Your Biggest Fan

When you get right down to it, you must be your own biggest fan. No matter how much your family love you and your friends dig your style, they aren't responsible for your well being - YOU are.

There are very few places in life where you get to unabashedly toot your own horn and your resume is one of them.

"I don't like to brag." "I don't like to toot my own horn." Those sayings may apply in many settings but not when you are trying to market yourself. However, the way that you "brag" needs to be compelling but not offensive.

"I'm not really sure what I'm good at - after all, I was (laid off, fired, quit)." There are many ways you can assess your own talents, including asking co-workers or friends. Another way is to look at past successes, whether in business or personal life. Think of the stories you like to tell when you are in a gathering. They seldom revolve around failure. Pick a few apart - what skills were you using to create a successful outcome, whatever the situation?

Your Industry is Gone

When I was growing up, people were still proud to say they had retired from a company where they had worked for thirty years. That was considered the ultimate accomplishment. Now, if you don't change jobs every two years, people wonder what's wrong with your upward mobility.

Technology has changed our society forever. We are in a constant state of flux. Chances are your industry may have disappeared before and the next one may do so as well. The only consistent thing in your work life may be your skill sets - although, hopefully they are continuing to grow as you learn new skills and continue your education, whether through company sponsored training or your own personal pursuit of knowledge.

Transferable Skills

The interesting thing about this is - these are your transferable skills. They have nothing to do with the widget you were marketing, or the data entry chart you designed - they are your abilities. All businesses need skill sets - if you can identify yours, you can explain why it's transferable. You can also target businesses that might benefit from and appreciate your skills.

It is easier to convince a prospective employer to hire you outside your prior job experience history, if you can convince them that your skills can be applied to their position, regardless of experience.

Ok. Feeling better? On to the final step in re-writing that resume to be a better marketing piece for you.

The Key Ingredient

I owned a successful recruiting company for twelve years. Often people would come to me because a recession had caused a layoff in their field. There just were no jobs available in their area of expertise. Unfortunately this is a recurring scenario, so it's best to be prepared.

I thought back to my first entry into the work force after being divorced. I had been a housewife for seventeen years. I wielded a mean tennis racket, but I couldn't even type! How would I get a job higher than minimum wage?

I read a wonderful book, at a friend's suggestion. It is called "What Color is My Parachute?" and it is still in print after all these years. It is somewhat different in content but still a terrific package of tips on how to overcome loss of your industry or career.

I could only mine my personal experience as a housewife, mother and community member. Was I ever amazed at the skills I uncovered!

"multitasking, planning and implementing, motivating, inspiring, leading"

That was all well and good, but I couldn't very well go to a prospective employer and discuss my skills at marshalling my kids through the mall. Or could I?

The Final Touch

How could I make this experience look professional enought to get someone's attention.?

Here's what I did. I wrote specific examples, such as:

Work Experience:

Motivational Skills (Rather than emphasizing the job, I emphasized the skill I used)

Anybody's Middle School, Program Chairperson, 1988

I won't bore you with fictious details here...

Qualified by my success in attracting the largest attendance in school history (650 parents) with my program on "Drugs in Our Schools - How Do We Combat Them?"

You see what I mean? Who would not want someone driving that kind of attendance to their marketplace? That was and still is one of my transferable skills.

Your final touch will be to take your actual experience, detail your successes (the stories you like to tell), then add that key phrase at the end of the paragraph - Qualified by my success in. Isn't that great? Makes you want to get started right now, doesn't it?

My next article will cover how to get interviews - painlessly.