5 master keys to resume succes by darkitten

THE

Master Keys TO

Resume Success $

The Great Success Club www.DavidJGardner.com 2010

The 5 MASTER KEYS to Resume Success

layout by darkitten.ro

David J. Gardner

Excerpts from the book, RESUME SUCCESS!

www.DavidJGardner.com 2010

The 5 MASTER KEYS to Resume Success The inbox of any given recruiter is chock full of poor resumes. Many that could be considered average or even good can be found there as well. However, the one truly successful resume is that one which reaches EXCELLENT status. It is the wheat, not the chaff. Professional recruiters love to read these diamonds in the rough because they help the recruiter do their job more quickly and easily. How then, can the average job-hunter bring their resume up to this top 5%? To real excellence? There is no strange alchemy involved in developing a peerless resume: it simply involves understanding the essential elements of the successful resume and then working to master them. In accumulating research for the book, RESUME SUCCESS! Insider Secrets to Building the Resume Top Companies Love!, I distilled not only my own experience reviewing tens of thousands of resumes as a recruiter at a top agency, but turned also to recruiters all over North America and beyond for input. A team of recruiters from both agency and top company backgrounds were asked what they wanted to see in a resume…what convinced them time and again to pick up the phone and call the applicant. This top tier group of recruiters came from an impressive range of top industries such as: Healthcare, Industrial, Manufacturing, Utilities, Hospitality, Services, Technology, Natural Resources, Transportation, Pharmaceuticals, Food, Aerospace, Telecommunications, Consulting, Confectionary, and Recruiting. Contributions came from recruiters in the United States, Canada, and the UK, with over 310 years of corporate recruiting experience and 290 years of agency recruiter experience. This totals over 600 years of current recruiting wisdom! The Resume Success Insider 600 Team (as I call them) routinely recruits for professionals in these areas: Accounting, Human Resources, Information Technology, Sales, Engineering, Supply Chain, Office Personnel, General Laborer, Marketing, Finance, Legal, Technical/Professional, Hospital/ Healthcare - RN’s RPN’s all hospital roles except physicians, Medical, Operations, Consulting staff, Railway Specific Positions, lawyers, Temporary, regulatory and safety coordinators, Spa, Graphic Design, Communication, Food service, Skilled Trades, Executives, semi-skilled Foreign workers, Facility Management, Housekeeping, Foresters, and more. 3

This brain trust of professionals from both sides of the recruiting field receive an average of 15,035 resumes each week. That means collectively we evaluate EVERY YEAR over 781,820 resumes! Combining the average resumes received daily with the number of years experience, this incredible group of recruiters bring to you the wisdom of evaluating over a staggering 7.2 MILLION RESUMES!!!! I found through the survey that it didn’t matter in which industry a recruiter worked, there was a surprising universality in the specifics they expected from a successful resume. Some aspects consistently made their top lists of ‘love to see’ or ‘hate to see’ regardless of industry background. Some made good common sense and others shocked me in their counter-intuitiveness. Despite the sheer volume and variety of research I had compiled, discernable patterns began to form. Before long, five distinct areas of the resume process again and again surfaced as being vital for total resume success. It didn’t matter if applicants were sales professionals or accountants, young or old, men or women, people who got their resume to me and ended up in that select 5% resulting in a call and interview had mastered certain areas relating to their resume. When a candidate did not know enough to master at least one of these areas their chance of having an interview was 0%. I never met them. If they had become skilled at least one area, they had a chance to meet me, but it remained slim. But when they had all five areas mastered, I would ALWAYS want to meet them. It was a virtual interview guarantee! Every single aspect of a great resume falls into one of these categories. Sure enough, as results of the surveys from both agency and corporate recruiters came in, their responses echoed my own discovery. The 5 Master Keys of Resume Success:

Knowledge Experience Format Content Submission Mastery of these areas invariably prepares an applicant for success, so long as they apply them. Let’s take a moment to better understand each area and what it contributes to resume excellence. 4

MASTER KEY #1 - KNOWLEDGE Knowledge refers to having a sound understanding of what a resume really is, its purpose, the hiring process companies use, the most current trends in resume application, and so on. If you don’t have a strong foundational grasp of these things, you are likely going to make the same fatal resume mistakes most people do. You won’t understand the what, where, when, how, and why of resume creation. Your decisions will be influenced by naiveté. You must educate yourself and really understand what a resume is, or risk making a document that has no impact on a recruiter.

Some examples of questions easily answered for those who master the Knowledge Key: 99 Even a poor resume will get me an interview if my experience is strong, right? 99 An online service advertises that it will build your resume for $20, what do you do? 99 An agency recruiter at a busy, successful firm says she will work with you but you must agree to work ONLY with her…is she on your side or not? 99 What’s the difference between a good and a great resume? 99 A friend of yours is an Internet whiz and tells you that he can get your resume posted on every major posting board and site in your area. Do you take him up on it? 99 All the resumes that are sent to a company go to the hiring manager to review, right? 99 Is there a standard that recruiters use to evaluate resumes, or is it completely arbitrary?

Armed with a strong understanding of what a resume really is, what it needs to do, the most valuable sections, the players involved, and everything else within the book, RESUME SUCCESS! you will be able to answer these questions and make important decisions on the fly to vastly increase your chances of that interview and job offer.

MASTER KEY #2 - EXPERIENCE Experience deals with everything you bring to the table in your employment history. You may believe that a resume is simply a listing of your prior professional roles, but so what? Every position, regardless or how junior or senior it may be require an employee to perform a lengthy list of responsibilities, some of which may change frequently…so which do you list on your resume?

99 Which responsibilities are relevant? 99 If you had multiple titles, which do you list? 99 I was very good at that part of my job…how do I let a recruiter know that? 99 Which specific parts of my experience do recruiters want to know about? 99 Are there areas of your experience you should hide? 99 How long into the past should I go? 99 What if I have no employment experience? 99 What information should I list about the companies themselves?

The way you detail your history can help you convince a recruiter that their role is the best next step for you in your career. Experience is the raw material with which you build a great resume. Imagine your overall experiences, responsibilities, and contributions as a vast forest...which trees are the right ones to build with? Choosing poorly will result in a weakly built resume, but the best experiences, organized well will stand strong against recruiter scrutiny and competition.

MASTER KEY #3 - FORMAT Format is the structure of your resume, its layout. Before a recruiter reads a single word, the structure of your resume alone can attract or repel, demonstrate confidence or uncertainty. Spacing, style, fonts, number of pages, these are all aspects of resume structure. Recruiters have certain expectations as to how a great resume is laid out. If you do it well, they will be surprisingly receptive to the content. Format deals with issues such as these:

99 How many pages is perfect for a resume? 99 I’ve heard there are many different formats… which is right for me? 99 What is white space and is it important? 99 Is there one style of font that outperforms others? 99 What sections do I include? Does it really make a difference? 99 Where does my Education go…beginning or end? 99 Is there a layout that recruiters like most? 99 What do I do when my resume is too long… or too short?

In the first five seconds a recruiter screens your resume, format is the most important factor in determining if you remain on their screen or are saved and deleted.

MASTER KEY #4 - CONTENT Content refers to the carefully chosen words in your resume; fleshing out everything you represent professionally and making you shine. Grammar, syntax, spelling, tense, register, these are all aspects of content, and the words you choose make a tremendous difference to your appeal as an applicant.

99 When, where, if ever should I use full sentences in my resume? 99 What words make the difference on a resume? Where do I use them? 99 Does spelling really matter? How much? 99 Past, present, future…which tense is right on a resume? 99 Do bullet lists help or hurt my chances? 99 Do adjectives make my resume stronger? If not, what works?

Well-used Content breathes life into your resume. It uses English most effectively to evoke feelings of confidence and capability in your background.

MASTER KEY #5 - SUBMISSION Submission is the final of the 5 Master Keys of Resume Success, concerned with getting your resume into the right hands at the right time. A poorly submitted resume may not reach the relevant recruiter, or will perhaps be perceived as spam. Duplicating your submission efforts can disqualify your resume entirely! The following questions represent the kinds of challenges that this area can provide:

99 How do I submit my resume to give me the best chance of an interview? 99 The more resumes I send out the better, right? 99 Who at a company is it best to send my resume to? 99 Should I follow up? If so, when and how often? 99 When you send your resume, it goes right to the hiring manager, right? 99 How long after I send in my resume should I call to check if they got it? Should I call at all? 99 How many companies should I send my resume to at once? 99 How do I choose which ones? 99 What about agency recruiters? 99 Are job fairs a waste of time? 99 How should I organize my job search efforts?

If you master the Submission area, you will always know where it is and that itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s being actively considered by the best person. The research indicates that up to 40% of all resume submissions are ignored due to simple mistakes the applicant makes in the process that turns off a recruiter.

SO WHAT NOW? That’s it! With the discovery of the five essential elements that lead a recruiter to love your resume and want to meet you, the power is in your hands. You can begin your own research into how to master each of these areas. The Internet may be a great place to start! Newspaper articles, magazines, and news bytes may also help you gain insight into these proven keys to success. Books can be a wealth of information, and are often the best source for learning how to build your ultimate resume. Most resume books can be a bit challenging to navigate for the specific information you’re looking for, but with some patience and persistence you can find what you need! Research has led us to read most of the popular resume books, and evaluate their worth, so if you would like a mini-review of any of them, please just ask! RESUME SUCCESS! Insider Secrets to Building the Resume Top Companies Love! was designed specifically to help any job-seekers master these five areas. It’s a clear, easy, step-by-step guide to building the ultimate resume. All the exhaustive research we’ve accumulated, along with insider secrets, recruiter quotes, and highlights from the recruiter resume survey can be found in the book. There’s never been a resume book quite like it! The book, ebook, or even audiobook can be purchased on the site www.davidjgardner.com by following the BOOK tab. If your organization would like to have David present a RESUME SUCCESS workshop to your group, please send an email from the PRESENTATION tab on the site and we’d be happy to help! Finally, if you would rather not do the work yourself, David will personally build your resume based upon the principles of RESUME SUCCESS. Follow the RESUME BUILDER tab and he will contact you directly. How you gain your information isn’t as important as making it a priority to master these five keys if you want a spectacular resume! Your resume will compete with, on average, 60-120 others and recruiters will scan them all for the gems that grasp the 5 Master Keys and have used them effectively! They will focus on the top 9% and only reach out to the top 5%...where will yours be? With odds like that, can you afford to be average? If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to send David an email directly at david@davidjgardner.com. Get the edge over your peers…get a top 5% in your field resume… get started now! 10