Resume Preparation

One of the things that I have been doing more of lately is helping people write their resumes. While it is time consuming and often very frustrating I find it challenging and enormously rewarding. Sometimes I will receive a half page of the highlights from someone’s 30 year career. Other times I may get a five page report of the daily/weekly/monthly tasks that someone has meticulously prepared. I look at these resumes and everything in between as a great start. Someone made an effort to capture their working life and that’s a hard thing to do.

Here’s what I do to involve a client in creating their own specific resume template. Perhaps you can do the same thing to prepare your own resume.

1. Research the client’s past companies to learn what they actually did. Go to the company employment page, enter the job and read the job description. Clarify with the client that they performed these activities. Expand on these and make them measurable by asking questions such as:
a. Who do you work with? Internal? External? Where were they located?
b. How many clients did you have? (If applicable)
c. Within this position did you save money, time, create a process, design a procedure, etc.?
d. Looking at that position, what were your biggest accomplishments? What were you proud of? Why?
e. What did you like about this job? What didn’t you like?

2. Look up the type of position the client wants (any job board, ehow -money and the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook). Do the job responsibilities align with what the client has said? Is there new wording that can be incorporated into the resume (new buzz words, technology, jargon)? Expand on these by asking the client:
a. Have you done these types of activities before? What specifically were the results?
b. Could you jump into this job tomorrow? Why? Capture the specific activities that support this.
c. Why are you perfect for this job? Again, capture the specific activities that support this.

3. Go to the online pages of the companies that the client is interested in working for. Read the “About Us”, “Our Philosophy”, and “Our Employees” type of pages and read the wording. Ask the client:
a. What have you done in the past that supports this company philosophy, etc.?
b. How would you fit into this company?
c. Why would this company want you?

All in all it is a lot of questioning, note taking and thinking. The responses are then culled down to specific wording and resume format. It's a great start, the client is involved and in the long run, sees themselves as an accomplished player with skin in the game. You can do it too.