Resume Writing Tips

As a recruiter I feel I could pack this hub with HUNDREDS of great CV / Resume Writing Tips, but don’t want to do that. The link at the bottom of the hub will take you off to our website where we have tons of great free information and a lot of in depth detail on individual parts of the process.

The intension of this hub is to focus on 3 CRITICAL CV/ Resume Writing Tips.

Before we get too far into the detail, let’s review our overall objective or target.

CV / Resumes are written documents designed to get us an interview, as part of a job winning process. For completeness this process can be simplified into two stages, the written stage (cover letter, CV / Resume, any other marketing info that can be presented on paper or electronically via email / web site) and the in person interview assessment stage (mostly in person but can include telephone and use of video).

This Hub is simply about helping you write a CV / Resume (not cover letter or other marketing stuff) that wins you the interview.

That said we MUST NOT loose sight of the fact that we will only achieve our ultimate objective (getting an ideal job), after succeeding through the in person interview assessment stage.

What I mean by this is that; what you say in your CV / Resume you have to DEMONSTRATE through the interview assessment stages.

There is no point in having a CV / Resume that we cannot live up to!

Therefore we have to get CRYSTAL CLEAR about...

What we want,

What our target employer wants,

And what makes us ideal for the role.

If your not sure what you want, and MOST of us aren’t (I spent many years thinking I was a salesman – just looking for the right product – yea right!). I would drop out of this process now, and invest your time in understanding what YOU DO WANT.

If you don’t know what you want, but need a job to pay bills whilst you consider your ideal career calling. That’s fine, just be careful you make time to invest in finding your ideal role (I spent about 10 years, as a salesman, because I never MADE the time to bottom out my issues).

Right so we can tick off, know what we want.

So before we can start getting into the CV / Resume Writing tips, we have to get clear about what our target employer wants. This is like being a sniper, we have to take the cap off our telescopic sights so that we can not only see the target; but that the red bulls eye in the centre, looks so big we can almost touch it.

We have tons of information regarding how to interpret job adds, or reading between the lines to flush out the hidden criteria… and it’s all good, But the most important thing...

That most people forget

And many don’t like hearing,

That most employers are looking for you to

Either

MAKE MONEY or SAVE MONEY period.

And if through your CV / Resume and interview performance can demonstrate how YOU can achieve this…

YOU’RE SHORTLISTED.

Now I’ve had many robust conversations with friends who argue that as a charity worker, or vet, or civil servant, or whatever, that their job is not about money.

RUBBISH!

I will concede many people don’t like the suggestion that all revolves around MONEY.

Therefore replace it with EFFICIENCY

Now were cooking – does the above statement work for you now?

And if you can demonstrate how you can make them money, or save them money / improve efficiency, and they LIKE you...

YOU’RE HIRED!

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So to recap; we know what we want, we know what our target employer wants

CRITICAL RESUME WRITING TIP No1

ALL we have to do is tell them and demonstrate (in a LIKEABLE way) how we can make them money or save them money (increase efficiency) through doing the task they need doing?

Sounds simple!

Unfortunately it’s far from simple.

As an example; most of my clients who I recruit for are consulting firms, and therefore I would expect that consultants who spend all day helping their clients make and save money, would be great at demonstrating to me how they could make my client more money, or improvements in efficiency.

They should be, but there NOT.

And its’ through no lack of ability, it’s simply a case of loosing sight of the objective.

They’re nearly all extremely likable and very talented, but very few are anywhere near as good as they should be at communicating how they will save / make money for my client.

My belief is that the problem is that, people feel their experience on their CV / Resume “speaks for itself”, but it doesn’t.

Even if you have listed 100 wonderful achievements, unless you are promoting the ONE that most interests the employer, you are severely risking your chances.

I apologies for labouring this point, but I really want YOU to take it seriously.

The GOOD NEWS, I reckon 80% of CV / Resumes fail in this respect, AND of the 20% that pass, the majority of these people cannot demonstrate their abilities as clearly as they should.

This means there is plenty of opportunity.

Therefore we need a proven way of organising our critical, skills, experience, personality, ETC.

AND

A communication style that is LIKABLE and never losses sight of how you SAVED or MADE money doing whatever it is you do.

One of the best CV / Resume Writing Tips is to use business language and specific measures (numbers, weights, percentages, volume etc) wherever possible.

And to list achievements rather than responsibilities.

And another great CV / Resume Writing tip is to use the STAR Method or STAR Technique to ensure you frame your information correctly.

STAR is an acronym standing for Situation, Target or Task, Action, Result.

This is a great way to ensure you always include ALL the critical information regarding any tasks or achievements you have taken on.

And I would suggest that you try and organise all you’re relevant achievements both work, and non work related into the STAR format.

This is because it’s a MASSIVE ADVANTAGE to be considered task or target orientated, or a “goal getter”. I rarely advocate working on weakness; I think it’s better to develop strengths.

But even if you are not a natural target or goal setter, I would urge you to get in the habit of setting targets and monitoring your actions, so you can demonstrate how you fine tune your actions until ultimately hitting your targets.

Employers LOVE this ability, and very few people communicate this well.

CRITICAL RESUME WRITING TIP No2

Ensure your CV Resume is made up of ACHIEVEMENTS rather than lists of responsibilities, and I would suggest using the STAR method to help you organise them.

Now if your reading this HUB and wanting to know what font to use, or if you should put you photo on your CV / Resume, and other stuff like that, Its all covered on our web site, but in my opinion is not critical.

Though please don’t take this as an OK, to write your CV / Resume in size 24 Gothic font, with a picture of you in your Speedo’s!

Joking aside the layout or format or your CV resume is important, you must present the information your target employer will want to see in THEIR order of importance (as you interpret it), but again our site offers, free templates and advice on chronological or functional formats etc.

My final critical tip for this Hub concerns the use of an Objective or Summary Statements.

A good Objective Statement is the most POWERFUL message within your CV resume.

However most people dilute it by making them too general.

Now I fully appreciate there is a place for a general purpose CV / Resume (no; not the bin), but use them knowing that; failing to target your CV / Resume will limit its performance.

So if you are writing a general purpose CV / Resume I would suggest replacing Objective with a more general Summary Statement.

If we pan forward now to your interview, and you imagine all going really well, until you are asked “why should we employ you?” hopefully framed in friendly language, but you get the gist of this type of question.

This is where you need a GREAT ANSWER, the basis of which will be your CV / Resume OBJECTIVE STATEMENT.

Getting this statement right may take you 2 or 3 times the time it takes to write the rest of your CV / Resume. This is your “irresistible offer” to your future employer, and it must be great.

Though this statement is not likely to be more than 4 lines of text, it should not be hurried, I would suggest organising the rest of your document first, and come back to this point if you need to.

I have broken down the process of building a great Objective Statement here; it really is worth a page in its own right.

CRITICAL RESUME WRITING TIP No3

Use an Objective statement on your CV / Resume whenever possible, but only when it is specifically targeted to the reader.

And remember it must convey that you will be saving or making them money!

To recap again, I said earlier that

“ALL we have to do is tell them and demonstrate (in a LIKEABLE way) how we can make them money or save them money (increase efficiency) through doing the task they need doing?”

I wanted to close this Hub on how to add the likability.

There is only a limited amount you can do to influence likability on a CV / Resume, It’s pitched at being concise, business like and clear about how you will save or make them money.

HOWEVER the next stage (and there will be one) is the interview, and you will know have to add likability.

Again there are millions of great interview tips, but I wanted to link the CV / Resume creation process to that of answering tough interview questions.

And my extra tip is through the use of STAR Stories.

STAR stories are prepared answers to questions you predict you will be asked. I realise you cannot hope to predict everything you will be asked, but you have no excuses for not preparing STAR stories that DEMONSTRATE the critical skills and experiences of the role.

Your Objective Statement should form the basis of a STAR story to answer that “why should we offer you the job?” type of question and leaving the interviewer in do doubt that you are a target orientated person who can save or make the organisation money.

By wrapping your message into short (no more than 3 minutes) STAR formatted experience / achievement stories, you'll get the opportunity to weave in, not only great money making / saving, type content, but also your personality.

So; a story becomes the fun / memorable vehicle to carry your highly self promotional content in away that will be enjoyed (everyone enjoys stories) and REMEMBERED.

This is one of the most powerful Interview question answering strategies created, when used to show how you save or make money, a target oriented personality, and team fitting likability.

I know who my moneys on to get that JOB!

GOOD LUCK with all your career endeavours.

As promised all the other Resume Writing Tips stuff here