Resumes are Overrated!
Hey Brian, would you mind taking a look at my resume?
As a career coach and recruiter, I get that question a lot. Funny thing is, it's just a piece of paper with words. It is NOT the holy grail. I can't tell you five magic words to add to your resume to get a job.
We've been brought up in a society that places too much emphasis on resumes, job fairs and online job boards.
The system really doesn't work anymore. But we're all trapped in it, because no one has taught you a better way.
A resume is only good if you tailor it for a specific opening at a particular company. If you have a "one size fits all" resume, I bet you're not going to have a lot of success.
So what can you do?
Listen Before You Sell!
What does that mean? It means that you take the time to thoroughly research an organization, schedule an informational interview with someone at your target company and ask several good questions to get them to tell you about their career path, gaps on their team, challenges, areas of pain, opportunities for new staff, clients, client projects etc.
Once you have all of that information, you can successfully tailor a cover letter or resume for that company. You need to Listen Before You Sell!
(I must give credit where credit is due. You all know I am a huge fan of Seth Godin. He had a great post on his blog recently which mentioned several "must read" books including Listen First - Sell Later. I haven't read it yet... but I probably will ;)
As a career coach and recruiter, I get that question a lot. Funny thing is, it's just a piece of paper with words. It is NOT the holy grail. I can't tell you five magic words to add to your resume to get a job.
We've been brought up in a society that places too much emphasis on resumes, job fairs and online job boards.
The system really doesn't work anymore. But we're all trapped in it, because no one has taught you a better way.
A resume is only good if you tailor it for a specific opening at a particular company. If you have a "one size fits all" resume, I bet you're not going to have a lot of success.
So what can you do?
Listen Before You Sell!
What does that mean? It means that you take the time to thoroughly research an organization, schedule an informational interview with someone at your target company and ask several good questions to get them to tell you about their career path, gaps on their team, challenges, areas of pain, opportunities for new staff, clients, client projects etc.
Once you have all of that information, you can successfully tailor a cover letter or resume for that company. You need to Listen Before You Sell!
(I must give credit where credit is due. You all know I am a huge fan of Seth Godin. He had a great post on his blog recently which mentioned several "must read" books including Listen First - Sell Later. I haven't read it yet... but I probably will ;)
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