When you submit your resume for a particular position, isn’t the objective inherent in the submission itself; to land an interview and ultimately get a job?  Typically, objectives have been insubstantial statements such as, “To become a part of a growing organization where I can flourish both professionally and personally while being considered a valuable member of the team”.   By leaving out the objective, would we then be in jeopardy of having a company believe our goal is to becoming a member of a crumbling organization where each day is a struggle just to keep from tossing my boss out the window?  Of course not.

If you think the job market is already congested you are right.  In fact, we are in the most competitive job market in our lifetimes and must do what we can to stand a little taller, shine a little brighter, and speak a little louder.  One step in that direction is to replace the ‘Objective’ section on your resume with a ‘Headline’.

The position for which you are applying will determine the type of headline you use.  For example, if you are applying for a financial analyst position that requires knowledge of Sarbanes-Oxley, cost analysis, and SAP, you would create a headline that says, “Financial Analyst – Sarbanes-Oxley, SAP, and Cost Analysis”.  It almost seems kind of dopey doesn’t it?  But this is what the first line of defense in an organization needs to see.  The exact same experience might be buried within another applicant’s resume and that person might even have better skills than you do, but if their resume isn’t noticed they will be passed over.

The resume’s departure from well-written grammatical specimen to a living piece of marketing collateral continues to accelerate as we travel further into a world where global communication is more immediate and our attention spans proportionately diminish.  Replacing your objective with a headline is a good start in catering your resume to the new communication between applicant and corporation.

As absolutely baffling as it is to understand why anyone would need a certification to write a resume, it is equally as stunning as to why a resume writer worth their salt would use that certification as a main attraction to the quality of their service.  Are certified resume writers required to mix dangerous chemicals or sign off on the structural integrity of a building?  It would make sense that someone in either of those roles be certified to ensure everyone’s safety but the idea of needing a certification to write a resume has me confused.

The CPRW (Certified Professional Resume Writer) certification is provided by PARW (Professional Association of Resume Writers) which is an association created 19 years ago, aimed at “exchanging information, enhancing their skills, and demonstrating their commitment to providing professional services to the general public.”

1. Exchanging information – Any well knit industry must come together to share ideas, inform each other on market changes they have seen, and/or develop a sense of camaraderie and pride in the work that is done.
2. Enhancing their skills – An industry working collectively to improve the skills of members shows commitment to their perfection of the craft and also allows for a security them that other unregulated industries cannot offer.
3. Demonstrating their commitment to providing professional services to the public – Translation:  “By writers paying our $375.00 yearly membership/certification fee, they are demonstrating a commitment and focus to their skills as resume writers.”

As a professional resume writer myself, I find it offensive and tacky that certain resume writers trade on this certification as though it is the equivalent of having an M.D. or a P.E.  Based on PARW’s tenets, the certification should be held up as an emblem for a resume writer’s commitment to their craft through the sharing of ideas, consistent training, and payment of fees but instead it is used by too many of today’s writers to falsely elevate themselves as the only ones qualified to dare write a resume as others might get hurt.   If a resume writer is certified, shouldn’t the consumer then expect a definitive result that, in this case, they be assured interviews?  If a Professional Engineer signs off on a building structure shouldn’t we feel secure that the building is not going to collapse?  A certification in any other line of work has the inherent obligation that the results are guaranteed.  So, if a certified resume writer fails to land their clients interviews, shouldn’t they be held to the same standard of other certifications? I realize many of the resume writers working today have been writing for a long time and from PARW’s inception have believed in the certification as a badge that signified their worth in a totally unregulated industry, but unfortunately when the entire town has been deputized because they paid a tribute to the sheriff, the badge no longer holds any power.

The goal of a resume is to land interviews.  Make sure that when you are sifting through the thousands of resume writing services out there, that the company you choose stands behind their work in the form of guaranteed results.  Don’t fall for the free online tips or the “we’ll be here to answer your questions” mumbo jumbo.  You don’t need tips.  You need a job and without interviews you won’t get one.

In 1994, the hiring and recruiting world rejoiced at the birth of Monster.com.  The laborious routine of scanning classified sections and having to mail paper resumes for each job were over.  To apply for a job, all someone now had to do was click ‘Apply’ and within seconds their information would be delivered to a potential employer.  For corporations, the benefits were even better.  Where previously a company might have received 10 applicants for a position they were now receiving 10 times that amount.  Plus they could now search a database with millions of applicants for a fee of $12,000 per year, practically assuring they would find qualified candidates for their positions.   “Digital recruitment” was the answer as it appeared that it would cut down on fees for classified ads, recruiters, job fairs, while assuring they saw candidates from places other than the scope of their local newspaper.

Moo.

Monster.com was wildly successful and in a short amount of time the company became a behemoth.  They ran million-dollar Super Bowl ads, had the naming rights to a college bowl game, and everyone looking for work knew to visit Monster.com  for maximum exposure.  The business of “digital recruitment” was so well received that there was even more room for newcomers like Careerbuilder.com, HotJobs.com, Brassring.com, etc.  Seemingly almost every company was using an internet job sites to the point where it became the core around which all hiring processes spun.

While everything appeared to be running like a well-oiled machine, something wasn’t right.  What began as a new and improved way for job seekers and companies to come together was quickly transforming into a meeting ground for the job market’s overexposed and untalented. As more people gained access to high-speed internet, millions of career disenfranchised flocked to the site.

Companies panicked and after several strategy meetings and team building exercises they decided to purchase computer programs that specialized in applicant screening.  The program would scan the submitted resume for keywords and if the words were missing from the document, a “Thank you for your interest” letter was automatically drafted and sent to the applicant, their resume never having been viewed by a live human.  There was also a push to bulk up human resource departments by hiring representatives to manage these systems while also conducting preliminary interviews.  Unfortunately, a premium wasn’t placed on hiring people with experience in the disciplines for which they hired.  This reactive approach to hiring led companies to spend much more for a far less efficient, lottery-style hiring process, deeply entrenched in “digital recruitment”.

Many talented applicants would smartly remove their online career profiles as they felt it cheapened their stock just by association or they simply grew exhausted from being injected into prolonged and bloated hiring experiences.  In discovering this trend, human resource departments were forced to spend even more on third party recruiters who, unbeknown to them, were using the same “digital recruitment” services to find the same candidates as they were.

Many companies were relegated to hiring people not necessarily the best qualified for their positions because after all, someone had to do the work.   As a result, more spending for training and corrective action was needed.  Having a lack of strong talent caused corporations to become soft and less productive.
Today, everything is recession-quiet.  Companies who remain in business have released marginal candidates from their employ and kept those who over time have added the most value.  Hiring is practically frozen across the board.  While this would be a great time for companies to do some recruitment soul searching, don’t count on it.  It is your responsibility to position yourself in this market to avoid being corralled with the rest of the cattle.  Here is one strategy you can use:

• Determine the top 10 companies of where you’d like to work

• Using the internet, library, friends, references, etc. find out the names of all management personnel within each corporation along with as much contact information as you can.

• For each company, figure out where you believe you can add the most value and have your points ready to present.  If you aren’t sure where you can add value, research the company and their current market position.

• Check the Internet initially for any positions they might have posted.  Keep in mind that 85% of available positions aren’t public so don’t be deterred.

• Make the call – Hello (First Name), this is Amy Smith. Am I interrupting?  I’m sure you are busy so I’ll make it fast.  At this point, state what you noticed about the company’s position in the marketplace and with your background in A, B, and C feel that you can really make a difference to their bottom line.  I was hoping I might be able to discuss this with you over a cup of coffee.  How does your schedule look?

We spent several years slugging it out on the employment front lines as executive recruiters.   During that time we helped hundreds, if not thousands, of candidates with their resumes, interviewing techniques, and offer negotiation skills while keeping our fingers on the pulse of the ever-volatile job market.  As the economy began to drop off into the abyss, we knew we had to do something with this knowledge to help the job seekers.  So what we did, instead of working with just a select few candidates as recruiters, we created The Resume Bay as a way to share our knowledge with anyone who needed the help.  As the name implies, we create resumes, but not your run of the mill resumes.  Resumes have been the same old bland piece of tripe for over 50 years already except that now we have high-speed internet and social media which have strengthened the call for a new approach to how we communicate with potential employers.

Finally, while we consider ourselves “experts”, we aren’t dumb enough to think we know everything.  Ask questions.  Get involved in the dialog.  Your input is the most valuable part of this page and without it, there is nothing.  The only dumb question is the one you don’t ask.

What is the biggest obstacle in your career success?

There are many self-proclaimed experts when it comes to career advisement.  As you might have already discovered, many are snake oil salespeople with a smash and grab mentality interested in snookering a few bucks from the unemployed. With this in mind, it is important to define how to find a true expert in career advisement.

The Career Advisement industry is highly unregulated. Anyone with a pulse and a few bucks can setup a website and call themselves career experts, which has unfortunately become more the rule than the exception in this tumultuous job market. Some resume writers nobly adhere to the regulations created 19 years ago by PARW, thus certifying them as experts in resume writing and/or coaching and while this a great indicator that your writer and/or coach has a firm grasp of the traditional formats and techniques, it still doesn’t address the results of  landing a new job.

When stripped down to its essentials, the measure of a resume’s effectiveness is the quality and frequency of interviews someone receives, while a coach’s value can be determined by the rate at which a job-seeker receives competitive job offers in their industry of interest. If either fails to deliver the results, the certified career professional becomes as meaningless as if a candidate simply posted their resume on the job boards and waited for the phone to ring.

There are 6 points to review before entering into a partnership with a career professional to ensure they are what they say:

1. Check references – Does the company offer testimonials? If so, how current are they?

2. Guarantee – While a job search offers no guarantee of employment, be sure to find a company that stands behind their work if you are not getting the results you expect.

3. Phone number – Make sure the company has a phone number. Often times, the sites that lack one indicate a “take the money and run” operation.

4. Work with a real person – Unbelievably, some companies perform everything through email, never taking the time to speak with the client one-on-one.

5. Office location – Does the company have an actual office you can visit? Not to say all career experts who work from their basements are poor quality, but a company with a brick-and-mortar location shows the credibility and stability of the organization.

6. Front-line experience – Your career professional should have recent experience in the employment industry. Whether they had success as a professional recruiter or as a decision-maker in the hiring process, for proper positioning of your candidacy they must have a strong understanding of the current job market.

Jon Davidson

The Resume Bay