This 10-Minute Resume Fix Is Shockingly Simple

This 10-Minute Resume Fix Is Shockingly Simple This 10-Minute Resume Fix Is Shockingly Simple “I post my resume and get tons of responses, but they’re for entry level positions. I already have 25 years of experience, which seems to count for nothing.” When you put your resume online, but the results you get back aren’t what they should be, it seems like the natural solution is to just post in more places and apply for more openings. If you were applying for 10 jobs a week, up that to 20. Or go from 20 to 50. But after a short while, you realize you’ve been applying to literally hundreds and hundreds of jobs, still with poor results. Instead of allowing time to keep on ticking, a better approach would be to re-examine your current approach. You have the experience? Check. You have the expertise? Check. You have the technology skills? Check. Well, here’s another element to re-examine because it may very well be the thing that’s repelling the employers and recruiters. Are You Taking Charge On Your Resume? Particularly when you’re a mature, experienced candidate, your resume needs to showcase you as a leader, driver, and champion. This does not mean that your work history must include titles such as Director and VP. Nor does it mean that if you were a Director or VP, that those titles stand on their own. Taking charge on your resume means demonstrating time and again that you initiated an idea, took control of a project, re-engaged an upset customer, and, ultimately, delivered the desired result or better. You demonstrate this by using powerful, high-impact words. The 5-minute fix to do on your resume today is to replace several weak words and phrases that tend to crop up time and again: “Responsible for…” Circa 1982, “responsible for,” is as unnecessary as writing the title, “resume” at the top of your resume. Cut “responsible for,” off the beginning of the sentence, and you’re left simply with what you were responsible for. Start there. If your resume currently says, “responsible for sales planning, projections, and market analysis,” up the ante by saying, “Directed sales planning, projections, and market analysis.” “Directed” means you took charge of this element of the position, and it conjures up a picture in the reader’s mind of you leading or driving the function. “Participated in…” This is a phrase that takes up valuable resume real estate, but doesn’t actually tell the recruiter or employer much of anything. If you think about it: you participated in everything you touched at work. Therefore, the 5-minute fix here is to ask yourself how you participated in whatever the thing was. For example, you may have, “participated in the meeting of a special committee charged with determining new sales language for potential health care industry clients.” The important point is not that you were on a special committee. Rather, it’s that you, while on the committee, actually did something. So, up the ante by saying, “Formulated new sales language for potential health care industry clients, in collaboration with a special sales committee.” “Helped with…” This is similar to, “participated in,” except that it just sounds worse. It’s about the weakest thing you can say on your resume. Sometimes candidate tend towards this language in an effort to be humble and not take too much credit. Understandable. But â€" I promise you â€" you did a lot more than “help.” {You “helped” your mother bring in bags from the grocery store when you were 9 years old.} On your resume, please take credit when credit is due. If you, “helped with coordinating the trade show presence and display,” then you can go 1 of 2 directions here. The first recommendation is that you, “Coordinated the trade show presence and display, in collaboration with the team.” The second recommendation â€" which is actually even better â€" is that you ask yourself exactly what form did your “help” take?” Did you build the trade show booth? Did you conceptualize the branding? Then say that: “Conceptualized branding for the trade show presence and display.” You can take a 10-minute look at your resume, identify these weak words and phrases, and replace them with language that immediately tells the employer and recruiter what you did that made a difference. Once you do that, find out where you need to put your resume so that the right recruiters and decision makers (not the ones who are only offering jobs) can actually find it. That’s in our free online program, “5 Secret Job Search Hacks For The Age 50+ Job-Hunter.” You’ll also learn the only 3 points the recruiter’s thinking about when he’s searching for a candidate with your exact skills and experience.