People encounter different experiences and respond to them individually. It is obviously, isn’t it? Writing a resume it is the same thing. It is quite difficult start a resume, believe I, by the fact that usually we are not prepared to respond for which situation individually and mainly that it is not a habit thinking about ourselves.
People usually don’t think about what they had done, knowledge acquired and goals achieved, although every time they do different things, live, learn and grow. Why? What happen? My point of view is that, when we enter at university, we suppose to be prepared to the market, perhaps what happened is that, during that period we are much more prepared to conclude the major, only focusing on make a good presentation, in write a good monograph, articles, whatever.
So when we conclude, what is coming next? Get a job, start a career, set up goals and etc. But to get a job, first of all, we need an interview, and to have one, we need a resume. A good one! Then, we get surprised, in see that we don’t know how to start and what might be included or not. I’m not going to write about resume structure, headings e etc, considering that with our good friend “google.com” you can find good templates to make your life easier. But what we might pay attention it’s about:
1. Refer about achievements.
They are much more interest in what you achieved than your responsibilities. They don’t care if you used to be responsible for routine “x” and procedure “y”. As a matter of fact, they really want to know what you contribute to develop the core business, directly or indirectly. Which one sounds better: “responsible to motivate staff” or “responsible to decrease absenteeism and increase productivity in 20%”. The both are the same thing, isn’t it? If you motivate staff they are not going to be absent and consequently produce more. The second clearly shows that you were responsible to produce a result; meanwhile the first only shows what you used to do, in other words, a routine and not a goal.
2. Summarize; being clearly and concise.
Attempt the fact that employers scan, rather than read. To come up with a example, only McDonald’s (in Brazil, according to ÉPOCA), last year, received no more than 172.132 resumes in 2008. Add now, the fact that a recruiter spend no more than 40 seconds to scan a resume. Now, imagine you receiving dozen of resumes every day trying to show a lot of things, perhaps in the end of 40 seconds didn’t show anything.
3. Measure how much reveal about you.
People usually don’t think about what they had done, knowledge acquired and goals achieved, although every time they do different things, live, learn and grow. Why? What happen? My point of view is that, when we enter at university, we suppose to be prepared to the market, perhaps what happened is that, during that period we are much more prepared to conclude the major, only focusing on make a good presentation, in write a good monograph, articles, whatever.
So when we conclude, what is coming next? Get a job, start a career, set up goals and etc. But to get a job, first of all, we need an interview, and to have one, we need a resume. A good one! Then, we get surprised, in see that we don’t know how to start and what might be included or not. I’m not going to write about resume structure, headings e etc, considering that with our good friend “google.com” you can find good templates to make your life easier. But what we might pay attention it’s about:
1. Refer about achievements.
They are much more interest in what you achieved than your responsibilities. They don’t care if you used to be responsible for routine “x” and procedure “y”. As a matter of fact, they really want to know what you contribute to develop the core business, directly or indirectly. Which one sounds better: “responsible to motivate staff” or “responsible to decrease absenteeism and increase productivity in 20%”. The both are the same thing, isn’t it? If you motivate staff they are not going to be absent and consequently produce more. The second clearly shows that you were responsible to produce a result; meanwhile the first only shows what you used to do, in other words, a routine and not a goal.
2. Summarize; being clearly and concise.
Attempt the fact that employers scan, rather than read. To come up with a example, only McDonald’s (in Brazil, according to ÉPOCA), last year, received no more than 172.132 resumes in 2008. Add now, the fact that a recruiter spend no more than 40 seconds to scan a resume. Now, imagine you receiving dozen of resumes every day trying to show a lot of things, perhaps in the end of 40 seconds didn’t show anything.
3. Measure how much reveal about you.
As many people well believe, and I’m one of them, resume it’s a marketing document and not a personal one. However, it’s your details, it isn’t about you, but it’s about to build a “bridge” between you and the interviewer. They are not interested in your biography. Also, if you reveal everything about you beforehand, what are you going to say during the interview? Nothing!
