Long Island Career Fair

Sending a shout-out to those readers whom I met at yesterday’s Long Island Career Fair at the Melville Marriott. Thank you for emailing to let me know you appreciated the resume reviews and learned new and valuable things about resume writing, job search, and the importance of positioning yourself for the job you want next.

A few follow-up thoughts about resumes:

Write to the future: Your work history is just that – history. It tells your reader where you’ve worked, for whom you worked, and in what capacity. Potential employers like to see where you got your experience and how long you’ve spent learning your craft. Those are the basics. Now take that history and tell your story by writing accomplishment driven bullets that tell the reader what talents you brought to the task and how your skills distinguish you from everyone else out there doing the same kind of work.

Tell your story. Show the results you achieved. This is your opportunity to show your stuff; the stuff that makes you an attractive candidate to future employers. My blog post entitled Branding - Why It's Important (June 2009) shows this concept in action.

Here’s a bullet from the original resume a client sent me:
• Managed Portfolio of High Net Worth Clients.

One bullet with seven words that don’t tell the reader a whole lot about you. We don’t know how large the portfolio is, is it -- $100K, $500K, $5M? We don't know what products the portfolio contains, so we can’t know the scope of this person’s knowledge or skill. After interviewing the client and asking lots of questions to get to the information I needed, here’s what I wrote:

• Grew client portfolio from $50 million to $110 million selling deposit, credit, and investment products to the affluent market. Received award for building strong partnerships with clients and colleagues and for performing in the top 20% of the region.

So, what’s your story? Can your reader “see” who you are and what talents you bring with you?