Crafting the Perfect Resume Takes More Than a Resume Building Tool

One great misconception when job searching is that your resume is the key to landing the job of your dreams. While the resume is one very important piece of the job search process, it is not getting you the job. It’s getting you a potential interview. It is the first impression you are giving to a potential employer.

Yes, there is a great deal that goes into your resume, but it is more than just strategically placing keywords into your work experience. It is extracting your personal genius, highlight yourself on multiple levels, and using your resume as part of your strategic career campaign to showcase your employability. Everything within your resume must correspond with your verbal presentation and career campaign marketing strategy.

With an ever-changing world of work and new structures of employment contracts forming, how people work and the duration of a work contract is impacting job seekers as they are finding themselves updating their resumes more frequently than before. For some, having to continually update their resume is a major pain point, even to the extent where they would just rather stay at their current role.

Let’s face it, creating and updating your resume can be a daunting task. Nearly 70% of people say they have difficulty showcasing their work experience effectively and 50% struggle to tailor their resume to a specific job opportunity.

With these pain points in mind many companies over the years have launched resume creation tools to ease the process of putting your work experiences on paper. Most recently you may have read that Microsoft and LinkedIn have teamed up and announced a new resume tool – Resume Assistant. This new feature in Microsoft Word was created specifically to relieve the job seekers pain points and help easily craft a compelling resume by leveraging insights from LinkedIn to provide intelligent tools to job seekers to improve their resumes directly within Word.

One thing to keep in mind however, is that while resume building tools, such as Resume Assistant, are helpful to use as a spring board to get your resume off the ground, it is just that – a tool. Simply updating an existing resume and sending it out is rarely successful. Instead, enlist the help of a career coach who will help you create a resume that highlights your understanding of the role for which you are applying and the needs of the organization. It is important to communicate how your experience can bring value and emphasize your skills that are relevant to the role in order to stand out among hundreds of resumes.

Let Miles LeHane help you showcase your value and guide you through your next job search!

Creating a resume and other personal marketing materials is only one small piece of the job searching puzzle. Your career coach can help take these tools to the next level and leverage your work experience and skills into a successful career campaign strategy.  From tailoring your search to find the right positions, creating your marketing materials, obtaining an interview, and then interviewing successfully to secure a position that is the right fit for you. A career coach has years of experience identifying prospective employees and will work with you to ensure you are prepared for each step in your job search. 

Scott Miles is the Managing Partner and Operations Manager at Miles LeHane Companies.  Scott works with clients, consultants, and client organizations on matters relating to reorganizations and career transition. Scott specializes in preparation for the day of separation.  Follow Scott on Twitter @scott_miles.