Refreshing Your Résumé In Six Steps

Many people are facing the prospect of finding a new job. And some are even contemplating a complete career change. If it has been years since you last updated your résumé, you may be wondering where to start. Follow these six steps to turn your dusty retro résumé into a high powered personal marketing tool for winning interviews in today's competitive job market.

1. Find Your Résumés Focus

Before you start refreshing your old résumé, clarify your job target. Without a clear vision of your career direction, your résumé won't do a good job of selling you to potential employers. If you have more than one career interest, you'll be much better off developing different versions of your résumé rather than trying to construct a one-size-fits-all document.

2. Research Your Target Job

Thoroughly research your job target before writing the first draft of your résumé, especially if it's been awhile since you've been in the job market. Talk to people in your target industry and scour job postings on Caribbean Jobs to get a good idea of the qualifications employers are looking for. If you are changing careers, your research may prompt you to enroll in continuing education classes to gain new skills.

3. Develop Your Career Profile/Objective

If you're a career changer, you'll need a clearly stated objective to open your résumé. Don't expect busy hiring managers to figure out want you want to do. Use this section to explain key skills, you can leverage from your prior career into your new job target. Emphasize how you can help the organisation, rather than  what you want in a job.

Here's a before and after example:

Before: Seeking a challenging position with a future-oriented company offering opportunities for growth and advancement.

After: Dynamic public speaker/presenter with advanced technical knowledge, seeking to leverage these strengths as an award winning computer instructor into an entry level software sales position.

4. Zero In On Your Achievements

Avoid simply rehashing boring job descriptions. Instead detail the results and outcomes of your efforts. For example:

Before: Responsible for troubleshooting and maintaining workstations and systems.  

After: Improved systems uptime from 91 per cent to 99.9 per cent for 350 corporate and remote users through expert, cross platform (Windows/Unix) troubleshooting/maintenance. 

For each of the positions you've held, use action verbs and phrases to describe how you contributed to your employers, such as cut costs, generated revenue, improved service, enhanced processes, solved problems and saved time. Use numbers, percentages, dollar amounts, comparisons or other key details to back up your claims. Be sure not to reveal facts that disclose proprietary or confidential company information.

5. Design Your Résumé

To stand out from the crowd, use your word-processing program's advanced formatting features, such as bold, italics, line draw, industry icons, attractive fonts, etc- without going overboard-to give your résumé a distinctive look.

6. Proofread And Test-Drive

Carefully proofread your résumé to ensure proper grammar, punctuation and word use. After it's complete, post your résumé  on websites like Caribbean Jobs where prospective employers will see it and you can apply for jobs easily.

Source: Karen Hofferber