Resumes for those in mid-career with several years of work experience, such as at an executive or manager level, should not look like those for younger or less-experienced people. If you don’t understand the difference and how potential employers use resumes, your resume will be a hindrance to helping you find a new job.
Too many experienced people prepare their resume with a summary at the top describing their experience and capabilities and include a long list of keywords that they hope will trigger a computerized system to select their resume for a potential opportunity.
Using this approach is similar to seeing a job posting and saying to yourself, “I can do that.” You then tailor your resume and send it off. Well, guess what? Thousands of others are doing the same thing. As a result, you either hear nothing back or you receive an automated response stating that you will be contacted in the future if they consider you an appropriate match. You never hear back of course and, over time, you become depressed at the lack of response to all your efforts.
Companies hire people because they want them to perform a specific function. To enhance their success when hiring someone unknown to them, they look for people who have already done at another company what they want done at their company. Consequently, using the approach in the above paragraph will almost always be unsuccessful for those in mid-career.
What is a more effective way to prepare your resume? Start by describing the position you want that you are best qualified to perform. Support that by describing your strongest skills and work experience that supports what you want and the industry where you have most of your experience.
When people ask you what position you are seeking, your response must be identical to what you say you want in your resume. If your verbal message (your verbal business card) is different from what you say in your resume, others won’t know who you really are and will be confused about what you want.
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Tags: executive resumes, how to write a resume, resume How To, Resumes, verbal business card