You and YOUR Resume

It’s true what “they” say, recruiters only look at your resume for twenty seconds.  You may ask yourself, who is “they” anyway?  A collective with “they” on their door, trying to entice me into an expensive resume preparation service?  Is it a website of job gurus convincing me to sign up for their daily emails I have no time to read?  Are “they” promising me increased exposure as I aimlessly pump my wares through every on-line job site and corporate applicant tracking system?   “They” may be all the above, but guess what?  “They’re” right.Recruiters only look at your resume for twenty seconds.  I know. I was one.  And applicant tracking systems are meant to weed through the four hundred resumes it receives on any given job to the very fewest based on a match to a key word search.  Which means you’re lucky if your resume reaches their in-box at all.  I know.  I did that too.So why should you spend hours and hours fixating over a single document that will barely get noticed and appreciated so little?  Because not only does that process create the best documented work history of you there is, it also forces you back into the recesses of your life and reminds you of who you are.  Who you were. And who you potentially could be.I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count the number of people who call me motivated to start a coaching program, ready to reinvent themselves or even lateral to a new company, who have no interest in spending time on their resume.  I go through my spiel about getting to know yourself and understanding your work history and preparation for interviews…crickets.  No thanks, not interested.  They don’t have time for that.Make time.It’s starts with, do you have an up-to-date resume? Well no, you might say, but it’s only been two (five, eight or ten) years since I updated my resume, so I just need to add my recent position.  This might be true.  But how long has it been since you really read said resume?  How long has it been since you rememberedall those jobs?  Oh ya, I remember them, you say.  Really, are you sure?Here’s the thing, your resume, it’s the story of you.  A resume does not just capture work history, it’s your life’s history.   Why did you relocate to Florida?  Why did you go from a Fortune 500 to a small start up?  How did you start with a degree in accounting and end up working in environmental science?  The resume is the memory of your work experience, yes, but it’s also your life’sexperience – the job in Florida got you closer to family after you had your first child, the Fortune 500 was too safe and didn’t satisfy your itch for risk, the degree in accounting was for your dad but your real passion was the earth.  Do you see what I mean?All this information doesn’t have to be inyour resume, but it’s about why you did what you did and how you got where you got.  It’s information and memories that play out really well in an interview.  There is no better job candidate than a candidate who knows who they are and where they’ve been.  If you don’t understand that sentence, READ IT AGAIN!The resume is also a story of your accomplishments.  When I tell people to dig back into their resume and think about putting metrics to their accomplishments, their eyes glaze over.  Metrics?  Metrics. In a department of 200 call center reps, you were the one who got to be supervisor.  Pretty impressive.  When you started at the branch, sales were down 12% and now they’re up by 7%.  Wow!It may take hours, it may take a week, but you’ll find its time well spent.  Dig out your old performance appraisals, what have people said about you over the years?  Remember why you got that promotion, why the job in the middle didn’t work out, who wasthat person back then who left Company X to join Company Y?Where did you suffer, when did you stall?  What jobs did you hate, what do you notice about all the jobs you loved?  What does this tell you about yourself?Find the themes.  As you delve back into how you performed at work, what are you seeing over and over and over again?  Diligent, customer driven, valued analyst, a team player, a self-starter.  Could this be your headline?Maybe even, impatient, would do well to stay focused, performs better independently. Hmmm.  I sense some interview questions in there, don’t you?I hear stories from people about doubling sales and winning bids, exceptional leadership during painful downsizing.  Is this in their resume?  Nope.  Not a peep.Who. Are. You?Resume preparation services can be expensive and if you have the money, you have an extensive work history or are changing careers, they’re worth every penny.  But if you can’t afford it, you can find what you’re looking for on-line.  And if you take the time to do the pre-work, you already have everything you need to write your story.  A great story, yourstory.If I told you to make a plan because at some point in time you may have twenty seconds to save yourself from drowning, how much time would you spend on that plan?  I thought so.Are you looking for your career recovery to become your life’s discovery?  Contact Kristin@KristinLobenstein.comfor a free 30 - minute strategy session.