Posted by on Feb 7, 2012 in
Creating A Resume Attorney Resume Writing Service – Tips for Legal Career Success from a Trusted Expert
Its 2011 and the legal market is beginning to bounce back. With the number of law firms on the rise, there is a unique opportunity for you to find your next legal job – even in a bad market. Maybe you tried to go off on your own and realized it wasn’t for you, maybe your firm is downsizing, or you’re just ready for the next challenge. This is a great time for you to take the chance. Here’s a few tips for you to assist in your job search:
1. How Far Will Your Search Go: As the world continues to grow and change, people are learning to focus more on themselves, and less on what others want from them. Whether it is in your personal or professional life, it is important to feel good about what you do. With that said, how far are you willing to drive for your next job? Are you willing to relocate? These are important questions you need to determine before you begin your job search. This will help save you countless hours, because quite frankly, why spend 10 hours looking for jobs in Florida, if its just not feasible for you to move there – Keep your search local.
2. Are you Qualifed: Sure, everybody thinks they want to be an entertainment lawyer, but most people do not realize what that entails. In working with several former and current entertainment attorneys, let me tell you, its not it’s all that it is cracked up to be. But, maybe for you it will be. With that said, do you have the experience to break into the industry? Trust me, whether its labor, employment, entertainment, family, probate, tax or estate planning, all you need is the education and the practice. Take CLEs, volunteer your time, and network.
3. Brand Yourself: In today’s changing economy, it is important that you change with it. In 2011, that means developing a brand name. It is crucial that you have a LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter account. It is very important that you sign up for your alumni networks, attend events, and meet people. If you’re like me, this is NOT your favorite thing to do, BUT, I will tell you, it works. In fact, it works well. Like the old adage says, you can’t win or lose if you don’t play the game. Give it a shot, what’s the worst that can happen?
4. Make Sure you have a GREAT RESUME: Make sure you hire and work with an experienced attorney Resume Writer. Better yet, retain a Certified Professional Attorney Resume Writer. While there are only a handful of practicing attorneys who are also certified, an effective resume is your BEST Career tool. If your resume contains spelling or grammatical errors, it will be discarded. By hiring a Certified Professional Attorney Resume Writer with extensive HR experience, you will give yourself the best chance to begin, develop, or maintain a rewarding legal career.
GOOD LUCK!
Tags: Attorney, Career, Expert, from, Legal, Resume, Service, Success, Tips, Trusted, Writing
Posted by on Nov 23, 2011 in
Creating A Resume Human Resource Resume Writing Tips and Help from Certified HR Experts!
While a resume for a position in Human Resources may not be different from many other types of resumes, it is important to note that part of the job of an HR position generally includes reviewing resumes – how’s that for pressure! Basically, you will be sending your resume to an individual who is ‘in the business’ of reading, critiquing, evaluating, and assessing resumes for a living. Therefore, it is absolutely critical that your resume be perfect – or as close to perfect as humanly possible.
As a 10th year nationally acclaimed resume writer, my team and I have worked with several HR departments and individuals ranging from Fortune 500 companies to mom & pop shops. Our research has shown that in order to have an effective resume for Human Resources positions, whether entry, mid-or –senior level, there are certain precautions you should take, and certain liberties you should not.
1.Make Sure the Dates Are Accurate: While this is important for every resume, it is especially important for the HR field. Why? Because while some employers may gloss over prior employment and possibly not check your references, HR interviewers are accustomed to being thorough. If you’ve had 4 prior employers, there is a good possibility that all 4 of your prior employers will be contacted for verification, so make sure the dates and information is accurate.
2. Do Not Lie! Quite frankly, you should NEVER lie on a resume. Like meeting your future wife for the first time – what may seem like a little white lie at the time may come back to bite you in the butt 10 years down the line. The same holds true for your resume. What could be worse than finally getting your footing in the position of your dreams, only to be caught in a lie down the line that may cost you your job, career (and possibly affect your ability to pay your mortgage, bills, etc.) TRUST ME – the truth is the easiest thing to remember.
3. Make Yourself Shine: You are trying to sell yourself to someone whose job description probably includes either recruiting or prospecting new talent. Therefore it is important that your resume really bolster your strengths. Be sure to cut away the fat when applying for HR positions and focus the resume on what you can bring to the table, and what you have accomplished.
4. Work with a Certified Professional Resume Writer: Unless you are an expert resume writer, it would be in your best interest to the leave the resume writing to the experts. It is always a great investment to invest in your future, and when applying for jobs, the best investment you can make is hiring certified professional resume writer with industry knowledge and experience.
Tags: Career, Certified, Experts, from, Help, Human, Professional, Resource, Resume, Tips, Writing
Posted by on Oct 4, 2011 in
Creating A Resume Attorney Resume Writing Service – A Great Career Tool for New and Experienced Attorneys
You made it through 3 grueling years of law school, graduated, and passed the bar – now what? Even the most competitive schools in the nation are having serious problems placing their students at graduation. The problem is simple – today’s market is tough. There are very few entry-level, mid-career, and senior positions available. Unlike 20 years ago when practicing law was a “sure thing” today it’s a crap-shoot. Sure, you can open up your own law firm, but with student loans and inexperience in business development looming, is that really a realistic choice.
In a tough legal market, the BEST thing you can do is hire a Certified Professional Attorney Resume Writer to prepare your resume for you. You have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in your legal education, don’t risk your future. Unlike non-attorney resume writers, an attorney resume writer knows the law. He or she knows what it was like to sit through torts, agonize through tax law, and sleep through ethics (just kidding on the last one).
With all of the hundreds of resume writing services out there, it is CRUCIAL that you retain one that has the actual knowledge of the career and field that you are seeking to pursue. Do not be intimidated by today’s job market. Whether you went to a Tier 1 School or Tier 4 School, there IS a firm out there for you to either begin or continue you legal career.
By hiring a Certified Resume Writing Team that are former attorneys, you are taking a step in the right direction!
Tags: Attorney, Attorneys, Career, Experienced, Great, Resume, Service, Tool, Writing
Posted by on Sep 14, 2011 in
Writing Books If you’re a business professional and you’re ready to try something new, think about writing a business book. Writing a book about your expertise in a specific industry or even business in general is an excellent way to expand your business and branch out into speaking and consulting. It lets you try something new, but you don’t have to completely abandon the field you’re in.
The Booming How-To Market
How-to books are very popular—there’s always one or two on the bestseller list—and many people like reading books to learn more about their own industry, learn about industries that are new to them, find ways to advance their careers, and figure out how to deal with difficult business situations, like having a boss or a co-worker that they don’t get along with. Some people read nothing but how-to and self-help books. With thousands of topics to write about and a growing interest in self-improvement, your possibilities are endless!
Modern Printing Technology Makes Publishing Easy
In the past, publishing your own business book was expensive and time consuming because getting book ready to print and finding a reliable, inexpensive printer required lots of research and work. Plus, self-publishers had to guess how many copies they were going to need.
But these days you can offer print-on-demand copies of your book, which means the book isn’t printed until someone buys it. Or you can offer your business book in a downloadable PDF format so that printing costs are avoided altogether and people can start reading your book immediately after buying it.
Get Industry-Specific
If you have years of experience in one particular industry, then you can write a business book that describes the steps that you took to be successful in that industry and the mistakes you learned from along the way. You can help people who are just starting out to overcome the learning curve, and learn how to follow your steps themselves so that they can achieve the same kind of success that you did.
Plus, many companies looking for ways to save money use well-written industry-specific business books as training materials. You could even offer to customize certain parts of your business book to meet the specific needs of a company if they buy a set number of books.
Writing a Book is Easier Than You Think
The writing task is often overwhelming to people, but you can start small. Books don’t have to be extremely long to be popular. You can write a short, fifty- to 100-page e-book about some aspect of business that you have a lot of experience in and test the market by selling it directly on the web. You can also use an e-book format to write business books for specific businesses, like training manuals or other how-to books or guides.
What Are You Waiting For?
Writing a book not only allows you to try something new, but if you are creative in how you write the book and how you market the book, the venture can be very profitable. If you’re ready to move on and try a different career but you don’t want to start over in a new industry, take the experience and credentials that you have and try writing about that industry instead of just participating in it. You will get a chance to branch out, do something different, and still use all the years of experience that you have built up.
Tags: Book, Career, Challenge, HowTo, SelfHelp, Want, Writing
Posted by on Jul 16, 2011 in
Creating A Resume Writing off your resume can be a daunting task to handle. There is a greater need for professional looking resumes in order to get a job. Careful planning is very essential in order to achieve a more comprehensive type of resume. What employers seek out for a resume is the perfect content and layout which may include the vital facts and information that an employer should know about an applicant.
Your resume speaks about what you can do to contribute to the corporate goals of the company. Writing off a resume is an opportunity to give your career a boost. Here are some helpful insights to ponder regarding resume writing:
Introduce yourself to the company through a professionally written resume! Resume writing is very important since it will introduce you to the company you want to work with. What you should include are the appropriate keywords that would best stand for your educational attainment, remarkable and outstanding credentials as well as work experience. You can save time and energy when you have a resume which appeals most to employers. This would mean getting the right job in just a short nick of time, which is in fact your primary goal.
Find a perfect example of format and lay out that you think would be best for you write off your resume – include your contact details. Writing your resume should be done with a guide. it will be beneficial to write your contact details ( telephone number, mobile number, email or address) on top of the page. Content is the most important part of the resume. This is the most important thing to have in order to achieve your goals.
Keep your focus in writing and include salient points of your career experience and educational level. In resume writing, the first page should include contact details that would allow your future employee to reach you. You need to give ample focus on the details to be included in tour performance as an employee and your potential achievements for the corporate firm that you would want to work with. Your resume should contain all your past experiences, training and in your career scheme.
First impressions last, as the old adage goes. Resume writing should be done in order to attract future employers. You should be able to generate and direct interest from your employers by giving much emphasis on your career goals. If they seek for higher deals in salary, you should make sure to elaborate your ideas and extensive experience on longer hours.
Never ever use too much flattery since it will render your resume as poor and ineffective. Share your positive statements regarding yourself and how you will contribute for a corporate success.
Organized resume can help you achieve you dream job! This can help your potential employer in getting to know you and find the needed info about you which can be suitable for the post. Remember this; your resume should secure you an opportunity for an interview and not to totally get the job right away. Once you receive an invitation for an interview, your resume is doing half of its work.
Tags: Boost, Career, Resume, Writing
Posted by on Jun 25, 2011 in
Article Writer Are you a very good writer? Do you know how to write not only for readers but for search engine as well? Then, you can start a very lucrative career as a freelance SEO article writer. You’ll be happy to know that right now, there are hundreds and thousands of individuals and corporations that are looking for somebody who can write good articles that they can use in their internet marketing campaign. Most of these people are more than happy to pay hundreds of dollars to the right candidate.
Here’s how you can get started:
1. First, make sure that you have an edge over your competitors. One of the most important things that you need to know about this endeavor is that you’re going up against a lot of people. Hundreds of SEO article writers from across the globe are also offering the same service. Others even have already proven track record and have already built good reputation in the online arena. To increase your chances of attracting potential clients, ensure that you have something different to offer or that you have an edge over your competitors. I would suggest that you really learn and master the ropes of SEO article writing. Ensure that you’ll have perfect writing and SEO skills. It will also help if you attend seminars offered by successful SEO article writers. I am pretty sure that you’ll benefit from their expertise and experience.
2. Look for clients. Next step is to find people who might be interested in doing business with you. Let me tell you now that this won’t be easy especially if you’re just starting out. It would help if you join freelancing sites where you can easily bid on several writing projects. As a newbie, I would recommend that you bid on small projects first. You don’t want to feel overwhelmed too soon. Also, choose your potential buyers. Freelancing sites will allow you to access the feedback left by previous service providers. You would want to work with somebody who really pays and who’s very easy to work with.
3. Win as many projects as possible. Once you get the hang of it, try your hardest to win as many good-paying article writing projects as possible. As a freelancer, you must know that the money you’ll make will depend on the amount of articles you write. You can make this happen by giving your prospective buyers some proofs that you can really do the job. It will also help if you can get your clients to leave compelling testimonials on your profile. I am sure these will be used by your potential clients when they’re deciding if they’ll hire you or not. You’ll win more projects if your bid price and turnaround time are reasonable. It will also help if you communicate your willingness to revise the articles if your clients are not 100% satisfied with them.
Tags: Article, Career, Lucrative, online, start, Writer
Posted by on May 1, 2011 in
Creating A Resume Getting a job largely depends on what you do before the offer for the job arrives. This includes getting experience, making a great impression with the potential employer, having a great interview, and of course, having a quality resume. While there are many people that will write their own resumes, a large group of people are paying others to do it for them with online resume writing services. Ordering can be as easy as ordering your favorite pair of jeans online or making an online purchase for any other item. The only difference is that they will require a bit more information from you. Chances are if you sign up for resume writing services, you will be sent a questionnaire or survey that will ask you all about your work, and personal experiences. Filling this out will be one step towards getting your credentials in order,and obtaining the job of your dreams.
Writing a resume can be a daunting task, and can turn off employers if it is not crafted correctly. Errors in grammar, spelling, and spacing are just some of the things that will have potential employers shaking their heads. Further, writing a resume that is too overdone, or too barebones, is also something professionals do not like to see. By hiring expert a service, one can save time, and add a touch of class to their resumes for the world to see.
Not all resume writing services are worthwhile, and many offer different kinds of services. Some are geared toward students, and young professionals, while others are entirely aimed at older, more established professionals. Many offer resume templates for you to fill in the blanks, while others provide full service custom writing services.
One great resume writing service website is Monster. The same monster website that brings you the best jobs on the market everyday, now offers a great service for you to utilize. Monster follows a simple business plan of grading the packages by career status, and career choice. While each resume has a unique price, one can expect to pay a few hundred dollars for a complete resume writing package.
Another website similar to Monster is Resume Edge. This website offers career related custom services for modest prices. Typically a full package would run a few hundred dollars, and include all the bells and whistles one would expect from a top notch resume writing service website.
Having your resume written is something that can either help, or hurt your future depending on the service you choose. Therefore it is extremely important to research all the resume writing services available to date, and go with one that you trust. Researching the sites can be done on Review Place, a website dedicated to customer reviews. Checking out Review Place should give you some perspective on your current resume writing services provider.
With something as important as your resume, it is obvious that you want the provider to be as committed to quality as they are to making your resume a notable one. It is not enough in today’s hyper competitive job market to have an average resume; today one needs a stand out resume to truly land the job. By choosing a resume writing services provider that is highly rated, and well recommended by others, you will be making a time tested investment in the future of your career.
Tags: Advancement, Asset, Career, Resume, services, Writing
Posted by on Apr 12, 2011 in
Medical Writing If you are already working as a writer, even if you’re not supporting yourself in that field yet, you’ve probably heard the argument of specialist versus generalist. In simple terms, a specialist is a writer who focuses on a narrow area of expertise. In other words, he or she specializes in a certain subject. The generalist, on the other hand, takes a more expansive view of things and writes on whatever subjects come along.
If your goal is to be a professional writer now or in the near future or even just to make some part-time money as a writer, you need to decide where you intend on finding work and how you’ll get it. Are you going to look everywhere and accept just about anything of interest? Then you’re a generalist. Or are you going to narrow your sites and concentrate on certain topics? That’s a specialist.
You can decide to generalize or specialize based on your personality, your whim, or the circumstances, but it is sounder business (and writing is a business) to make a conscious choice.
So which is the better choice? The answer may surprise you.
On the surface, it would appear that a generalist can earn more simply because he or she is more open to work from all sources. After all, if you specialize in a narrow field, you are immediately limiting the number and types of assignments for which you’ll qualify.
However, a generalist can have a tough time finding work! It can be harder for a generalist writer to land assignments than a specialist, simply because the specialist can sell his or her expertise in the field.
For instance, I specialize in medical writing. That immediately precludes me from a lot of writing assignments. However, when medical writing jobs come up, I have a very focused portfolio of previous articles and projects to present. I know the lingo. I have a lot of contacts in the field. My references are great; in some fields, I have references that my editors often know personally or know about.
In some situations, I can wow a potential customer by showing him examples of my writing and past projects that track very closely to what he is asking me to do. This kind of calling card is very powerful. When you know the lingo, know the turf, and can prove you can handle the job, it is hard to lose out on an assignment.
If a generalist were to apply for the same writing gig at the same time, I’d blow the generalist out of the water.
By the same token, if the writing assignment were on raising kids, I’d be on even footing with the generalist, if I bothered to apply at all.
In terms of landing a job, there is really no scenario where the generalist has the edge over the specialist.
Now you could argue that the generalist can make it up with volume. After all, a generalist is free to pursue just about any writing assignment that comes along. He can write about raising horses, traveling to Iceland, or how to buy your first home. I’m limited to medical.
But medical is actually pretty broad! If you specialize, don’t hesitate to specialize in a “big” field. I once knew a woman who embarked on a writing career with the most narrow specialization I’d ever heard of. She was going to write solely about 19th century German immigrants to Fayette County, Texas. Okay, she didn’t make much of a career out of that, but that’s a great example of getting over-zealous with specialization! She might have succeeded had she specialized in writing about Texas. Or about writing about 19th century historical subjects.
Specialists need to keep a specialty that’s focused but not so narrow that there are only one or two potential jobs that come along in a year. Medicine is a great specialty. It includes cardiology, pediatrics, the healthcare crisis, patient advocacy, geriatrics, dermatology, and just about anything else you can think of that involves health. Plus there are lots of businesses in this field and I write a lot for business as well as for publishers.
Other great specialties might be real estate, business, politics, or music.
Once a generalist and a specialist have landed assignments, the specialist has another edge. Specialists already know the basics in their field. As a medical writer, I know the lingo and the research methods. The projects that I work on rarely require me to do much general research, read too many articles, or even look up new words and terminology. I have a lot of contacts in certain fields, so I’m not always scrambling to get some good interviews or fabulous quotes. I don’t have the queasy feeling that generalists sometimes get when they’re writing about a subject they don’t know.
This isn’t to say a generalist cannot do a good job. But it takes longer. As an example, let’s assume I were to tackle an assignment on how to grow roses on the Gulf Coast; since I am no gardener, this would cause me to have to do a lot of general background researc. I could probably do a decent job on the article, but I’d need a lot of time and lot more effort than a person who specialized in writing about gardening topics (and who likely had already done some articles already on roses and gardening in extreme climates).
Specialists get good at snowballing one assignment into another. A patient pamphlet on breast cancer can become a springboard for my suggestions to do a pamphlet for breast cancer patients’ families, particularly kids of women with breast cancer. I could then take that same body of research and pitch some newspaper or magazine articles on the ramifications of breast cancer for the whole family. This might lead to some articles for cancer patients’ websites. And I might be able to approach a pharmaceutical company that makes a drug for breast cancer patients and show them the body of work I’ve done and be able to work on projects for them, like patient education slides or the script for a take-home DVD.
That’s not an exaggeration. Specializing allows you to get in deep into a subject and then see how one topic and one assignment flows naturally into another.
Specialization makes it easier to get assignments, faster to complete assignments, and helps to keep generating assignments. The fact is, specialists are usually kept busy full-time just managing the assignments that businesses, customers, and editors bring to them, because they are well known in their field; specialists eventually get to the point that they rarely sell their services. A specialist can spend more time writing and less time selling his services; a generalist, on the other hand, almost always has to do a lot of marketing to stay afloat.
But many writers balk at the idea of specialization. I’ve even heard people say that the reason they wanted to write in the first place was in order to do lots of new things. They fear that specialization will put them in a rut. There iis a bit of truth to the rut argument. Medical writers are rarely asked to review movies, write about designer hand bags, or cover the scandal of executive compensation in major businesses. So what if you want to be more of a Renaissance man or woman and write of many things?
You can try multiple specialties. In this method, you take the best of both worlds of specialist and generalist. You pick two or three subjects that interest you. Don’t pick too many more than that or you’ll lose focus. Then you develop depth in them so that you get some expert-level status.
You can pick art, business, and home renovation. Or medicine, travel, and childcare. Or whatever two or three topics grab you. Ideally, they should be far removed from each other, since you can dilute your specialty by playing it too wide. For instance, I write about medicine but I don’t ever write about alternative medicine. Why? If my medical editors knew I was writing about acupuncture or other therapies they might not approve of, it would make me seem less of an authority.
So if you’re going to write about business, don’t write about “get rich quick” businesses as well as the Fortune 500. If you’re going to write about travel, don’t write stories about “everybody is out to gyp you” and then write stories about cruises and hotels. If you write about losing weight sensibly, don’t also write about “lose 10 pounds overnight” miracle pills. You need to establish not only a specialty but some boundaries for that specialty.
Some writers with multiple specialties actually use different names for each field, but that is probably not necessary. If you work in two very different specialties, you’ll not see a lot of overlap in terms of editors or experts, so there is no need to go cloak-and-dagger.
But if you are interested in writing as a business, specialization is the more profitable angle. You’ll develop extensive and impressive credentials, have a Rolodex full of very important contacts, and recycle your body of work into multiple assignments much more efficiently than a generalist!
Tags: Career, Jumpstart, Specialization, Writing
Posted by on Apr 11, 2011 in
Creating A Resume Do you have a completely unblemished work history? Was writing your resume a breeze because you are perfectly qualified with a model career and educational background?
Or, do you find yourself struggling to prepare your resume…struggling because of some glitch or problem in your background that you don’t know quite how to overcome in your resume?
* Maybe you are too old…or too young…
* Maybe you have an obvious gap in your work history…
* Maybe you have changed employers too many times…
* Maybe you are a new graduate with little-to-no relevant experience…
* Maybe you are an executive who needs to explain what appears to be a demotion…
* Maybe you are returning to the workforce after taking some time off…
* Maybe you are trying to change careers and your past experience doesn’t relate…
Don’t feel alone! It is the extraordinarily rare job searcher who doesn’t struggle with how to deal with some problem on their resume.
As a professional resume writer I have worked with thousands and thousands of clients, and while every single one of those clients is unique, they all have one thing in common: they have a problem that they need me to solve for them. How do I do it? Very honestly, each individual client often requires a solution that is as unique as he or she is. But, prior to starting and new resume writing project for a client, there are six steps that I carefully think through. As you work on developing or refining your own resume — as you try to come up with ways to transform YOUR troubled work history into a job-winning resume — it may be helpful for you to work through the same six steps.
Step #1 – Know your goal
What is your current career goal? What profession? What industry? What professional level? Knowing your objective and your goals for a job search is the foundation of not just your resume, but of your entire job search. Unless you know where you are going, you will have no idea what the focus of your resume must be and you won’t even have a clue how to begin writing it. Don’t expect a busy employer to figure it out for you. Your resume must have a precise focus and it must convey that focus in five seconds or less. If it doesn’t, it will be discarded. It is that simple.
Step #2 – Know your audience
Now that you know your goal, you are in a position to begin thinking about the recipients of your resume. What are the expectations and requirements of a candidate for the job you are targeting? What are the problems that a person in your ideal position is likely to be faced with? Remember (speaking of problems) that the person doing the hiring has problems that they are hoping their new-hire will solve. What are those problems? Do they need to increase sales? Reduce costs? Increase productivity? Improve efficiency? If you clearly identify the problems of your target audience, you can construct an entire resume focused on how you are the ideal candidate to solve them. Do that effectively and whatever issue you are dealing with in your troubled work history will suddenly become a non-issue.
An employee is an investment, and if you can create a resume that proves you will produce a better RETURN on that investment than the next guy (even the one with the squeaky clean work history), doors will swing open to you.
Step #3 – Know your competition
Who is your competition in the job market? What qualifications might they have that you don’t have? Do you have qualifications that your competition doesn’t have? For most situations, I’m not referring to specific individuals. Obviously you wouldn’t want to violate the privacy of any specific person competing for the same type of job. But, there is definite value in trying to define your competition in generalities. What types of qualifications does the typical candidate have for the job you are targeting?
Very clearly defining your competition is a crucial part of step #4…
Step #4 – Clearly identify the problem(s)
Okay. Now that you know where you are going, know what your audience is seeking, and know what your competition brings to the table, you are ready to fully define the problem or problems that your resume must overcome.
Some of those problems might be obvious. Work-history gaps, concerns about age discrimination, and multiple job changes are among the most common. But, having worked your way through the prior three steps, you may have identified others. Are there key qualifications you are lacking? Educational requirements that you don’t quite meet? Ways that your experience doesn’t quite stand up to your competition? Whatever those problems might be, make sure you define them. In the next step, we will begin to solve them.
Step #5 – Be willing to throw the rules out the window and think outside the box
Now, take everything you have ever read or learned about resume writing and forget it. Well, maybe not everything, but at this point you definitely do need to begin thinking creatively and strategically.
Remember that a resume is essentially an advertisement – a marketing piece – a personal sales pitch. Resumes are NOT autobiographies! They are personal marketing documents meant to sell you as the ideal candidate for a particular position. Everything about the content, the structure, and the design of your resume should be strategically and selectively included, excluded, highlighted, or de-emphasized.
Always be absolutely and meticulously honest, but be willing to think outside the box and present your background in a format and structure that will be most flattering to you in relation to the career goal you are targeting.
Do you want to be one of a kind? Or do you want to be one of many? Your resume is meant to make you stand out and shine. You will NOT achieve this by following some rigid template and structure that doesn’t have the flexibility to showcase your unique qualifications.
Step #6 – Reframe, reposition, reformat, and redesign
It is really all about how you frame and position your experience, your achievements, your educational background, and any other qualifications. Once you get to this step, you are ready to put pen to paper (or fingers to the keyboard) and begin writing your resume. Take what you know about the expectations and the desires of your target audience, combine this with your understanding of the competition and the problems you defined in Step #4, and start writing your resume.
Perhaps you are making a career change into a completely new profession. While it is often not immediately obvious to the recipient of your resume, much of your experience is usually transferable. How can you “reframe” your past experience to selectively emphasize the transferable skills and de-emphasize those that will no longer be relevant?
Is there a qualification you are lacking for the position you are targeting? It is very common for a person to have developed a particular qualification in a non-traditional way, from some other seemingly unrelated experience. How can you “reposition” that experience to illustrate the qualification in question?
Maybe you are returning to a career path that you veered away from ten years ago. Your recent experience is not as relevant as your past experience. What opportunities do you have to “reformat” your resume to bring the older skills to the forefront?
Or maybe you have a couple of big gaps in your work history. Can you think of a way to “redesign” your resume to take the visual emphasis off of the chronology/dates of your experience and place it instead on your achievements and results?
So, what problems does your resume need to solve? What challenges are you dealing with that you must face to turn your less-than-perfect work history into an effective resume? As you get started, remember, it is words on a piece of paper. It is easy to edit and move things around. Don’t be afraid to experiment (just do it BEFORE you use it in the job market!).
If you aren’t sure what the best solution is, create several versions and ask your friends and family for feedback before choosing the one you use in your search. And, if you get stuck, that is what professional resume writers are here for! We can often provide solutions that you would never have thought of on your own.
Do you want to use this article in your ezine, website, or other publication? You are welcome to as long as you use the following text with it:
Tags: Career, Challenging, History, Resume, Solutions, Writing
Posted by on Jul 26, 2010 in
Writing Books If you’re a business professional and you’re ready to try something new, think about writing a business book. Writing a book about your expertise in a specific industry or even business in general is an excellent way to expand your business and branch out into speaking and consulting. It lets you try something new, but you don’t have to completely abandon the field you’re in.
The Booming How-To Market
How-to books are very popular—there’s always one or two on the bestseller list—and many people like reading books to learn more about their own industry, learn about industries that are new to them, find ways to advance their careers, and figure out how to deal with difficult business situations, like having a boss or a co-worker that they don’t get along with. Some people read nothing but how-to and self-help books. With thousands of topics to write about and a growing interest in self-improvement, your possibilities are endless!
Modern Printing Technology Makes Publishing Easy
In the past, publishing your own business book was expensive and time consuming because getting book ready to print and finding a reliable, inexpensive printer required lots of research and work. Plus, self-publishers had to guess how many copies they were going to need.
But these days you can offer print-on-demand copies of your book, which means the book isn’t printed until someone buys it. Or you can offer your business book in a downloadable PDF format so that printing costs are avoided altogether and people can start reading your book immediately after buying it.
Get Industry-Specific
If you have years of experience in one particular industry, then you can write a business book that describes the steps that you took to be successful in that industry and the mistakes you learned from along the way. You can help people who are just starting out to overcome the learning curve, and learn how to follow your steps themselves so that they can achieve the same kind of success that you did.
Plus, many companies looking for ways to save money use well-written industry-specific business books as training materials. You could even offer to customize certain parts of your business book to meet the specific needs of a company if they buy a set number of books.
Writing a Book is Easier Than You Think
The writing task is often overwhelming to people, but you can start small. Books don’t have to be extremely long to be popular. You can write a short, fifty- to 100-page e-book about some aspect of business that you have a lot of experience in and test the market by selling it directly on the web. You can also use an e-book format to write business books for specific businesses, like training manuals or other how-to books or guides.
What Are You Waiting For?
Writing a book not only allows you to try something new, but if you are creative in how you write the book and how you market the book, the venture can be very profitable. If you’re ready to move on and try a different career but you don’t want to start over in a new industry, take the experience and credentials that you have and try writing about that industry instead of just participating in it. You will get a chance to branch out, do something different, and still use all the years of experience that you have built up.
Tags: Book, Career, Challenge, HowTo, SelfHelp, Want, Writing