The Perfect Resume -- Now What???

A big part of the job search process includes using your resume. So I sought some help in writing mine, as I was uncertain about today’s content and style requirements for resumes, given that I wrote my last one 10 years ago. Why did I seek out help rather than reading through hundreds of examples and books and doing it myself? Well, as with a severe cold, usually self-medicating doesn’t work and a visit to the doctor greatly improves my well-being much faster.

Not wishing to agonize over my resume, I used Monster’s Resume Writing Service, which is powered by CareerPerfect. In addition to reducing my agony, I also gained a tremendous amount of insight into today’s state-of-the-art resumes.

The team at CareerPerfect does resume writing for a living. They transform any content or even just dialogues of career experience into a working resume. Here are a few immediate goals of a “perfect” resume:

 

•      As a door opener or whetting the appetite of the reader

•      Serving as a guide document or table of contents for the interview

•      Working as a support document in the form of a leave-behind tool after the interview.

 

The process with CareerPerfect is initiated by a preliminary dialogue followed by the submission of a very easy-to-complete questionnaire. Also, a secure site is provided to upload your current data to be used for crafting the resume.

After several iterations and dialogues by phone or email, I arrived at a rocking resume. I was also able to ask a lot of questions to my writing team. They were very professional and engaging, and they made me immediately feel like they were in my corner rooting for me -- sort of like the kind of friends you pick up the dialogue with, even if you haven’t talked in a year.

Another benefit of using the service was the time savings. It was very reassuring to feel there was a team hard at work on my resume while I was occupied with volunteering at the global conference or paying attention to my young sons, Owen and Evan. In short, I was multitasking on my own being by using the service.

I also learned the fine lines between presenting myself as overqualified and coming on too strong. And learning about the concepts of keywords and how critical they are in the search tools firms use was invaluable. Unbeknownst to me, in the last 10 years, many firms have set up software algorithms to screen out “unmatched” candidates from making the hiring manager’s pile of resumes to read. The perfect resume in today’s market has to not only be specific enough to highlight your accomplishments, but also broad enough to be caught in your targeted companies’ fishing nets. It’s a unique duality I would have not been able to fully draw up on my own.

So the big question after finalizing my perfect resume: Now what?

I need to make the resume work for me. And it does! I was amazed. I submitted it last Thursday to one of my 15 targeted firms and, bingo, on that very Friday I had a call to discuss the resume.

On a funny note, my old employer had a dry-cleaning pickup service, and I had to inform the owner that I would no longer be using his services due to my layoff when I paid my last bill. He wrote me back and asked that I update him when I have a new professional home since I was a happy client of his. No problem to honor his request; I simply sent him a copy of my new resume with note “you never know who knows who.” While I’ve never met my dry cleaner in person in 9 years of doing business, he certainly knows my clothes, my personality and events in my professional life. Now with my resume, he will learn about the person inside the clothes who he has taken care of all these years.

Looking for help with your resume? Check out these resources and advice:

 

•       Monster’s Resume Writing Service

•       Monster Resume Advice 

•       The Resume Tips Message Board

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