7 Self-Marketing Tips for Resumes

Crafting the modern-day resume can be daunting. In fact, you may not be aware of how your resume is missing the mark and consequently you suffer from job search “black-hole-itis”. You know the definition: responding to job postings with your resume and NEVER hearing back, as though your resume got sucked up into the black hole of cyberspace.

With the following tips, you can improve your resume dramatically. Remember, your resume is a self-marketing document. It must meet the needs of the reader, who is your target audience. Whether that target audience is a recruiter or a company’s HR person or department manager or someone with whom you are networking, these do’s and don’ts will apply. So, when writing your resume, be sure to be:

1. Focused – Don’t be open to all possibilities. This screams that you have not got a clue about the kind of job you want. You are on a “fishing expedition” and employers will recognize it in a heartbeat. Identify and communicate your target job function (job titles) and industries of choice. Include a job posting’s actual job title as the Career Target headline in your resume.

2. Relevant – Don’t hide the important stuff. After you have determined your focus, evaluate all of your experiences, education, training, and skills for the most relevant material regarding that job target. Highlight that critical information on the first page, and preferably on the top half of the first page. With 10-20 seconds to scan your resume, make it easy for the reader to find your “best” stuff.

3. Accomplished – Don’t be a “seat warmer”. Only listing job duties and responsibilities on your resume may lead the reader to believe that you actually never accomplished anything and simply went through the motions at work. A job duty is something you were supposed to do as part of your job description. How well you performed that job duty is anybody’s guess UNLESS you quantify the results of those job duties to showcase your successes.

4. Clear – Don’t confuse or overwhelm with wordiness. Get to the point. When you throw a bunch of ambiguous words and phrases on your resume, with lots of industry acronyms and jargon and convoluted sentences that seem to be connected to the thread of thought in your bullet point or paragraph, but end up losing the reader because you have committed “extreme wordiness” with a bullet point or paragraph that goes on for 6 or more lines, you have not really impressed anyone and have succeeded in confusing them and overwhelming them with excessive and unnecessary verbiage (just like this sentence!)

5. Compelling – Don’t be wishy-washy. Who wants to hire a plain-vanilla employee who may show up for work, with luck every workday, but is essentially invisible and non-contributing? This will be the conclusion if you write a lackluster, insipid resume. Communicate excitement and interest with your choice of resume format and content. Even within conservative industries, your resume does not have to look exactly like every other candidate’s resume!

6. Unique – Don’t be a generic commodity. Uncover your personal brand, memorable strengths and leadership style, and your unique value to differentiate yourself from other similar candidates. Show how you can bring added-value to the job. What skills or qualities would be the icing on the cake for the employer? If you don’t know, ask the opinion of others in the industry.

7. Socially connected – Don’t be a dinosaur. Demonstrate that you are keeping up with current trends in social media by including not only your email address, but also URL links to your LinkedIn Profile or videoResume or blog or YouTube videos or VisualCV or web portfolio, and/or your Twitter name or Skype handle, for example. Be sure that whatever you link to is absolutely professional and makes you stand out in a positive light that employers would appreciate. These indicators of social media awareness will tag you as someone who is interested in learning new skills and knowledge, and applying them in the real-world.

Evaluate your resume today against these 7 Do’s and Don’ts. How does your resume fare? Use these tips to morph your resume, perhaps via an “extreme makeover”, from bland to unbeatable!

Cross-posted at Career Goddess Blog

Comments

[Mark Anthony Dyson]

Great points Louise. Most of my clients do not see their resume as a marketing tool. Their resumes tend to look like a last minute idea or a job description. Lawd have mercy should they think that Twitter or Facebook would potentially give them a positive on-line presence and an opportunity to be found by employers.

[Jim Edwards]

Resumes only became customary after World War II, as a means for employers to eliminate unqualified candidates among scores of GIs looking for new jobs. Not much has changed. Nowadays, nearly every individual, starting a job search, begins by developing a resume, but decision makers only spend and average of ten seconds scanning them. A resume cannot do the heavy lifting in a job search. Its purpose is strictly to function, in conjunction with a follow-up call, as a marketing tool to initiate a conversation with the decision maker. Your goal should be to present your background and accomplishments in a visually appealing, reverse chronological order, with dates, succinctly and honestly. Stay away from functional resumes, extensive formatting and leaving dates off to hide age.

[Lynda]

Hello Susan,

Thank you for creating a clear concise checklist with advantageous tips. I am resuming my jobsearch this week and really appreciate having a great reference to review as I update my CV.

Thanks!

Lynda

[Recruitment agency Philippines]

That's precisely correct. Resumes reflects of who you are and what you are. Resume should be the complete you and represents the whole of your strengths. Those tips will surely be valuable to us. Resume could be brief as long as it states your self.

[viagra online]

A resume cannot do the heavy lifting in a job search. Its purpose is strictly to function, in conjunction with a follow-up call, as a marketing tool to initiate a conversation with the decision maker. Your goal should be to present your background and accomplishments in a visually appealing, reverse chronological order, with dates, succinctly and honestly. Stay away from functional resumes, extensive formatting and leaving dates off to hide age.

[generic avandia]

i do accept with above said one's.and A resume cannot do the heavy lifting in a job search. Its purpose is strictly to function, in conjunction with a follow-up call, as a marketing tool to initiate a conversation with the decision maker.