Episode 7: "The Power of a Resume" FOBO (Fear of Becoming Obsolete)
When is the last time you updated your resume? Are you holding on to experiences that are no longer relevant? Get is ready in 30 minutes by following these tips by Thomas (Tom) Auld. Send him questions or comments at Tom@AuldLLC.com
Transcript:
PART 2 – The Power of a Resume
TRANSCRIPT
Hello everybody! Thank you for joining and welcome to Episode 7 of FOBO. I am your friendly neighborhood product owner, Tom Auld.
So, you have decided to leave your job.
In episode 6 we examined ideas and strategies to find your dream job and improve your skills before turning in your resignation.
Now you need to focus on the perfect resume.
Let’s talk about resume techniques that you need to use to stand out from the other candidates and land that dream job.
Grab a coffee, tea, or your favorite adult beverage, and let’s talk about staying relevant at work.
INTRO SEQUENCE
Estimates suggest that automation could disrupt between 800 million and 2 billion jobs in the next ten years alone.
This will create a huge amount of economic upheaval.
This is what has inspired us to create these videos.
The people that understand the job market landscape and prepare for it best, are the ones that can take advantage of the opportunities.
So that brings us to our focus for today. The resume. Or CV to my posh friends.
A tiny little document that is supposed to represent you and all of your work achievements. No pressure.
The goal is to have a resume that is “30 minutes from being ready” for any potential opportunity.
And remember, the goal of the resume is only to get you an interview. Full stop. Get the interview where you can make a human connection and provide context for all of the amazing things you can do for this new organization.
Let’s start with building your “baseline” resume. It has all the highlights, experiences, and outcomes you have produced during your career. It follows the chronological order of your career. It will be longer and more comprehensive than the one you will send to job postings.
This is the “baseline” resume used to craft the best resume in response to a specific opportunity.
Make sure you are using all of the proper keywords and industry teams.
Companies and recruiters are using AI to screen resumes screening for these keywords. You will need this to help get past the AI gatekeeper.
Next, take off any skills that you don’t want to use anymore!
If it is on your resume, hiring managers will see that and maybe ask you to use them.
And those skills are just taking up valuable space.
As a software engineer early in their career, I kept putting my testing/QA experience on my resume. Hiring managers wanted to hire me for QA roles when I wanted to focus on coding.
(Real developers do their own testing!)
Next, let’s get this generic resume online. Checkout online sources like:
· Indeed
· ZipRecuriter
· Dice – especially if you are looking for technical opportunities.
This is a great way to get your resume out to lots of recruiters.
And while this step is passive, you will want to get ready to keep an eye out for recruiters contacting you and getting back to them in a quick time frame.
There you have it. Now you have this “generic baseline” resume ready to go.
Next, you will have the chance to customize your resume for any interesting opportunity.
For example:
If you are a business analyst applying for a role with a technical team, make sure your technical experiences are the first ones listed.
If the opportunity is business focused BA role, then highlight your experiences with requirements gathering, facilitation, and process mapping.
Next, highlight your experiences that directly tie your work to the value it created to get them to WANT to read the rest of your resume.
An example of this would be:
· Project manager for SAP implementation TO
· Project manager for SAP implementation that lead to $2MM annual reduction in expenses.
Hit them with the outcomes of your work, not with just the activities you performed.
Draw a clear picture for the person reading your resume so there is no doubt that you have the experience and the drive to be successful at this job.
Next: Beware of resume bloat! Yes, you have done lots of things, but put yourself in the chair of the hiring manager. They don’t want to have to read a 20 page novella to find out if you are a good fit.
· I know hiring managers that have told me if a 4 page resume or more comes in, it goes to the bottom of the pile or right in the recycling bin.
· A long resume tells them right away you don’t know how to focus.
Bottom line is you have less than a minute to get their attention. Get to the point fast as you can.
There you have it. Now you have a resume that is “30 minutes” from being ready to share at any given time.
And speed is essential when job hunting, especially for attractive roles and attractive companies.
If you see an interesting job pop up, you want to get in quickly because sometimes they do cut off applicants at a certain number.
And as the job market is contracting and getting more competitive, you want to get your resume in as quickly as possible.
Now there is the topic of cover letters. To add one or not?
I view a resume as a document that shows “what I have done” and “how well I have done my work”. It shows that you have the skills and abilities to do the job.
The cover letter is a chance to show them WHO you are. What are your values.
Why this job at this company is important to you.
More and more companies are starting to emphasize the culture fit of a new employee as well as the technical fit to actually do the job. If not more so.
They are starting to understand that your technical skills and day-to-day job will keep evolving.
If you are a culture fit for the company, that increases the likelihood of you being a long-term, valuable employee.
So, in my humble opinion, I believe in the power of a good cover letter. When I get a good one, it compels me to keep learning more about this person.
Don’t forget. In this process of posting for jobs and sending in resumes, the resume’s job is to get you an interview.
The resume will not get you the job, but it can lose you the chance to have a conversation with the hiring manager. Spend the proper amount of time to have a resume you are proud of!
Alright. There you have it. You have your powerful resume.
Now let’s get you ready for the really hard part: INTERVIEWING!!! Gulp.
How do you best prepare for and conduct the best possible interview!
Join us next week when we take a deep dive into the interview process.
I would greatly appreciate hearing from you. What did you like? What did you not like?
All feedback is appreciated.
Keep helping us spread the word about FOBO.
Please share this with a friend, share it with an enemy, we all have the right to be relevant at work.
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Thank you and have a great week.
I am your friendly neighborhood product owner, and I look forward to connecting with you in the future.
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