Kevin and I have been working on his
job hunt not for about 3 weeks. He got serious about it after
Christmas. The plan came first.
That took a couple of days. Then we began work on his resumes. Yes,
he has more than one but I'll get to that in a minute.
Kevin's heard me say a thousand times, “The most qualified job hunter is
rarely the one who gets the offer?” Yup that’s right. It’s
not a typo. I’m not crazy. The best positions go to the people who do
the best job at positioning themselves as the best solution to an employer’s
problem --- once in they’re in the interview. And that’s the
rub.
Kevin’s Before Resume:
It looks like the
thousands I’ve seen. It may
look like yours. I know Kevin. He’s one of the most talented engineering
minds in North America.
Does
this look like a guy who has 23 years of experience in Real-Time and IT-related
product architecture and development? Can you tell that many of his
former clients include Fortune 500 companies, US military, Canadian government
departments, and non-profit organizations? Can you tell that he started
working on web-based technologies as early as 1996 or that because of his new
product lines his company became known as an E-Commerce company allowing their
customers to purchase everything from Airfares & Hotels to paperclips
across the internet? Or that he’s done competitive intelligence
assessments for acquisitions with name brand companies whose logos you would
easily recognize?
Nope.
It’s pretty dull and boring unlike the man himself. And that’s my
point!
Your resume is a marketing tool, plain and
simple. It’s designed to get a reader’s attention and compel them to call you
for an interview.
Is your résumé so powerful that it grabs
the attention of hurried employers, forces them to stop, read, and then pick up the phone and call you? If not, you must keep
reading and follow this advice! Because your résumé has to get read for you to
get an interview now matter how qualified you are.
Just because you spent four hours writing
your resume doesn’t mean it will be read with care. Your résumé has less than 3
seconds to impress a reader enough to compel them to read it entirely. Three
seconds. Or less. (It’s a myth that the first 10 seconds are critical – your
reader’s mind is made up in about three.)
Employers and recruiters don’t have time to
read every resume they get. Résumés are like junk mail to most hiring managers.
And what do you do with junk mail? Junk it. So, only the most compelling
résumés, those that pique an employer’s curiosity, will ever get more than a
glance.
Here’s another problem. Since writing a
resume ranks about the same as doing your taxes or painting the basement on the
“Fun-o-Meter,” most people create just one version of their résumé to use in
every situation. (You too?)
They stuff this all-purpose, generic resume
with gobs of “duties included” and “responsible for” language. Then they send
it out and hope for the best.
Unfortunately, your résumé can’t be all things
to all hiring managers. As a result, a generic résumé almost always fails to
produce job offers.
Instead, your résumé should make an
eye-catching first impression and provide an honest summary of your skills,
education and experience. It must convince the reader that you are reliable,
ready, willing and ABLE to do the job.
Here’s Kevin Watson’s new resume which we
structured to send to companies which were either part of the Fortune 1000 or sell
their services/products to the FP1000.
Kevin’s After Resume #1:
In my opinion if the job you seek is worth
pursuing, it’s worth pursuing right, right? So send a résumé that’s carefully
written, with one specific job in mind. Send a Guerrilla Résumé that will
capture the attention of the guy/gal that’s going to hire you or has a problem
you can fix. See how Kevin’s experience with international multinationals
shows up. You can’t miss the logos of his employer’s clients. And
every one of those logos has a project with a story behind it.
A Guerrilla Résumé [Download Kevin-onepage Extrem guerrilla resume] is aimed a single, specific audience, and often one specific
individual. It is always focused, never general. It is built on specific
accomplishments, not dull duties and responsibilities piled one atop the other.
Guerrilla Résumés work because they’re
written with the employer in mind. Because no employer wakes up in the morning
wanting to hire more staff. Employers only hire when they have problems to
solve. And they will only hire you if they can specifically see you as the
solution to their problems.
In addition, no employer wants to spend a
lot of time hiring you. It can take weeks to read résumés, call and interview
candidates, and then make a job offer. This process takes employers away from
their business, which is not where they want to be.
So, your Guerrilla Résumé must quickly
answer this question: “What can you do for me?”
Because that’s the question going through
every employer’s mind as he or she reads your résumé -- “What can you do for
me?”
Kevin’s After Resume #2:
Here is the resume
written for the software products firms he approached.
Here is the resume written for the software
products firms he approached.
Kevin clearly explains
the good things he’s done for his previous employers. This version even has quotes from his former employers
in the left hand column. View this photo
A Guerrilla Résumé makes the phone ring
because it says what employers want to hear. It’s that simple.
Now. There are two types of Guerrilla
Résumé: Standard and Extreme. Each version has its own unique characteristics.
Which one is right for you? You can find out more by reading Guerrilla Resumes
for yourself and applying the principles to your job search.
Next:
How to craft a consulting
resume and a guerrilla resume for a recruiter.
-David Perry,
managing partner – Perry-Martel International Inc. [www.perrymartel.com & www.gm4jh.com]He is also the author of Guerrilla Marketing
for Job Hunters 2.0, Guerrilla marketing for Job Hunters, and Career guide for the High Tech Professional
Resources:
Guerrilla
Job Search Boot Camp
Guerrilla Marketing
for Job Hunters
Career Guide
for the High Tech Professional
