WINNING RESUMES BLOG: November 2010

To be successful in hard times or in a recession, your resume should best be done professionally because you are competing against hundreds of applicants for fewer jobs. It also needs to be focused and even tailored. Writing a resume that gets you interviews, is always more challenging in hard times.

Creating a successful resume in hard times or in a recession will take much longer than ten minutes or even 60 minutes. It takes me hours to write a focused resume and I am an experienced professional writer.

Anyone can write a "basic" resume but will it also impress a recruiter or employer in hard times or a recession? Probably not!

To sell yourself on paper is NOT easy and very few people know how to write a focused resume. In a recession it is much harder to do it.

Writing a successful resume at any time is always a nightmare because there are so many decisions to be made. What is the right format? What is the right length? What should be included? What needs to be omitted? These decisions will make your new resume either strong or weak.

Hiring a first class professional writer can be a very smart move. He or she can help you in many ways:

A skilled resume writer can be more OBJECTIVE about your credentials than you could possibly be. He or she can also help you judge how strong (or how poorly) you are coming across to picky employers in a recession which is a buyer's market. In short, a good professional writer knows how to reverse your job search telescope!

Resume writing professionals have to deal with all kinds of resume-writing challenges on a daily basis. They are hired to find solutions that work. They know how to make a resume strong and focused in order to impress recruiters in a recession.

A skilled resume writer will help you decide how to focus your resume, the best layout to use, the most suitable length and, above all, what to emphasize and what to omit. These are crucial decisions.

"Cleaning up" your resume is an important aspect of preparing it. (You can't learn that from merely looking at "perfect" samples.) Throughout the process, the professional writer will require your input and collaboration. More specifically, the professional should be helping you write your own resume.

Unfortunately, this is NOT how many resume writing services operate. Some only require you to complete a form on-line. These are the resume factories or paper mills. Avoid them like the plague.
But well-meaning people whom you know and trust (at work, on campus or at home) will also be offering to help you with your resume.

Sadly, this army of resume-writing amateurs WON'T be qualified to assist you either -- even if they happen to be your spouse, teachers, business executives, personnel officers, your secretary or a professional typist. Despite their own success, very few corporate vice presidents know much about the art of resume writing. And which of the above knows anything about writing an effective resume in a recession?

None of your friends or relatives is likely to have the expertise required to advise or assist you in preparing a resume that is strong and focused for this recession. That is crucial in hard times.

You also need to be on guard against any and all "advisors" who tell you that they have received, read and critiqued hundreds of resumes. Such folks are seldom able to design, construct and write them as well! Even if they do have a knowledge of resume writing, will they be able to help in your case using your "ingredients" and having to address your particular shortcomings? It's much harder to do this in a recession.

Most advisors will have NO TRACK RECORD or formal certification as resume writers and worst of all -- no army of successful clients to attest to the advice they give.

I am not denying that some people can help you prepare a nice-looking resume but, at best, it will be very "basic" and bland. It WON'T be the strong and focused marketing tool you need to compete in a tough job market because it will usually fail to present your best "selling points" in the most effective way. I have seen this hundreds of times. You can't afford such a resume in this recession.

And as for potential negatives, "red flags" or turnoffs, such advisors won't know how to "clean up" your resume in order to minimize or eliminate all of your resume "blemishes". The result? You'll be screened out in Round 1 and you will never understand the reason why and lose valuable time and job opportunities! This recession is going to be "long and deep" is the view of both Warren Buffet and George Soros.

In short, resume writing is a minefield of well-meaning amateurs and professional hacks and quacks. Some folks might be sincere in trying to help but lack the resume-writing skill and experience you need. At best, they'll give you an attractive-looking resume that won't "sell" you to any employer. It won't be strong and it won't be focused which is the kind of resume you need in this recession.

Good resume paper, attractive fonts and sharp laser printing will NOT create the strong marketing tool you need to beat the fierce competition. That, in turn, will cost you dearly in missed job opportunities and lost earnings. Frankly, this recession may hurt or harm your career.

Many amateurish self-written efforts have been posted on the Internet for weeks, months or years without getting even ONE response. How is yours doing? Is it successful?

Lost opportunities or lower salaries are a very high price to pay for relying too much on the resumes of others or asking unqualified advisors to assist you!

Always remember that a spouse is a spouse, a teacher is a teacher, an executive is an executive and a printer is a printer. None are resume writing or marketing experts. They can't judge if a resume is strong and/or focused properly for job hunting in this recession.

A skilled professional writer could benefit you 100 times more than the cost of any resume. A successful resume is worth many dollars in income to you!!!

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CONTACT ME ON : 1-718-436-3504. IT'S FREE!!!

OR WRITE TO: mattgreene@aol.com

Tags: