer must widen out the margins and make more room on the top and bottom of the document as well. They should covet the top left of their resume and make sure to fill it with quite compelling content that is aimed to hook the reader’s attention.

 

They should never put their name in fancy font.

 

If you look at any major news website, they always have a small logo on top. That’s because it’s very important advertising real estate to the company. Advertisers, regardless of size, want that ad.

 

When newspapers were printed years ago, they had very large, well-designed logos that had lines in them.

 

It used to be that half the newspaper homepage was a newspaper logo. Not any more. For the most part, the online news companies have been humbled, or lived to survive as a company another day.

 

Moreover, the resume writer never wants to put lines in their document. Studies have shown that lines cut off the website reader’s vision. It is almost like a stop sign.

 

With this knowledge, a resume should start with:

 

(.5 margin will typically still print)

Bob Smith                            bsmith@....

1234 Anyroad                      777-7777-7777

Anytown, USA

Objective:

 

After breaking my employer’s sales record two out of four years that I’ve been with the firm, I have decided that my strength truly lies in branding and advertising.

 

While I still want the consistent people interaction as I enjoy account management in sales but, I want to be able to take a product or service and help the company that I’m with tactically beat their competition through pristine marketing.

 

Strengths:

 

Branding, Advertising, Account Management, Web Marketing, Ezine Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Print Marketing

 

The job seeker got a lot in within 2 sentences. They are taking full advantage of the laws of website reading.

 

Just by glancing at these 50 or so words, the employer is probably relieved that the person has all the skills that they are looking for. There’s also a chance they will just take a quick glance down, be satisfied and contact the job seeker.

 

Another thing to notice regarding the above written sample resume is how nothing is too fancy with the format in the resume. The resume writer wants to keep things simplistic.

 

 

Conversely, if the job seeker doesn’t want to be questioned about a job on the phone interview, they should put a separating line in their resume. Lines cut the readers vision off. This is precisely why there are no virtually lines on the NYTimes homepage.

 

For example, let’s say the job seeker has had 3 jobs in their career, but they don’t like the 2nd job too much. Here is a good trick to nearly ensure that the resume reader will not focus on it:

 

______ (small line)

 

Job 1: XYZ Company

 

(here you want to pad with details, thus pushing the second job down the page and lowering the risk that potential employer will look at it)

 

Pad

 

Pad

 

Pad

 

Pad

 

Pad

 

__________________ (bigger line this time making it look simply like a design)

 

Job 2:

 

The moment you begin tweaking your resume for the web reader, is the moment you get in for the interviews that you want instead of the interviews that underpay and only want you.

Win More Job Interviews by Using Stronger Keywords In Your Next Resume Cover Letter

It’s widely accepted by recruitment professionals that increasingly higher competition among today’s job seekers is making it harder for many applicants to successfully obtain interviews for positions in the organizations they wish to join.

In order to overcome this situation, the successful job seeker is learning more and more to use power words to help stand out from crowd in this increasingly competitive job market. Even a few years ago, you probably would not have heard of the term keywords in the context of cover letters for resumes.

But, given the increased use of technology in screening the thousands of applicants applying for positions in Fortune 500 organizations, they have started to impact individuals and related industries in a big way.

But keywords, those hot words that are associated with special industries or job positions, are an important way that a job seeker can differentiate him or herself from the competition of other job seekers. They are important because they can mean far more than the more two or three words convey by themselves.

Jay Block, an executive career coach in West Palm Beach, Fla., commented that if the ad says candidates need to have a bachelor’s degree, “bachelor’s degree” had better show up somewhere in your resume.

He also commented that job hunters need to look at ads for similar jobs from other companies. It’s important to recognize that each specific industry has its own inside “speak” or jargon, and knowing what specific words are important in the range of ads about certain job positions will help you spot the pattern of words that employers are continually using. Once you spot the pattern, a good tactic is to start using them yourself in you own resume cover letters and correspondence relating to getting an interview for a new position.

It’s important to understand that some keywords are the real ones that you need to take notice off. Although many keywords are industry specific, Mr. Block says, certain phrases are common among all organizations. These words continue to have favor today and they include “communication skills,” “problem-solving,” “team work,” “leadership,” “resource optimization,” and “image and reputation management.” The reason is that they relate to universal skills that are in hot demand by today’s employers.

“Business development” might be one of the most important of all, he says.

“I’ve interviewed many, many companies that will tell me, ‘Everybody from the floor sweeper to the national sales manager had better be involved in business development in some way,’ ” says Mr. Block.

Keywords are something that have been used by most people though their working lives – even if they don’t realize it at the time. They can be defined as simply the hot buzz words of a particular trade or profession. They clearly communicate something specific about the particular job function, qualification or specialist experience.

Some examples of these include increased market penetration for marketing personnel, shared vision for human resources personnel, customer development for sales staff and systems engineering for Computer IT Specialists.

As the market place has become increasingly competitive for job seekers , you will need to catch your potential employer’s attention by writing action driven statements that explain what value you can provide your prospective employer. Strong keywords are nouns that allow you to get the message across more successfully than most other means. They allow you to showcase your qualifications, capabilities and what you can offer the employer. Moreover, they are very hard to pass over so they tend not to be ignored.

It’s a well known fact in recruiting circles that keywords are a really effective way of enhancing your resume cover letters, broadcast letters and other styles of correspondence that you use to win job interviews. Strong keywords make a dramatic improvement to your presentation that should showcase achievements, qualifications and experiences that support your successes throughout your working career.

You might substitute, for example, revenue growth for bottom line improvement or efficiency and improvement for cost reduction and avoidance.

The potential list of keywords that can be used to create a professional image is very large and the more that you think of them, the easier it will be to incorporate them into your resume cover letters, resumes, thank you letters and other job search activities.

So, after you have worked thorough a listing of your “professional keywords”, you need to closely marry them to your background and simply drop the weaker terms. The most important part of the process is to make sure that these keywords are relevant to your profession. Use of in-appropriate keywords, or overuse of them, could also weaken your resume cover letter so it is important not to go overboard.

If you start researching the most powerful keywords for your profession, you will get the added advantage of educating yourself about the skills, qualifications and experience that is demanded by today’s employers in your particular field.

So, if you need to move away from your core area of experience and branch into a different job field one day, you will be well served by researching the right keywords to help you familiarize yourself with this new area and what is required by the candidate for the particular position.

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