Monday, March 12, 2007

Keeping Resumes Relevant Using Certified Professional Writers

Working with new clients on a regular basis keeps me energized. I love learning about their different careers and the paths they have followed up to the point of meeting me. While becoming acquainted with them, getting a feel for what their objectives are, and reviewing their old resume, almost all of my clients want to interject additional information.

Additional information is obviously helpful and expected during the review and resumes development process when it is relevant. Current position achievements and accomplishments definitely need to be included as does any formal training, education, or other service performed relevant to the future objective of the client. The problem occurs when, in the process of building or updating their own resume, clients want to include an overload of information. This is usually the reason most job seekers eventually contact a resume writer. It is often a wise decision because it is very hard to be objective when writing for oneself. Weeding through all of the past performances can be a very subjective task. Certified writers are trained and very experienced in sorting through information and utilizing only the most relevant information resulting in powerful, focused resumes.

What I remind my clients is that it is important to stay focused while writing the resume. What is the goal of the resume and what is the specific position you are trying to obtain? Clients with several years of experience have the luxury of retrieving and using only the most applicable experiences and achievements. However, most want to provide information on all aspects of every job ever held. This unneeded information just adds clutter to the resume and waters down the strength of the document.

Employers are very busy and usually not excited about the whole hiring process. The average resume is reviewed for 15-20 seconds before given the “yeah or neigh”. What are the employers looking for? They are looking for actual accomplishments and achievements with numbers and facts to back up the achievement. Also they are interested in your fit with their company. Will you get along, work hard, fit in, and make them money? You resume must show them using your resume that you are what they are looking for. The resume needs to also make you stand out and shine leave a lasting impression, all in the first glance.

Resumes are most relevant when they are targeting a specific criteria, job description or goal. Pointing all achievements, as well as daily responsibilities towards your goal will give you a sharp, well focused resume and a definite advantage over the competition. A well crafted resume created by a Certified Professional Resume Writer works because it has been specifically developed for you and your current career goals and needs, it isn’t generic or to broadly focused to fit the positions you are seeking. It also has specific industry, profession, and position keywords strategically integrated into the document to draw attention from both human and computer generated senses.