Your Resume: Is it Your Piéce de Résistance or the Piece you Resist Most?

Time and time again I've seen the most strident and accomplished professionals literally blanch at the thought of working on their own resume.   
I can understand why.  
Even in a strong economy, it is becoming increasingly difficult to break away from the pack and there can be a lot of indecision around what to include, or not include, in a resume or LinkedIn Profile that will get you noticed and get your resume in front of the decisions makers.  

Its not just their resume. Common struggles include: 

• Being cut after a round because of a  misstep during an interview
• Getting to the final round only to find that the hiring team has decided to ‘go in a different direction’.  Or
• Putting all your energy into an  application for a position only to receive a ‘thanks but no thanks’ type rejection letter seemingly minutes later without any feedback as to why or, perhaps worse, no response at all.  

None of us have 'putting ourselves on the line and facing rejection' on our top list of things we like to do. 

What We Longing For

And yet, there’s a longing.  The desire to take our career or life in a different direction, perhaps at a different pace or in a different environment.  The longing remains.   The feelings of being between a rock and a hard place increase and the chest squeezing notion of feeling stuck begins to overwhelm. 


The Wrestling Match with Ourselves

Time and time again, I’ve observed that people get in their own way the most during a career pivot when they avoid tackling their resume in an intentional way.  

They don’t want to deal with it. They want to farm it out. They sabotage their best efforts by allowing it to become something that they wrestle with, drenched in feelings of  ‘not enoughness’, when they could be hoisting the completed, amazing, witness of their growth and development as a professional over their head in triumph.   


How it can be. 

Even though most professionals now realize we are definitely well past the days of a one size fits all resume that they can farm out to a resume mill, many people still don’t understand how to set themselves up for their best success and make their career pivot as smooth and enjoyable as possible.  

They turn a time that can be one of excitement, adventure and discovery into a time dripping with anxiety, dread and procrastination, all elements that don’t play well going through the job search process or during interviews. 


What Needs to Happen

I work with my clients privately, in groups or on line to  

• Get clear on the best next steps for their career
• Master their trepidations
• Develop a bullet proof resume that becomes the crown of their marketing pieces for their best target job market.
• Navigate todays job market with confidence and success. 
• Ace each round of interviews and negotiate their offers successfully

Even if…


Even if you believe that resumes are obsolete (they are not!) and the your LinkedIn Profile is really your primary marketing device (not so), it is still your resume that gets submitted for online application and is the document that must clear the ATS. 

It is still the document that gets passed along from hand to hand, or e-mail to e-mail when someone wants to recommend you. 

It forms the basis for both your pitch and your LinkedIn profile, and it is still the document that your interviewers will have in front of them when they meet with you.  It’s likely the first document added to your employee file.  It counts at all stages of your process. 


What Your Next Best Steps are 

Creating your resume is not the first step in an effective career pivot but it is a key element of  your job search success. 

We specialize in helping clients across multiple industries, including not-for-profit and federal resumes. 

If you are

1. clear about the direction you want to go in, and
2. clear that there is a job market to support your direction in the location of your choice, then
3. it’s time to tackle your resume, pitch, LinkedIn Profile and Interview approach in a way that speaks directly to that job market and locale.

If you still need help with steps 1 and 2,   lets have a conversation and get each of these three steps tackled with confidence. 

Looking forward! 
 
The Guy Bridge Group Approach
Get Clear. Master Fear. Move Forward. ​

 

The Applicant Tracking System of ATS is used by most HR managers to streamline their hiring process.  These systems have been nicknamed 'robots or 'bots' and are programmed to compare the job descriptions keywords to the keywords in your resume.  If enough of them match, your resume makes it through to the HR Manager for review.  If they don't, a canned rejection e-mail is on it's way to you after a respectful waiting period. 

And to answer the question you are thinking right now: "No" neither the HR Manager or their appointed minions ever see your resume or your perfectly crafted cover letter. it's the epitome of "nothing personal".  
 
Algoriphobia
This filtering process, which saves the companies money and time,  is creating growing anxiety amongst job seekers. This anxiety has become so prevalent it's been given it’s own name:  Algoriphobia – fear of the algorithm.
 
How to beat the ‘Bots
Unless you already have an especially well developed network to connect you to the influencers for the jobs you truly want,  you will need to create an resume and by extension an application that the algorithm  flags as human eye-ball worthy, which can land you the face-to-face meeting and ultimately get you the job you want, you’ll have to adhere the to following best practices described by the experts:
 
Though cost savings for companies, it can leave job seekers feeling doomed.

1. use language from the Job Description in your resume. It's likely the programmer of the algorithm did also.
2. your Research and Use Industry-Specific Keywords throughout your Resume.
3. include Acronym but also make sure to write them out entirely. So you’re covered either way.
4. Submit a PDF to lock in your formatting.
5. Use Bolding and Underlining to highlight keywords and phrases.  So if it does get to human eyes, it’s will be easy to digest.
6. Stick to Standard Language; The ‘bots won’t pick up on creative or made-up words.
7. Include location information, if you know that position is location dependent.

Bonus Tip:  A longer resume is okay.  The Bots don’t care about the length of a Resume.  
If, you feel you are already doing all these things, still not getting anywhere and are beginning to develop your own case of algoriphobia, get in touch.  As your Career Coach, I can evaluate how effectively you have implemented the above pointers, especially tips 1, 2 and 6 and help guide you to success and past the automated gatekeepers to the job of your dreams.


Deborah Guy, is your coach for the personal side of a professional life. Helping  professionals like you manage your career effectively while creating a work/life balance that enables you to live the life your soul intended with clarity, care and courage!   Learn more and connect at www.DeborahGuy.Com



Deborah is a Professionally Certified and Experienced G5(Get Give) Career Coach
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