Results tagged “focus” from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters Tips Blog

The most important things to remember about writing an effective resume can be encapsulated in a six-letter acronym, FAKTSA, in which the letters stand for:

• Focus
• Appearance
• Keywords
• Transferrable Skills
• Accomplishments

Get more details about these elements in our article, FAKTSA: An Easy Acronym for Remembering Key Resume Enhancers.

Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document? Order today from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service.

A sharp focus is an extremely important resume element. Given that employers screen resumes for between 2.5 and 20 seconds, a resume should show the employer at a glance what you want to do and what you’re good at. In a study by the former Career Masters Institute (now the Career Management Alliance), employers wanted resumes to show a clear match between the applicant and a particular job’s requirements. A “general” resume that is not focused on a specific job’s requirements was seen as not competitive.

In a more recent study by CareerBuilder.com, 71 percent of hiring managers preferred a resume customized for the open position. Learn more in our article, FAKTSA: An Easy Acronym for Remembering Key Resume Enhancers

Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document? Order today from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service.

What are the most important things to remember about writing an effective resume? They can be encapsulated in a six-letter acronym, FAKTSA, in which the letters stand for:
Focus
Appearance
Keywords
Transferrable Skills
Accomplishments
Learn more about these components in our article, FAKTSA: An Easy Acronym for Remembering Key Resume Enhancers

Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document? Order today from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service.

Your resume has to have a focus, says the Career Doctor Randall S. Hansen. Every job-seeker needs to be a specialist, a specialist that fits the needs of the prospective employer perfectly. Sometimes a job objective or summary of qualifications can give you the edge you are seeking. Learn more in our Resume and CV Resources for Job-Seekers.

Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document? Order today from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service.

To sharpen your resume’s focus, you can add a section called something like “Summary of Qualifications,” “Profile,” or the like. Such a section, in a reader-friendly bulleted format can contribute to powerful resume opener that draws the reader in; it can be part of the top third of resume that showcases your best selling points, catches the prospective employer’s attention, and immediately demonstrates your value as a candidate.

A synthesis of the ideas of two leading resume experts, Susan Britton Whitcomb, author of Resume Magic, one of the best books on the market for resumes, and Deb Wile Dib of Advantage Resumes, reveals that a Summary/Profile section can contain:

• Title/functional area/level of your current position and/or position you seek.
• Number of years of experience (which, for age-discrimination reasons, should not exceed 15-20; “15+” is a good guideline for mature workers)
• Industry you’re in or seeking to be in.
• Core competencies/areas of expertise/strengths/specialization for that field.
• Highlights of representative accomplishments, especially used to demonstrate skills and competencies you’ve used throughout your career.
• Top business, leadership, craft-related skills, both “hard skills” and “soft skills” (such as communication, interpersonal, teamwork); however, be aware that many hiring decision-makers believe soft skills can be substantiated only in person or by references, so be sure to provide strong substantiation of these skills in your resume.
• “Value-added” information: Skills/accomplishments/experience that
• add to your value because they are not necessarily expected of someone with your background (e.g., operations manager with deep knowledge of IT).
• Any advanced degrees, certifications, or licenses that are integral to the type of job you seek.
• Language and international business skills, if relevant.
• Technical/computer skills, instead of burying them at the bottom of your resume (Exception: IT professionals, who should place IT skills in a separate section).
• Personality /management style: Open a little window into your personality with your Summary/Profile (e.g., mention sense of humor)
• Possibly affiliations if integral to the job, otherwise in a separate section.
• Any extremely prestigious colleges, employers, or clients.
• Quantification whenever possible, using numbers for, e.g., revenue generated, size of accounts, typical budgets, money saved, etc.
• Positive quotes, testimonials from supervisors, clients, taken from memos, letters, performance evaluations.
• Awards you’ve earned, such as Employee of the Month and President’s Club, can also be listed in the Summary/Profile section to give them more up-front attention than if they were listed in their own section.
• Keywords/buzzwords from ads or job postings you’re responding to.

Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document? Order today from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service.

What are the most important things to remember about writing an effective resume? They can be encapsulated in a six-letter acronym, FAKTSA, in which the letters stand for:

• Focus
• Appearance
• Keywords
• Transferrable Skills
• Accomplishments

Focus: A sharp focus is an extremely important resume element. Given that employers screen resumes for between 2.5 and 20 seconds, a resume should show the employer at a glance what you want to do and what you’re good at. In a study by the former Career Masters Institute (now Career Management Alliance), employers wanted resumes to show a clear match between the applicant and a particular job’s requirements. A “general” resume that is not focused on a specific job’s requirements was seen as not competitive. In a more recent study by CareerBuilder.com, 71 percent of hiring managers preferred a resume customized for the open position.

One way to sharpen focus is through verbiage at the top of your resume that instantly catches the reader’s eye and identifies the area(s) in which you can make a contribution.

This verbiage can take one of several — or a combination — of forms:

1. Objective statement: Described in more detail below.
2. A “headline,” usually simply the title of the position you’re applying for, which can be adjusted for every job you apply for.
3. A branding statement, a punchy “ad-like” statement that tells immediately what you can bring to an employer.

The headline and branding statement are often used in combination. Example:

If you go with an Objective statement, it should be labelled as such and use language telling how you’ll benefit the employer. Something like:

Objective: To contribute strong _ skills and experience to your firm in a __ capacity.

You can read more about resume objectives in our article Should You Use a Career Objective on Your Resume?

Watch for additional information on resume enhancers in upcoming blog entries.

Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document? Order today from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service.

The first step toward preparing a powerful resume, is to fully consider the market you are targeting to determine the job skills necessary to work and excel in it. There is little point in developing a resume that highlights specialty cake-making expertise to appeal to an audience of steel workers. An ill-targeted execution is destined for hardship and likely failure from the outset. So step one of the mission is to define your focus. Begin by determining what your career goals really are, get to know the current hiring and performance trends in that market, research the qualifications typical for that type of job, and get ready to get to work tailoring your execution to fit the chosen profession. With a bit of mental elbow grease here, square pegs can be reshaped to fit round holes by highlighting skills that can be considered as transferable. Focusing on strengths, such as communication, organization, interpersonal skills, management capabilities, and leadership - to name a few - can be applied with great success to almost any job title, but you must be the one to connect the dots for your reader in pursuasive, discipline-specific language. The Internet is a goldmine for conducting this type of career-related research.

Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document? Order today from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service.