Who Did You Write Your Resume For | JobSearchTV.com

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter. I coach people and organizations to be more effective. I worked as an executive recruiter for what feels like 100 years. And I'm now the head coach for JobSearchCoachingHQ.com.

You know, the skills needed to find a job are different than those needs to do a job. And when I used to read resumes all the time, because as a headhunter that's what you do is read resumes from people to see if they fit your clients, I found that a lot of these resumes were people basking in their own magnificence. They told this elaborate story that really had nothing to do with what I was looking for. But what they did was write their resume to talk about roles and responsibilities. Maybe, they were into a little detail about what they had accomplished. But it had nothing to do with what my client was looking for. And it made me pause time and again and go, "huh? Who's they write this resume for?"

It seems often as though people write the resume for themselves, and not for the opportunity at hand. And, as such, I remind you that when you're writing a resume, you've got to think of the target audience. What do they want to see? And that's one of the things I teach with interviewing as well, is that when you're talking to people, you can't just bask in your own magnificence and, "Oh, I did this wonderful project. This job I did was fantastic." You know, it's, you know, it has nothing to do with what the firm is looking for.

You're just trying to talk bunch of stuff and flap your gums in order to feel good about yourself and what you've done, but they don't care. All they care about is do we like this person? Is this a person to be trusted? How does their background match up with what we need?

So you always have to think of your resume in the context of what they need. And the job description is the best roadmap you have unless you have an introduction to someone who's telling you what the firm is looking for. I say the best roadmap to what they want for a very simple reason. Sometimes they're not all that accurate. They've just been pulled out of the system in order to demonstrate fit, to save time, but it hasn't been updated. Maybe it's 80% accurate, but that's going to be as much as you need in order to demonstrate how you can do their job.

When all is said and done, you always have to think of the audience. Otherwise, you're gonna waste a lot of time flipping resumes, and it's going to look like spam to them. Don't do it.

Hope you found this helpful. If you did, JobSearchTV.com. Subscribe to my podcast No BS Job Search Advice Radio and visit my website, TheBigGameHunter.us. I have tons of information there that you can watch, listen to or read that'll help you find work more quickly.

Have a great day and take care!