Resume Writing: Blast Through The Barriers!

From personal experience and in talking with many recruiting managers we are in agreement that too many resumes fail to do the job. They have small easily fixed errors like grammar and spelling mistakes or just plain poor layouts. Some try to be cute with unreadable fonts, or they try to wedge some much on one page with a small font size that the only way to read them is with a magnifying glass.

Trust me: no recruiter has a magnifying glass in their desk drawer so they can read your resume.

Beyond the small easily fixed errors and formatting issues there are three main barriers to writing an effective resume. Compounding the factors in putting together a readable and compelling resume are the job seekers that believe it's too much work to continually tweak and look for communication improvements in their resume.

Here are the three barriers that each job hunter and resume writer has to overcome to move to the next level and get the all important job interview.

1. The Time Barrier: To often the job hunter doesn't take the time but jumps into the resume writing exercise before doing the necessary writing preparation. They wrongly conclude they'll only need to update an older resume and it will do the job.

Today this approach will not get the job done. Do your research on effective resume writing. Study proper formatting. Make the time available to do a proper job in writing your resume.

Pull together from you "atta-boy/girl" file you record of achievements. Don't have a file? Spend some time writing out achievements both on and off the job. Work hard to quantify each accomplishment, use numbers, time and percentages.

What had greater impact, "Project manager in retrofitting HVAC systems in 240,000 sq. foot warehouse," or "Project manager in $2.5 million HVAC project, completed on time and $122,000 under budget?"

Talk to others who recently change jobs. Study their resumes, what seemed to work and what didn't?

2. The Ability Barrier: Since we write a resume so rarely our resume writing skills are a bit rusty. Even skilled writers have problems drafting a well written resume. The only way to build up this ability is to do it and build your experience.

Editing is a hard skill to master. But if you keep writing your resume, reading and studying what others have done, your editing skills will improve and so will your resume. Don't be embarrassed if you have to go through numerous drafts-it is normal and you'll be amazed at your progress.

Resume templates can be a help. Assistance from friends and family will add another set of eyes to the project. All will help you increase your resume writing learning curve.

If you get totally stuck go to a professional resume writer for help.

3. The Commitment Barrier: It's real easy to send out 15 copies of the same resume to 15 different employers for 15 different jobs. But this is the lazy job hunter's approach to their job search. And it's almost guaranteed not to work.

If you make a commitment to do an effective job hunt that will attract a number of job interviews you have to approach the job target with a rifle and not a shotgun. Each submission of your resume should speak directly to the needs of the employer.

For example, if you are applying for a job as a Project Manager for a bridge builder, and you've successfully done this type of work you'll be missing the target if you list your top accomplishment as you work as a Project Manager on an apartment complex.

A big part of you commitment is proper follow-up. Which resume did you send on what date to what employer for what job? And what date are you going to follow-up? And by what means?

On an almost daily basis, as you get new information, you should commit to take another look at your resume. Can it be improved? Can you say something better and more concisely?

As a bonus, don't forget to do the research on writing an effective resume cover letter to go with your powerful resume. They go hand in hand as the cover letter serves to introduce the resume.

With a well written resume and cover letter that are focused to the employer's needs your opportunities for job interviews just went way up.

John Groth has changed careers seven times during his working life. Learn more about changing careers, resume writing, job hunting strategies and career planning at http://careersafter50.com/. Discover how others over age 50, built winning career plans and found the right careers by effective job hunting after 50.