How to Make Your Résumé a Diamond in the Rough

How to Make Your Rsum a Diamond in the RoughHow to Make Your Rsum a Diamond in the RoughWhats a koranversfire way to have your rsum thrown aside within seconds of an employer reading it? Including overused, common phrases and words to describe yourself. Employers see this too often to make a positive impression. When you use such descriptions, you are saying absolutely nothing important or interesting about you. Almost everyone says behauptung things in rsums, which is the whole problem. If you want to be seen as unique and get called in for an interview, avoid those phrases at all costs. herbeie are several ways to make sure your rsum is a shining star in a pile of monotonyLet go of the objective. The Oxford dictionary defines objective as a thing aimed at or sought a goal. You may wish to work for someone who cares what your goal is, but that is highly unlikely to happen. Take a look at the following example Seeking a challenging position that allows me to use my communications, problem-solving and marketing skills. Heres what you can learn about the applicant from this statementHe wants a challenging role.He has communications, problem-solving and marketing skills. From an employers perspective, she has seen statements like this so many times that theyve become stale. Most people say they want to be challenged, and communications is a broad word. What types of communication is he good at written, oral, corporate communications, crisis communications, conflict resolution? Problem solving is anotherbei widely used term. What kinds of problems is he adept at solving analytical, social, strategic? Marketing skills is also vague. What type of marketing is he talking about mass marketing, graphic design, copy? If you are not specific, you are not helping the employer achieve her goal, which is to fill the role with a talented candidate. In other words, she wants to know if you can satisfy her objective, not your own. Whether you agree with this or not, it is the reality today as companies receive tons of applications, so you need to change your objective statement into a career profile or summary. Get specific in your summary. Read the following statement, and think about what youve learned about the candidateSelf-starter who thrives in a fast-paced, fluid environment and quickly contributes value. If true, you can assume this person isa self-startersomeone who thrives in fast-paced environmentsa person who quickly contributes value Unfortunately, many people claim to be self-starters, thrive in challenging environments and contribute value. The question is how you can make this statement unique and personal.The answer is makingexamplesyour best friend. If you are always telling an employer words and phrases to describe you, she doesnt get much from it. You need to show it, which means you need to use examples. How can you prove these things? Think about an instance or two when you demonstrated certain characteristics at school or on the job.Replace the overused words and phrases with these examples. Heres a sample of what it might look likeInitiated development and implementation of a new online training program in six weeks, staying within budget.What have you learned from reading this?The person is a self-starter.The person can accomplish a major task in a short time frame.The person made a valuable contribution and saved company resources. Which candidate would you choose to interview? Dont use your job description as your rsum bullets. This is a big mistake that lots of people make. Job descriptions rarely encompass everything you do, and most are by nature very generic. You are not doing yourself any favors by copying your job description into your rsum. Your bullets need to tell the story of exactly what youve achieved in your job, both inside and outside the scope of your formal job responsibilities. (Use those examples above to help with this step.) Dont let stale phrasing and wording prevent you from getting called for interviews. Phrases such as dedicated team player, well-organized and committed, and results-oriented are used too frequently. If something sounds bad to you, it probably sounds even worse to an employer who reads a lot of rsums that sound exactly the same. Do yourself a favor and incorporate specific examples to demonstrate why you have the characteristics you say you do. That kind ofrsumwill be unique and stand out to a potential employer. A vague, cliched version is simply going to be glanced at and tossed aside. Dont let that be you. Marcelle Yeageris the president ofCareer Valet, which delivers personalized career navigation services. Her goal is to enable people to recognize skills and job possibilities they didnt know they had to make a career change or progress in their current career. She worked for more than 10 years as a strategic communications consultant, including four years overseas. Marcelle holds an MBA from the University of Maryland.