Advice from a CEO
Do this the next time job you apply for a job and send in your resume. Look at it like doing a painting by numbers sketch. Just fill in the answers they are looking for. Each line of their list of qualifications, or experience, or education, etc. is the information they are asking for. Give that to them. How does your personal work history provide what they need? Say it and as succinctly as possible. (Leave the specific details for the interview.)
Do not just send everyone a general resume that may or may not have the answers they are looking for. This is a colossal waste of time, as well as immensely arrogant. If you are not willing to take the time to properly apply for a company’s positions then you are certainly not the person they are looking to hire.
Tailor your resume to fit each job posting. Use as many of their keywords in your answer as you can. Consider it a pre-interview. That is what it is. The job posting are the questions being asked. Your resume provides the answers that show what you can bring to the job.
Use sentences that sound like normal speech as much as possible. Do not sound like a computer wrote your resume. You need to come across as a real person. If you don’t, the assistant deciding which ones to give to her boss and which to toss will probably put you in the circular file beneath her desk.
Begin your resume with the Title of the job. This is normally followed by aGeneral Summary of your work experience and accomplishments. This needs to speak directly to the position you are wanting to fill. List those qualities and accomplishments of yours that relate to that particular position.
In your Experience cut out the long list of responsibilities and duties you had at your last job or when you were in the military. It is meaningless babble to most civilians. You need to reword your answers to say how your experience relates specifically to that company’s needs.
Include a section titled Additional Skills at the bottom pf your resume if you have important information to add. Or it may be some of your computer and technical skills that you possess: anything that might make a difference.
I suggest closing with a section titled Personal. This is where you let them know who you are. It is basically an “I Like … section. Family, friends, studying, reading, music, play, sports, and entertainment: Close with them looking at you as a person, not a bunch of facts and figures. Helping them form a mental image of you as someone they can relate to is very powerful and attractive.
All the above is an addendum to a previous post about writing resumes: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/get-job-resume-mark-baird?trk=mp-reader-card. Read it too. It will save you a lot of time.
Mark Baird
