A recent client of mine confirmed two points I believe are valid and I think you should take to heart if you are going to write your own résumé.This senior level HR executive wrote a fairly strong résumé, but she was not getting the results she envisioned, and the few interviews she had were not going as well as she had hoped . When I asked how she arrived at the résumé version she showed me, she told me this was her 4th revision based on résumé books, blogs and articles she read, her years of experience as an interviewer, and critiques from members of her networking group.
Adding to her frustration, the outsourcing counselor assigned to help her was vehement in how she should change her résumé and represent herself and she did not agree with his judgment. This friction and the conflicting opinions she heard was driving her crazy.
A mutual friend referred her to me for a free consultation and during our initial meeting I told her straight out what I thought. “For a self written résumé this is a good textbook exercise in gathering the information a résumé should contain; however in my opinion it lacks a professional feel that one would expect from a Human Resources executive at your level.” Furthermore I told her, “It will not harm your job search, but there is a lot of room for improvement to make you stand out and establish your personal brand.”
Then I asked her if the outsource coach had as much business experience as she did; and, more important I asked her if “in your position as an HR exec would you ever hire him to work for you.” I asked the same about the people in her networking group putting in their 2¢. To both questions the answers were an emphatic NO & NO!
Then we spoke a few minutes about what it takes to write a good résumé like the one she has, and what skills and knowledge is required to write a great marketing document like the one she desires.
At the end of our 45 minute conversation she told me what I think every job seeker who is writing their own résumé needs to consider.
She said, “Conceptually I know how to write a great résumé and with every new revision I can get it to within 80% of where I want it to be; however my problem is that no matter how hard I try I can’t get it beyond the 80% barrier. Although what I write is good, it is just not good enough for me to succeed in this job market with the intense competition that I face.”
So if you are going to write your own résumé consider these 2 points very seriously.
1: Make sure that you respect the people who are advising you in your job search! Then ask yourself if they know more about résumé writing than you do, and whether they have as much business experience as you do to justify whether their advice is worth following; especially if it goes against what you believe to be true. Finally, ask yourself “would I hire them if I could - or would I tell them where to go?”
2: Honestly ask yourself, and if you're married ask your spouse, by writing your own résumé can THIS résumé surpass the 80% barrier without professional help or guidence? Then ask yourself whether getting this far on your own will get you as far as you want to go, and as fast as you want to get there; or do you need to exceed the 80% barrier to expedite getting the job you want.
There is no shame in not being able of write a great résumé. However I can attest to you from my clients’ experiences, there are times it can be embarrassing and even detrimental to a search when the résumé you submit falls short of the mark.
