Anyone in marketing will tell you, that you need to see your product through your customer’s eyes. For anyone positioning themselves for a better job or career, you are the product being marketed and the hiring manager is the customer. Your resume is your marketing tool. Use it to grab the attention of your customer and then motivate them to contact you. That’s a tall order for a marketing plan, but it happens every day. Your resume needs to focus on results, not a rehash of your last job descriptions responsibilities.
A results-oriented resume helps the employer reduce the risk in hiring you because they see what you have accomplished, as well as your attitude toward challenges and change. Remember the cardinal rule, resumes that produce a phone call all have one thing in common; they all answer the employer’s “hair-on-fire” question – HOW CAN YOU HELP ME? Use your resume to offer specific information about how you helped a previous employer to improve their profitability, visibility or recognition. These three categories can all be measured and that’s the key. Build a short story around CARs (Challenge/Action/Result) to provide enough detail to make your point.
This simple approach will create a resume that stands out and provides enough information about you to prompt the employer to read your resume a second time and simply say, “We need to talk.”
Careers With A Purpose is a non-profit ministry whose focus is launching students and adults with directional wisdom to impact the world since 2009. If you have questions about career planning, contact us at 1-800-539-6030.
Gary L. Hansen is the President and Founder of Careers With A Purpose in Denver.