Write a Powerful Resume - Part 1

10AM: HR sends me a short list of resumes.

12:30PM: Lunch break. Gulped down my sandwich and with a cup of coffee on one hand, I start going through each resume. I have about 20 minutes before I start working again.

12:50PM: I have skimmed through 10 resumes so far while being interrupted with phone calls, colleagues stopping by for a chat, and my 6 monitors streaming live market prices and news from around the world. I set aside the ones I want my team to meet for an interview. Now back to work.

I was previously a trader, and this is how I remember my days when our desk needed to add a headcount. My role in the recruitment process was to further narrow down the list from the human resources team and invite the prospects in for an interview.

So how do I optimize my short span of time to pick the right resumes? Assuming HR has already done the basic homework, I spend about 30 seconds going through the bullets under the candidate's work experience. What impact did they make? Is it relevant to our work here?

Then my eyes go to the extracurricular activities and this is the fun part. It shows the candidate's character. I want to know if this person would be fun to work with, given that I spend 12 hours in the office every day. Lastly, I look for relevant technical skills. Within 60 seconds, I will know if I want to talk to this candidate or not.

A powerful resume wins half the battle for you.

A powerful resume paints an attractive picture of who you are, and hints to your (overworked) recruiters at your future success in the job even before you get to the interview. There are 3 key principles to help you get started writing one.

1. Resume space is prime real estate.

As a property developer, would you waste a prime real estate area building low yielding assets? Only include critical information in your resume.

Even within your resume, be sure to prioritize the location. Most important achievements should be on the top of each experience section.

2. Resume sum of all parts equals a powerful story.

A resume is not simply a compilation of your past experiences. It has to deliver your story in a structured and compelling manner. The recruiter should be able to effortlessly understand your competencies and picture how you can become a good fit for the team.

3. 100% of resume should be about you.

Not about the company. Not about the school. It is about what YOU did and how you made an impact. What value will you bring to the team?

Writing a Powerful Resume will be a six part series. In the subsequent articles, we will discuss the pre-resume writing checklist, followed by an in-depth review of each of the work, education, extracurricular activities, and skills & interest section.

Enjoy!

LIBBLER is an online career prep platform. Users can find a comprehensive range of career tools and tutorials for free. Key offerings include professional resume builder, expert video tutorials, mock interview platform with common questions and sample answers, and the PDF Resume Starters Guide.

http://libbler.com/

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Powerful Resumes

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Making a Flawless and Powerful Copyeditor Resume

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Powerful Resumes

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Writing a Powerful LinkedIn Summary

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Two Powerful Tools for Beginning Your Resume

In the first 30 seconds, your résumé has to (almost literally) grab the reader by the throat, jump on his chest, and scream HIRE ME! (OK, I'm exaggerating for effect, but that's to illustrate the importance of getting the reader's attention.) How to do that is to show the reader right away that you understand the employer's business problem that caused the opening, and that you are THE solution to that problem.

How do you do that? One tactic is by using an objective, such as: "I am seeking a full time position with [name the company you're applying to] as a [name the position you want]. Having succeeded in [your experience #1, as shown in the ad], [your experience #2, as taken from the ad], and [experience #3, as taken from the ad], I am confident that I will provide you immediate value. I will help your company achieve its objectives."

If you use an objective, it must be all about what you will do for the employer, in the same way that your entire résumé has to answer the employer's "What's in it for me?" question. From your first words through your last, that objective must convey the message that "You're looking for A, B and C skills and I do them. And what's more, I do a great job at them."

The truth of it is, your résumé only gets about 15 seconds of that reader's time, if you're lucky. In a perfect world, every résumé would receive the attention it deserves and every deserving jobseeker would... But you get the idea. It's not a perfect world. And in reality, the reader will make a judgment about your résumé by the time s/he's only about a third of the way down.

A better tactic than the objective is to write your Unique Selling Proposition, or USP,in the form of a strongly worded Summary. That Summary, when properly written, should demonstrate why you should be chosen out of the 400 or so applicants who have answered the advertisement. Such a USP might look like this: "Analytical, organized Financial Analyst recognized for achievements in administrating new loan funds, implementation of loan closing, and evaluating borrowers' ability to repay mortgages. Strong problem-solving skills. Analyzed other branches' loans to ensure 95% loan confidence rate."

Now the reader has a clear picture of who this applicant is and what s/he can do for the company. This applicant has made a strong case for him/herself, and what's more, s/he demonstrates how unique s/he is. This summary shows accomplishments, skills, and abilities in a much better way than the objective did, because each statement is a quantifiable. The summary also has an advantage over the objective in that most hiring managers and recruiters prefer a strong summary because objectives tend to be about what the applicant wants, rather than what the applicant has to offer the company.

However, regardless which you use, objective or summary, keep in mind the employer's question: "What's in it for me?"

Jack Mulcahy has written hundreds of resumes for people from all walks of life. Each resume he writes shows the unique selling proposition so necessary to market the job seeker. To learn more about Jack and how he can work to help your resume gain interviews, visit his website at http://www.resumesbyjack.com/.

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Writing a Powerful LinkedIn Summary

A LinkedIn membership, free or premium, is a must have for today's job seeker because head hunters are flocking to LinkedIn to recruit candidates for open positions. A significant part of the LinkedIn profile is the summary section. To get the most out of your summary don't reiterate information that is on your resume, but look for a different angle to flesh out the same background in two paragraphs. This part will take time if you aren't a wordsmith so don't be surprised or get discouraged if it takes you a couple of days to come up with compelling verbiage.

Once you have written the introductory paragraphs, choose three successes from the last ten to fifteen years of your career to showcase. Finally to round out the summary, include a closing paragraph. Let's take a look at a sample summary you can use as a model.

Sample LinkedIn Summary
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Offer a valuable blend of new business development, negotiation, and client cultivation strategies to drive sales of complex IT solutions and shape the strategic direction of a global sales department. Leverage hands-on expertise in managing a long sales cycle to capture multi-year, lucrative accounts within various industries, including healthcare, education, retail, and hospitality.

Effectively position organizations against entrench competition, design competitive pricing policies, and nurture relationships with clients and business partners. Overview of achievements includes the following:

-- High-performance background in building teams to outperform performance goals 30% (on average) in flat markets.

-- Drive double-digit market growth through a multi-layered business development strategy focused on maximizing existing client accounts and expanding into untapped areas.

-- Close 85% of contract agreements by placing value on client relationships, holding productive conversations with C-level executives and senior management, and cultivating credibility and stakeholder confidence.

Balance growth-oriented and entrepreneurial mindset to present potential merger and acquisitions opportunities, recommend strategic alliances with industry players, and propose partnerships with joint ventures.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

As you can see, the purpose of the summary is to provide a snapshot of your career and allow readers to determine whether or not they want to download your full resume. For this reason, it is essential you include the best you have to offer. The more impressive your LinkedIn summary, the greater chance you will generate interest from recruiters and decision makers.

You can contact Linda Matias at linda@careerstrides.com or visit her website http://www.careerstrides.com/ for additional career advice and to view resume samples.

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Two Powerful Tools for Beginning Your Resume

In the first 30 seconds, your résumé has to (almost literally) grab the reader by the throat, jump on his chest, and scream HIRE ME! (OK, I'm exaggerating for effect, but that's to illustrate the importance of getting the reader's attention.) How to do that is to show the reader right away that you understand the employer's business problem that caused the opening, and that you are THE solution to that problem.

How do you do that? One tactic is by using an objective, such as: "I am seeking a full time position with [name the company you're applying to] as a [name the position you want]. Having succeeded in [your experience #1, as shown in the ad], [your experience #2, as taken from the ad], and [experience #3, as taken from the ad], I am confident that I will provide you immediate value. I will help your company achieve its objectives."

If you use an objective, it must be all about what you will do for the employer, in the same way that your entire résumé has to answer the employer's "What's in it for me?" question. From your first words through your last, that objective must convey the message that "You're looking for A, B and C skills and I do them. And what's more, I do a great job at them."

The truth of it is, your résumé only gets about 15 seconds of that reader's time, if you're lucky. In a perfect world, every résumé would receive the attention it deserves and every deserving jobseeker would... But you get the idea. It's not a perfect world. And in reality, the reader will make a judgment about your résumé by the time s/he's only about a third of the way down.

A better tactic than the objective is to write your Unique Selling Proposition, or USP,in the form of a strongly worded Summary. That Summary, when properly written, should demonstrate why you should be chosen out of the 400 or so applicants who have answered the advertisement. Such a USP might look like this: "Analytical, organized Financial Analyst recognized for achievements in administrating new loan funds, implementation of loan closing, and evaluating borrowers' ability to repay mortgages. Strong problem-solving skills. Analyzed other branches' loans to ensure 95% loan confidence rate."

Now the reader has a clear picture of who this applicant is and what s/he can do for the company. This applicant has made a strong case for him/herself, and what's more, s/he demonstrates how unique s/he is. This summary shows accomplishments, skills, and abilities in a much better way than the objective did, because each statement is a quantifiable. The summary also has an advantage over the objective in that most hiring managers and recruiters prefer a strong summary because objectives tend to be about what the applicant wants, rather than what the applicant has to offer the company.

However, regardless which you use, objective or summary, keep in mind the employer's question: "What's in it for me?"

Jack Mulcahy has written hundreds of resumes for people from all walks of life. Each resume he writes shows the unique selling proposition so necessary to market the job seeker. To learn more about Jack and how he can work to help your resume gain interviews, visit his website at http://www.resumesbyjack.com/.

Read more ...

Get on Track With Employers by Using a Powerful Resume Summary Section

It's time to delete your old "objective statement" and insert a new "professional summary section" if you want to get your resume on track with today's employers! Savvy resume writers appreciate that hiring managers now want an interesting and well crafted synopsis-profile introductory lead-in, rather than an outdated, stock phrase objective declaration. The ever important summary section of today's resume now can be likened to a 30 second elevator speech (or personal sales pitch) by emphasizing its writer's proficiency to a prospective employer. The summary demonstrates to the hiring manager what sets a particular candidate apart from all other applicants. In addition to presenting a job aspirant as easily relate to an employer, the synopsis should also quantify a job seeker's abilities since factual data often seems to literally jump off the page to potential employers!

Because of its anticipated power, the resume summary segment should be fashioned with great care by its writer, and should have the capability to instantaneously draw its reader's attention to the aspirant's specific hard and soft skill capabilities through the ingenious use of unique and vibrant keywords. This self-reflective process necessitates being insightful of one's singular, distinctive talents and abilities rather than using ambiguous or stock adjectives. A recommended approach in determining one's personal and definitive value is for a resume writer to ask past co-workers, friends, and family what they feel are their greatest strengths and what they like most about them as a person. By sorting and ranking individualistic personality traits, strengths, experiences, skills, and knowledge and then turning them into keywords which, when carefully selected, align with the employer's needs, a resume can captivate its reader and leave them wanting to know more.

Once completed, the resume owner can then connect the summary section with the remainder of the resume and incorporate supplemental applicable experience into the body. A resume writer must be meticulous and concise throughout the resume writing process and keep all descriptions to three to four sentences, at the most, to avoid losing the overall dynamic impact. To ensure the words used are the proper keywords, writers should try copying and pasting the summary into a word cloud program, such as Wordle, and then matching the dominant terms with the job description. If the prime words don't match, then it's time to work on it until you get it right. Got a match? Then you're ready to put your best self forward to employers!

C.A. Stapleton, A.S., B.S., M.B.A., is an experienced professional resume writer, career consultant, and career coach. Get more information @ http://www.vet2work.com/ or http://www.naturallysilver.com/ Copyright. All rights reserved Worldwide.

Read more ...

Get on Track With Employers by Using a Powerful Resume Summary Section

It's time to delete your old "objective statement" and insert a new "professional summary section" if you want to get your resume on track with today's employers! Savvy resume writers appreciate that hiring managers now want an interesting and well crafted synopsis-profile introductory lead-in, rather than an outdated, stock phrase objective declaration. The ever important summary section of today's resume now can be likened to a 30 second elevator speech (or personal sales pitch) by emphasizing its writer's proficiency to a prospective employer. The summary demonstrates to the hiring manager what sets a particular candidate apart from all other applicants. In addition to presenting a job aspirant as easily relate to an employer, the synopsis should also quantify a job seeker's abilities since factual data often seems to literally jump off the page to potential employers!

Because of its anticipated power, the resume summary segment should be fashioned with great care by its writer, and should have the capability to instantaneously draw its reader's attention to the aspirant's specific hard and soft skill capabilities through the ingenious use of unique and vibrant keywords. This self-reflective process necessitates being insightful of one's singular, distinctive talents and abilities rather than using ambiguous or stock adjectives. A recommended approach in determining one's personal and definitive value is for a resume writer to ask past co-workers, friends, and family what they feel are their greatest strengths and what they like most about them as a person. By sorting and ranking individualistic personality traits, strengths, experiences, skills, and knowledge and then turning them into keywords which, when carefully selected, align with the employer's needs, a resume can captivate its reader and leave them wanting to know more.

Once completed, the resume owner can then connect the summary section with the remainder of the resume and incorporate supplemental applicable experience into the body. A resume writer must be meticulous and concise throughout the resume writing process and keep all descriptions to three to four sentences, at the most, to avoid losing the overall dynamic impact. To ensure the words used are the proper keywords, writers should try copying and pasting the summary into a word cloud program, such as Wordle, and then matching the dominant terms with the job description. If the prime words don't match, then it's time to work on it until you get it right. Got a match? Then you're ready to put your best self forward to employers!

C.A. Stapleton, A.S., B.S., M.B.A., is an experienced professional resume writer, career consultant, and career coach. Get more information @ http://www.vet2work.com/ or http://www.naturallysilver.com/ Copyright. All rights reserved Worldwide.

Read more ...

Resume Writing With A Powerful Message!

What drives a successful resume that motivates the hiring manager to call you in for an interview? Here's a hint; it's not fancy writing, or the color of the paper or even your education. It's rather simple: it is your achievements. Make it easy for the hiring manager to connect the dots. What you did for your past employers they will easily conclude you will do for them in the future.

Look back in your career, and even at outside activities, (Yes, chairing that committee for the local Chamber of Commerce that attracted over 200 to a tax strategy workshop should be counted.) and list everything you did to solve problems or make things better or to help others resolve challenges.

How many of these achievements have you listed in your resume? And if you've had a recent job interview how many of these accomplishments did you express in a compelling story? If you answered yes you're well on your way to finding the right job. If you say no, or are on the fence, you should put these ideas to work for you to power up your job hunting marketing effort.

Achievement statements are what you can use to power up your resume, effectively relate in a job interview and should be the center piece to all your marketing messages. This is the edge you need to separate yourself from the competition.

Statements that headline your achievements can be effectively used in a variety of situations. The most obvious is your resume, networking, your elevator speech, and in a resume cover letter and in a job interview.

The closer your accomplishments get to the money the more powerful their impact. This is not to say that accomplishments in other areas cannot be effective, you'll just have to be a bit more creative.

In reviewing the list of your accomplishments the method of writing your achievement statement with maximum impact should be as follows:

1. Start with the strongest action verb that you can come up with.

2. What was the accomplishment? Keep it short, if the employer needs more they can ask you in the job interview.

3. What was the impact or results? Make it quantifiable. Numbers sell the accomplishment. Don't know the exact results? Give us your best guess. Remember 19.8% looks better that 20%.

4. Keep at writing the list of achievement statements until you've covered everything. You may have too many to include all of them in your resume, but you'll now have the advantage of tailoring your resume to meet the specific needs of the employer.

You'll now have a list of achievement statements that will portray a strong connection between what you accomplished in the past and what you can achieve in the future. Overall this is the type of compelling demonstration that the prospective employer is searching for. Let you be the one they find, and extend a job offer.

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

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How to Make a Resume - 4 Powerful Tips

Resume, or CV for others, is a very important tool in the professional job market. This is where you sell yourself to a prospective employer. Your resumé should stand out above the rest to grab the recruiter's attention.

I will discuss here some secrets on how to create a powerful resume. You must read these tips between the lines.

1. Plan your job search. Decide exactly what kind of work you want, taking into consideration not just the obvious points such as salary and location but also kind of organizational culture that will enable you to grow.

2. Once you have decided, focus on your search. You can do job search through internet, printed job advertisements, by using your contacts, agencies, headhunters, or try making a direct approach to a company that you want to work for.

3. Find your key selling points and emphasize them. Identify the main reason they will want to employ you by citing your relevant experiences, track records, qualifications, and other personal achievements. It is important to remember that your CV is your personal marketing document - an advertisement of yourself. You are creating it to persuade the prospective employer that you are what their organization needs and they should take the time to meet with you. Once they have decided to take you on for an interview, you must show the recruiter that you have the right skills for the job. This can be shown by having right technical experience, high level of interpersonal skills, and the willingness to grow within their company.

4. Finally, you can now sell yourself - not literally though, but professionally. Your aim is to get an interview and you need all the necessary information that will help you to get the job done. If you start with a powerful selling point, the recruiter would likely to read it and a positive impression would be made. It is a fact that a successful CV shows your skills, knowledge and experience. In order to sell yourself effectively, you should plan how you are going to present this information. Your aim is to help the recruiter by making sure they understand what you genuinely have to offer in their organization.

It is time to put the above-mentioned tips in practice. You must remember to include all the necessary details that will help your application move to the next level of job hunting competition.

Read more ...

How to Make a Resume - 4 Powerful Tips

Resume, or CV for others, is a very important tool in the professional job market. This is where you sell yourself to a prospective employer. Your resum? should stand out above the rest to grab the recruiter's attention.

I will discuss here some secrets on how to create a powerful resume. You must read these tips between the lines.

1. Plan your job search. Decide exactly what kind of work you want, taking into consideration not just the obvious points such as salary and location but also kind of organizational culture that will enable you to grow.

2. Once you have decided, focus on your search. You can do job search through internet, printed job advertisements, by using your contacts, agencies, headhunters, or try making a direct approach to a company that you want to work for.

3. Find your key selling points and emphasize them. Identify the main reason they will want to employ you by citing your relevant experiences, track records, qualifications, and other personal achievements. It is important to remember that your CV is your personal marketing document - an advertisement of yourself. You are creating it to persuade the prospective employer that you are what their organization needs and they should take the time to meet with you. Once they have decided to take you on for an interview, you must show the recruiter that you have the right skills for the job. This can be shown by having right technical experience, high level of interpersonal skills, and the willingness to grow within their company.

4. Finally, you can now sell yourself - not literally though, but professionally. Your aim is to get an interview and you need all the necessary information that will help you to get the job done. If you start with a powerful selling point, the recruiter would likely to read it and a positive impression would be made. It is a fact that a successful CV shows your skills, knowledge and experience. In order to sell yourself effectively, you should plan how you are going to present this information. Your aim is to help the recruiter by making sure they understand what you genuinely have to offer in their organization.

It is time to put the above-mentioned tips in practice. You must remember to include all the necessary details that will help your application move to the next level of job hunting competition.

Read more ...

Resume Writing With A Powerful Message!

What drives a successful resume that motivates the hiring manager to call you in for an interview? Here's a hint; it's not fancy writing, or the color of the paper or even your education. It's rather simple: it is your achievements. Make it easy for the hiring manager to connect the dots. What you did for your past employers they will easily conclude you will do for them in the future.

Look back in your career, and even at outside activities, (Yes, chairing that committee for the local Chamber of Commerce that attracted over 200 to a tax strategy workshop should be counted.) and list everything you did to solve problems or make things better or to help others resolve challenges.

How many of these achievements have you listed in your resume? And if you've had a recent job interview how many of these accomplishments did you express in a compelling story? If you answered yes you're well on your way to finding the right job. If you say no, or are on the fence, you should put these ideas to work for you to power up your job hunting marketing effort.

Achievement statements are what you can use to power up your resume, effectively relate in a job interview and should be the center piece to all your marketing messages. This is the edge you need to separate yourself from the competition.

Statements that headline your achievements can be effectively used in a variety of situations. The most obvious is your resume, networking, your elevator speech, and in a resume cover letter and in a job interview.

The closer your accomplishments get to the money the more powerful their impact. This is not to say that accomplishments in other areas cannot be effective, you'll just have to be a bit more creative.

In reviewing the list of your accomplishments the method of writing your achievement statement with maximum impact should be as follows:

1. Start with the strongest action verb that you can come up with.

2. What was the accomplishment? Keep it short, if the employer needs more they can ask you in the job interview.

3. What was the impact or results? Make it quantifiable. Numbers sell the accomplishment. Don't know the exact results? Give us your best guess. Remember 19.8% looks better that 20%.

4. Keep at writing the list of achievement statements until you've covered everything. You may have too many to include all of them in your resume, but you'll now have the advantage of tailoring your resume to meet the specific needs of the employer.

You'll now have a list of achievement statements that will portray a strong connection between what you accomplished in the past and what you can achieve in the future. Overall this is the type of compelling demonstration that the prospective employer is searching for. Let you be the one they find, and extend a job offer.

Read more ...

How to Write a Powerful Sales Associate Resume - Get the Job of Your Dreams

Are you stuck trying to write a great sales associate resume that will help you get a lucrative job? There is a lot of competition out there and a good resume is essential to help you grab the attention of recruiters. Once you do get the job your skill and talent will help you succeed. However, you need to be able to showcase your talents so that potential recruiters have a good idea about what your potential is.

There is a skill behind writing a powerful and compelling sales associate resume. If you do not possess it then you should take immediate steps to acquire it. There are a few things that your resume has to contain. You need to write down all your achievements, including educational qualifications and job experience. You should also list any job specific training you have received. If there were any sales accounts that you have managed to make profitable then you should certainly include that information. It goes without saying that you need to include accurate contact details.

A powerful sales associate resume is one that is result-oriented. You should always work under the assumption that the person reading it will be thinking, "What's in it for me (the organization)?" As a result, you have to highlight ways in which you can be of value to the particular organization you have applied to. You should always customize your sales associate resume to the needs of a particular company instead of sending out the identical one to all companies you apply to. You will have to do some research about the company you are applying to so that you know what their requirements are and how you can specify you can be of value to them.

You should be very specific when you list out your prior sales experience. However, you should never divulge any confidential information about your previous employers because this will reduce your credibility. No one will hire you because you will then be considered a potential security risk and a person with no loyalty.

While you will undoubtedly have lots of sales related experience to write about in great detail, you should also include information about any special projects you have participated in. This will indicate that you have a well-rounded personality and will be able to contribute to the company in a big way. Finally, make sure that the resume is concise so that you don't waste the reader's time.

Learn how to write the best possible sales associate resume so that your resume is always at the top of the heap on a recruiter's desk. Find out what information you should include and what you should leave out so that your resume is attention grabbing and hard to resist.

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Building a Powerful Technical Resume - 3 Important Tips

Writing a compelling, effective technical resume presents unique challenges. Encompassing a complex career in a style that is clear, readable, and gets - and keeps - the hiring authority's attention requires a strong sense of what you've accomplished.

Always keep your goal in mind. Remember, every resume needs a strategy - so be clear on what you're trying to express.

I'd like to offer 3 ideas that can make the process easier, and help create a resume that gets the results you're looking for - call, emails, and the all-important first interview. Here are the basics on what to include, what to omit, and how to built the final product.

1) What to include:

Dig down to discover the business value. Did your technical advances increase efficiency or reduce costs? Streamline development time? Decrease time to market for new applications through introduction of methodologies (like Agile)? If you can put a dollar or percentage value to any achievements, you're on your way to making your resume stand out.

2) What to omit:

Don't overwhelm the reader with technical detail!

For a Software Developer or Architect, you will want to include information on the tools and technologies you've used to address challenges. But don't be repetitive. It can be a good strategy to include technologies for each job, if that demonstrates significant breadth - but if your toolbox remains consistent, it's better to list technical skills separately. This will enable keyword searches to pick out crucial details without bogging down the reader.

Also, as you advance in your career, you'll want to reduce technical detail, and focus more on 'big picture' business challenges.

3) How to create the whole picture:

Technical resumes are often more detailed than resumes for other professions. What you've done is complex, and it's crucial to present some detail to demonstrate your unique value proposition. But describe your career as concisely as possible.

Make a clear distinction between duties / responsibilities and accomplishments.

Beware of 'death-by-bullets'. Only clear accomplishments need a bullet - if everything is bulleted, nothing stands out.

Don't worry about the "2-Page" rule; if you need 3 pages to tell your story, that's always an option. But do realize that hiring authorities are busy people. Be respectful of their time and be only as detailed as necessary to create a clear context for your achievements.

I hope these simple tips will help you create a resume that gets the call back, and lands you that crucial first interview!

J.M. Auron

My goal is to help technology's "best and brightest" take their careers to the next level.

As a technical resume authority and former recruiter, I am committed to crafting compelling resumes, cover letters, and other career documents that capture your career essentials, seize and hold the hiring authority's attention, and open the door for the 1st interview.

For more information, please contact me at http://www.quantumtechresumes.com/.
Follow me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/QuanTechResume.

Read more ...

Building a Powerful Technical Resume - 3 Important Tips

Writing a compelling, effective technical resume presents unique challenges. Encompassing a complex career in a style that is clear, readable, and gets - and keeps - the hiring authority's attention requires a strong sense of what you've accomplished.

Always keep your goal in mind. Remember, every resume needs a strategy - so be clear on what you're trying to express.

I'd like to offer 3 ideas that can make the process easier, and help create a resume that gets the results you're looking for - call, emails, and the all-important first interview. Here are the basics on what to include, what to omit, and how to built the final product.

1) What to include:

Dig down to discover the business value. Did your technical advances increase efficiency or reduce costs? Streamline development time? Decrease time to market for new applications through introduction of methodologies (like Agile)? If you can put a dollar or percentage value to any achievements, you're on your way to making your resume stand out.

2) What to omit:

Don't overwhelm the reader with technical detail!

For a Software Developer or Architect, you will want to include information on the tools and technologies you've used to address challenges. But don't be repetitive. It can be a good strategy to include technologies for each job, if that demonstrates significant breadth - but if your toolbox remains consistent, it's better to list technical skills separately. This will enable keyword searches to pick out crucial details without bogging down the reader.

Also, as you advance in your career, you'll want to reduce technical detail, and focus more on 'big picture' business challenges.

3) How to create the whole picture:

Technical resumes are often more detailed than resumes for other professions. What you've done is complex, and it's crucial to present some detail to demonstrate your unique value proposition. But describe your career as concisely as possible.

Make a clear distinction between duties / responsibilities and accomplishments.

Beware of 'death-by-bullets'. Only clear accomplishments need a bullet - if everything is bulleted, nothing stands out.

Don't worry about the "2-Page" rule; if you need 3 pages to tell your story, that's always an option. But do realize that hiring authorities are busy people. Be respectful of their time and be only as detailed as necessary to create a clear context for your achievements.

I hope these simple tips will help you create a resume that gets the call back, and lands you that crucial first interview!

J.M. Auron

My goal is to help technology's "best and brightest" take their careers to the next level.

As a technical resume authority and former recruiter, I am committed to crafting compelling resumes, cover letters, and other career documents that capture your career essentials, seize and hold the hiring authority's attention, and open the door for the 1st interview.

For more information, please contact me at http://www.quantumtechresumes.com/.
Follow me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/QuanTechResume.

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How to Write a Powerful Sales Associate Resume - Get the Job of Your Dreams

Are you stuck trying to write a great sales associate resume that will help you get a lucrative job? There is a lot of competition out there and a good resume is essential to help you grab the attention of recruiters. Once you do get the job your skill and talent will help you succeed. However, you need to be able to showcase your talents so that potential recruiters have a good idea about what your potential is.

There is a skill behind writing a powerful and compelling sales associate resume. If you do not possess it then you should take immediate steps to acquire it. There are a few things that your resume has to contain. You need to write down all your achievements, including educational qualifications and job experience. You should also list any job specific training you have received. If there were any sales accounts that you have managed to make profitable then you should certainly include that information. It goes without saying that you need to include accurate contact details.

A powerful sales associate resume is one that is result-oriented. You should always work under the assumption that the person reading it will be thinking, "What's in it for me (the organization)?" As a result, you have to highlight ways in which you can be of value to the particular organization you have applied to. You should always customize your sales associate resume to the needs of a particular company instead of sending out the identical one to all companies you apply to. You will have to do some research about the company you are applying to so that you know what their requirements are and how you can specify you can be of value to them.

You should be very specific when you list out your prior sales experience. However, you should never divulge any confidential information about your previous employers because this will reduce your credibility. No one will hire you because you will then be considered a potential security risk and a person with no loyalty.

While you will undoubtedly have lots of sales related experience to write about in great detail, you should also include information about any special projects you have participated in. This will indicate that you have a well-rounded personality and will be able to contribute to the company in a big way. Finally, make sure that the resume is concise so that you don't waste the reader's time.

Learn how to write the best possible sales associate resume so that your resume is always at the top of the heap on a recruiter's desk. Find out what information you should include and what you should leave out so that your resume is attention grabbing and hard to resist.

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How to Write a Powerful and Successful Resume

Whether on paper or on-line, as a job seeker presenting your resume to a prospective employer, you will get you 15 to 20 seconds to pass the "gatekeeper" who screens the resumes out. Hence, it is vital to put your best effort to make an important first impression.

For the content of a resume, generally it should begin with a "Summary of Qualification" which is an overview of your career experience written in 3 to 8 lines. In "Summary of Qualification", you can highlight your skills and accomplishment right up front. On the other hand, an "Objective" is more appropriate when you have graduated recently from your college or you are completely changing fields.

Next, you should define you "Area of Strength". In this section, list the keywords briefly as if you are going to put the resume on the Internet. Most companies usually scan for appropriate keywords and require seeing a particular buzzword, such as "Sales management", "Cost control", "Financial reporting", or "Distribution".

Then, you should write your "Professional Experience" and list you job experience under this heading. This should be done by identifying and describing your skills and responsibilities. Skills are defined as what you do and how you do it in each job position that you have held from now to ten years ago. Hiring managers are only interested in your skills and past experience over the past ten to twelve years. You can only list the previous jobs if they are related to your field.

A distinguishing point between you and everyone else with similar work experience is your "Accomplishments". It is important that you quantify your accomplishments under each job title. This means that you should describe how you helped the company make money, save the money, increase department efficacy, and/or reduce operating costs. You should be specific with the numbers and percentages whenever possible.

After a clear presentation of your job responsibilities and accomplishments, the next category in your resume should be "Education", in which you need to list your degrees earned, name of college/university, and city/state. A general rule of writing resume explains to write the years of graduation only if you have graduated within the past 3 years. It is important not to exaggerate or write false statements regarding the subject area which you majored in, your GPA, or the type of degree earned. In case you have attended college for some time and did not graduate, do not list BA. A background check will immediately disqualify you for consideration.

After you have prepared the whole content of the resume, next step is to focus on the visual presentation of its "format". A weak format just does not work even if the content is good. Visual presentation is the key point of your resume and as important as the content itself. Hence, make sure the typeface is not too small, there is enough white space on the page, and print is not smudged or too light that it becomes hard to read.

For job seekers, it is important to note that the function of the resume is not to get you a job but to get you a phone call for an interview. If it has accomplished that, its job has been done.

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The Significance of a Powerful Narrative

A compelling story or account of any event, situation or tale is enhanced by the presence of a powerful narrative. No matter how compelling a story is, if the narrative and the method are not engaging, the story will not create the desired impact.

In the course of an interview, it is very important that a candidate answers the questions accurately and explains situations, events and solutions in the best way possible, with the help of an engaging narrative.

The ordered brand of storytelling makes the narration of true stories from a candidate's life moving. Candidates can take the help of structured storytelling to describe how they dealt with particular situations and events in the past. It is a great way of highlighting a person's qualities and abilities. If you make a believable and inspiring case of your past experiences, chances are that the employers will comprehend the importance of these past events in foreshadowing the future and how you can use these abilities to contribute to the organization in the same way.

These structured stories validate your claims of the possession of particular abilities with required evidence. Empty claims of possessing various qualities will not impress an employer, authenticating those claims with the help of relevant scenarios will. It helps an employer assure how you approach and have the capability to solve particular issues.

Your interview might bring you face to face with a wide variety of questions. These questions may cover your qualifications, experiences, records and other substantial data or these questions might be a way to gauge your quickness of mind and intelligence quotient. Sometimes you can be faced with the presence of meaningless questions that might annoy you to destruction.

You can utilize planned storytelling methods when the employers ask about things that concern your history or things involving what is still a mystery to us i.e. the future. The questions that surround your history are a way to help the employer analyze your particular reactions to situations and happenings. This makes a statement about your caliber.

Queries about the future help an employer predict how you will approach and deal with your job and what will be your methods of achieving core milestones.

Whenever your find yourself on the receiving end of such a query, you should respond by first describing the problem or the issue which arose and all the necessary details, then by explaining how you were instrumental in the solution of the issue and the actions you took, and then sharing the results that your actions achieved. By such question and answer sessions, your employer wants to assess your ability to deal with critical questions.

Don't forget to share how the story impacted your psyche and the lessons that you learned from it. It highlights your ability to learn from problems, issues and mistakes.

Prepare your stories beforehand, don't enter an interview unprepared. Don't waste all the time unnecessarily worrying over the rest of the details. Utilize your time constructively and hone your interviewing skills.

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