Mistakes in your résumé can damage or even kill your career. Because a sub-standard résumé can prevent you from ever being called for a job interview.
With no job interview, no career.
But don’t worry! If your résumé isn’t 100% perfect, you’re not alone.
And in fact if somebody else has these mistakes, then you have an advantage.
Here is the second of five articles talking about the biggest mistakes in a resume.
Mistake #2: Focusing on you and your needs.
This is the worst mistake you can make. Unfortunately, it’s also the most common.
Look, no employer wants to hire you. Employers hate hiring! They only hire employees when they have problems to solve. And no employer wants to spend a lot of time hiring you, either, just as you wouldn’t want to spend more time in a dentist’s chair than you had to.
So, your résumé must quickly answer the one question that’s on every employer’s mind: “What can you do for me?”
Unfortunately, most résumés don’t.
Most résumés start out like this:
SUMMARY
Seeking a position where I can utilize my skills in an atmosphere with potential for career advancement in sales and marketing
YUCH!!!!
This sounds seems fine and logical to the person writing the résumé.
But it completely alienates the person READING the résumé. Because this person — your potential employer — has his own problems. He could care less about your career aspirations or desire to make more money.
Instead, tell the employer how you can add value to his/her operations, or contribute to efficiency. Notice this opening summary again:
SUMMARY
Seeking a position where 10 years of sales, marketing and management experience will add value to operations.
Now, what employer wouldn’t want to talk to someone like you, who’s offered to add value to his operations?
You could also say: “… will contribute to operations” or “… will add to profitability.”
Don’t worry, the words don’t have to be perfect.
What must be perfect is your focus on helping the employer meet his or her goals.
If you do that, your career will advance and you’ll make more money.
What do you think the single biggest thing that slows down your job hunt?
Its not what you think.
Its not that there are no jobs out there.
Its not that people are not calling you back.
Its the fact you are not taking positive action every single day.
Everyday there are more articles posted here. And most job hunters do not know how to make use of them. They don’t seem them as practical or they say “Its not for me!”. I could not disagree more strongly.
I was wondering why they thought that way, then I figured it out.
Lets start with what I know, I get calls, e-mails, and people contact me on LinkedIn.
I have helped people from United States, Canada, India, France, England and almost every other county in the world.
Job hunters live in big cities and small towns. I have spoken to both men and woman. I help people with college degrees and post-graduate degrees. People who earn $50,000, $75,000 and many who earn over $100,000 a year.
I am asked daily to help people find a job. And I really want to help. I really want 10,000 people writing a testimonial that I helped them find a job. I am betting that it will get me on Oprah. This is my selfish reason for helping you get a job.
Each of the people who ask me for help are very good at what they do. They are executives, they are managers and they are technical experts. They work in the back office, they are in operations, they are in sales, they are in marketing, they are in legal.
I have been asked for help from people in many different industries.
All these job hunters need help and I have given it. ZaleTabakman.ca has hundreds of articles with different practical alternatives to “Click and Apply” job hunting. I am going to add articles daily until I reach my 10,000 testimonials.
Here is the answer to the question about why they say “This won’t work for me!”.
The one thing that is always missing in everyone who asks for my help, is that they do not have a good detailed and powerful job hunting plan.
Once you have a plan, its an almost an instant change in attitude and effectiveness.
The difference is phenomenal between job hunters with a plan and job hunters with out a plan.
It doesn’t matter if you have 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, and even 26 years of experience.
The results is a difference in months of unemployment and a serious reduction in stress.
A job hunting plan you can trust in significantly reduces the time you are unemployed and the amount of stress you feel when you are unemployed.
A job hunter with a plan knows what to every day at job hunting, every tactics and tips I provide can be used and evaluated.
- Job hunters with a plan know what to do everyday.
- They can predict how long the job hunt will take, because they know what they have to do.
- A job hunter with a plan can decide which tips are appropriate for them.
- They know who to contact on LinkedIn, Facebook, or any where else.
- They know what to say when contacting somebody on LinkedIn to get the person to help them.
- They know where to network.
- They know what to say when they are networking.
- They know what to expect when networking.
- They know how to change a resume for a particular job.
- They know how to write a perfect cover letter.
- They know what to say in the job interview.
You must have a job hunting plan.
I want you to watch the following video and make sure your plan includes everything you see here.
If you don’t have a plan which includes everything you see, I recommend you immediately click on this link and decide if the Guerrilla Job Search System will shorten your job hunt and reduce your stress.
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