Greetings!
Welcome to your latest issue of the Interview Expert newsletter.
Every issue explores the key elements of a successful job interview and strategic job search techniques - so you can master your skills and land the job you really want!
In this issue we talk about how your current resum� fits with your personal brand. |
Does your resum� talk the language of solutions, results and outcomes? |
In the last few issues, you learned to position yourself as part of the solution to an organization's problems through your personal branding statement, your "tell me about yourself" introduction and blog postings. The next step is to strengthen your message by ensuring that all your personal marketing material bears the same message, especially your resum�. To test the consistency of your message, ask yourself what would happen if you handed the first page of your resum� to someone who didn't know you. Would they immediately understand your expertise? Would they know what problems you can solve? Would they know how you can help organizations get the results they want to realize the outcomes they need? From the time you first prepared your resum�, you've learned a lot from your informational interviewing and networking efforts. Now it's time to fine-tune your resum� to make your message consistent, clear and convincing. Let's focus on the information on the first page. This is the most important page. It will either move the reader to continue reading or put it aside. Profile Summary
Although "Profile Summary" accurately described the purpose of this section of your resume, telling interviewers exactly what kind of expert you are will capture their attention more quickly. Create a title for your profile summary that's as compelling as these:
- Senior Project Management Expert
- Senior Human Resource Professional
- Senior Financial Leader
As part of the profile summary, most people list a mixture of skills, attributes and knowledge in easy-to-scan bullet points or check marks. Although this format incorporates key words that might help your online resum� make the first cut, it also makes the information just as easy to skip over when your resum� lands on the screener's desk. What these people are looking for is solid proof of your skills, knowledge and expertise. So, instead of listing facts, tell stories that sell. Create a series of crisp, clear, convincing phrases that capture their attention. For example:
- Skilled at finding ways to gain up-front project buy-in and quickly identify key opportunities and challenges
- Natural marketing expertise that consistently gains the confidence of senior management
- Solid reputation for rescuing faltering projects, managing difficult or delicate situations and providing excellent, proactive service
Business Experience
In this section of your resum�, the goal is to align the information in your profile summary with the description of your accomplishments, especially those from your most recent job. For example, if you've called yourself a strategist, make sure the accomplishment descriptions clearly show how you created and implemented strategic decisions, along with solid proof of the results you achieved. To do this, read what you've written on your resum� about your current or last job. Then, grab a pen and check off all of the accomplishments that directly align with the statements in your profile. If these accomplishments appear on the second page, reposition them onto the first page. They'll be more powerful and keep the resum� screener interested in reading more.
If you want to know more about how well your resum� reflects your personal brand or if you're unclear about your key message, call the Interview Expert. I'll provide an unbiased, professional review. If your resum� doesn't align with your personal brand, I'll help you create a stronger version quickly - so you consistently present yourself as a solution, not just another job candidate, and land the job you really want.
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Questions? Comments? Topics for future newsletters?
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Can't get past the first interview?
Are you always a close second in the final round?
It could be your interview skills.
We help you master your job interview skills by providing you personalized,
professional, one-on-one coaching so you can land the job you really want!
Sincerely,
Heather
Heather McNab
the Interview Expert
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Helping top professionals who give their best,
get their best: Promotions. Jobs. Careers. Learn to Sell Yourself as the Solution
so you can land the job you really want!
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Personal Branding |
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How do you stand out
from the crowd of other job candidates?
It's critical to create a solid, market-focused personal branding statement that takes everything about you and makes it everything about them. This step is so important that I've designed a special package to help you create one -- fast. It's called Make Me Memorable. We work with you to create your own unique brand so you stand out from the crowd. And you don't have to wait for your next interview --
do it now, use it now. Dramatically increase
the power of your networking.
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Stuck in a prolonged job search? |
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First, recognize that you are in a condition of need. It's hard to hide that. The feelings of neediness, even desperation is apparent to everyone. When you're needy, your focus is on you and you tend to talk a lot about what you DO or what you KNOW.
The key to generating more job leads, more job interviews, more job offers is focusing on:
Results not process
Benefits not features
Stories not concepts.
Tell people
what they and their organization
will get,
not what you'll do.
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