If You Hate Monday Mornings, Fix Your Resume and Find Your Perfect Job!

Phillip does not need an alarm clock these days, he actually sings in the shower when getting ready to go to work at his new job. Talk about feeling lucky to have been matched to the perfect job for him. Well, it wasn’t really luck.

He worked with a professional resume writer who probed him with questions and put him through a couple of assessments to discover his true passions, work preferences and his best work environment.

It was strange taking the assessments, because he couldn’t possibly see its connection to getting his resume written. But lo and behold, the consistent themes in the answers showed that he needed clear work assignments, little supervision and the freedom to be creative. With those things in place he always met and exceeded his project goals. Since his top three strengths were labeled as “Achiever,” “Responsible,” and “Adaptable,” the resume focused on those key word descriptors. Armed with his new unique branded resume he easily marketed himself and got his dream job.

At the first interview his now new Manager was instantly intrigued and asked lots of questions about how he achieved his past accomplishments. Best of all, Phillip now often planned weekend trips with his family when he wasn’t under a deadline.

Unfortunately, you cannot simply list your contact information and job responsibilities to get the job of your dreams. A branded and targeted resume is the best tool you could have when searching a job that “fits” you.

Did you know, you get about six seconds to capture the attention of a recruiter or hiring manager to distinguish yourself from all the other resumes stacked on their desk or the candidates waiting to be interviewed?

Why bother, you may ask, consider this; the world is moving faster than ever and people have shorter and shorter attention spans. You must be able to communicate clearly who you are, what you want, what you want people to know, quickly. If you tweet, you know you only get 140 characters to get your idea across, cell phone messages are written in a cryptic style with abbreviations. In today’s society everyone’s mantra is “tell me quick, make me care.” You’ve got to do the same thing for yourself – create and articulate your brand, your value. We do that by constructing a personal brand statement, sometimes called an elevator speech, which is designed to help you clearly and succinctly introduce yourself and your value.

Here are 5 questions to get you started thinking about your brand:

1. Who are you? It seems a simple question; think about how you see yourself. List your five top personality traits or adjectives.
2. How do other people see you in your opinion? What five traits or adjectives would they use to describe you?
3. What is your most valuable work related attribute, talent or skill?
4. What gets you excited? If you have to get up at 6:00 a.m. what would get you out of bed without grumbling?
5. Do you have a vision of future – what are your goals/dreams?

You must be able to stand out from the pack, communicate your value/goals/motivations accurately.

I help aspiring professionals clarify and package their gifts, talents, and passions by writing customized unique resumes, creating personal branding and coaching clients to build career and action plans.

Let’s start a conversation about your possibilities. Contact us today!