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As the graph on our home page
illustrates Mark, like many people, is much better off marketing
the skills he's gained rather than his titles. Knowing that he
wants an Operations Management position in the $40,000 to $50,000
range we can see that his prior titles of Account Supervisor,
Assistant Store Manager, Area Manager and Outside Sales make
his image drop.
Account Supervisor sounds like the titles given to sales representatives.
Yet, Mark actually managed over 1500 customer accounts and supervised
up to 15 customer service representatives. So, it's better for
Mark to label this position as Customer Service Management.
The title of Assistant Store Manager also makes Mark's image
drop. This happens because we may assume that Mark didn't have
full supervisory responsibility. In contrast if we learn that
Mark actually supervised a retail department generating sales
of $20 million annually and was part of the Management Operations
Team for the entire store with sales of $114 million our image
of Mark changes. In this instance, Mark will be better off labeling
his experience Operations / Departmental Management.
Mark's third title of Area Manager may lead us to believe that
Mark has experience overseeing several departments or stores,
but we're not sure glancing at this title how comprehensive his
experience is. When we learn that he has been responsible for
supervising up to 4500 staff and training over 4500 personnel
in several locations in the Northwest Region, our impression
of his skills change dramatically. A skill heading of Regional
Operations Management elevates Mark's image and at a glance let's
us know how comprehensive Mark's experience is.
Mark's last title of Outside Sales let's us know that he has
experience calling on accounts but again we don't know what type
of accounts. This title also emphasizes outside sales while the
position Mark wants emphasizes the ability to develop and manage
key accounts -- those accounts generating $3/4 million or more.
Mark has this experience, so he's better off using a skill heading
of Key Account Management to market this segment of his experience.
As you can see by truthfully labeling his experience with skill
headings Mark is able to target his background to match the job
he wants, and elevate his image in the process.
To illustrate that these concepts apply to anyone at any salary
level, let's look at a before and after section from Sally's
resume. She has been a Secretary for over 5 years and wants to
become an Office Manager. Here's an ad that is much like those
she wants to apply for:
Office Manager. Requires 5+ years experience managing front office
and overseeing reception staff. Must have experience supporting
executive staff, maintaining bookkeeping, ordering supplies and
operating computer systems with MS Word experience.
Sally has held only one position, that of Secretary. Therefore,
the body of her resume should be devoted to fully categorizing
and marketing that experience to match the job she wants. Take
a minute and read this section from Sally's before resume shown
in red below:
_______________________________________
Section from Sally's Before Resume:
Secretary, Smith and
Sons, Inc. 1994 - Present
Provide secretarial support to owner and sons for this firm marketing
paper good products.
Supervise receptionist and manage front office operations.
Maintain bookkeeping including general ledger, accounts payable,
accounts receivable, assist with preparation of financial statements,
and purchase supplies.
Utilize IBM system with MS Word to prepare correspondence and
financial spreadsheets.
_______________________________________
Now take a moment and see how Sally's image is elevated dramatically
when she uses skill headings to label her experience and uses
numbers and details which fully market the depth of her skills.
_______________________________________
Abbreviated Section From Sally's After
Resume:
Seek a position utilizing
my Office Management, Executive Support
and Bookkeeping experience.
Executive Support to President & Senior Management Staff
Provide executive secretarial support to company President, Vice
President and Director of Marketing as well as coordinating administrative
support for staff of Outside Sales Representatives.
Front Office Administration / Management of Administrative
Staff
Manage front office operations for firm marketing paper goods
products to commercial businesses with revenues in excess of
$38 million annually.
Hire, train and supervise reception staff including pool of six
on-call administrative / reception staff for peak marketing seasons.
Full-Charge Bookkeeping / Budget Management
Manage full-charge bookkeeping with responsibility for general
ledger, accounts payable for 30 vendor accounts and accounts
receivable for over 500 customer accounts.
Manage annual supply budget of $1/2 million annually and coordinate
with vendors to purchase computer equipment and phone systems.
Employment History
Secretary, Smith & Sons Inc. 1994 - Present
_______________________________________
As you can see, using skill headings and categorizing the wide
range of duties Sally is responsible for significantly elevates
her image. At a glance, which resume would grab your attention
and sell Sally's top skills immediately? With employers spending
as little as 5-10 seconds glancing at resumes before discarding
them it is very important that you understand how to control
and direct the employer's eye path to your top skills. Once you've
gotten their attention by using strong design (as used in Sally's
after resume), then the content or descriptions of your experience
must convince the employer to call you for an interview.
Looking at the descriptions in the before example and the after
example, which resume do you think will result in more interviews
for Office Management positions? Which resume would prompt you
to pay Sally a higher salary? Many people feel the first resume
example presents an image of Sally being in the $20,000 to $24,000
salary range. In contrast, they feel that the after example elevates
Sally's image to the $30,000 to $36,000 salary range - and possibly
higher depending on the job market where she would be located.
Here are a few success stories from real job seekers who have
used the strategies in Proven Resumes: Strategies That Have Increased
Salaries! You can read more success stories by clicking on Job
Seeker Successes! in the left column. As with any testimonial,
please keep in mind that your results will vary and depend on
your skills and the wage and market conditions where you seek
employment.
"...I
have been contacted, interviewed and selected for an HR position
that DOUBLES my current salary. I just received the written
offer today and plan to accept it. This was the best $$ I spent
during my whole 6-month job search. Thank you!" Tammy Schadl,
Human Resources Manager
"My new resume was instrumental in landing me an Account
Executive position that will increase my salary by no less than
$18,000 annually!" Scott McCorkle, Corporate Account
Manager
"...I faxed my resume to ads I was interested in. To my
amazement, I started receiving call backs the next day and the
job of my dreams with a 26% salary increase on my first
day of interviews. I would like to say THANK YOU from the bottom
of my heart. Everyone should have access to this system (but
I'm secretly glad they don't)." Patricia Cohn, Inventory
Controller
"After reading your book and writing a resume that highlighted
my sales achievements I applied for an internal position. My
supervisors complimented me extensively on my resume and promoted
me from Sales Rep to Sales Manager--with a 50% salary increase.
I would have never achieved such a promotion without the strategies
I learned in your book. Several years later, I'm still referring
to it to update my resume and each time I find something new
to improve. The most recent promotion I received resulted in
a salary package increase of nearly 23%! Thanks again,"
Darla J. Piercey, Sales Manager
By learning how to understand, control and elevate the image
presented in their resumes, each of the job seekers above were
able to achieve significant successes! These strategies are provided
in in depth detail in my newest book,
Proven Resumes: Strategies That Have Increased Salaries! The
first chapter will take you through an extensive analysis of
two sets of before and after resumes so that you learn strategies
which have achieved results like those illustrated in Mark's
and Sally's resume examples.
It will take you through through a systematic, step-by-step process
of determining which type of resume format is best for you -
whether you're in the $20,000 salary range or the $100,000+ range.
Next you analyze your job titles to determine if a particular
job title or skill heading (or several) will market you best
for the job and salary you want. You are guided through this
process by using simple worksheets which are accompanied by examples
much like Sally's but for a wide range of positions and salary
levels.
Next, you're shown how to use ads or job descriptions to develop
targeted headings for your resume, much like we did in Sally's
example above. Once you've decided on the titles or skill headings
you'll use, you're then taken through a series of 12 Questions
to help you describe in much greater detail your achievements.
Each of the 12 Questions has a range of 5 to 10 additional sub
questions to help you brainstorm. For example one question is:
How large was the department you worked for? Sub questions related
to this question are: How many staff in that department did you
coordinate with? Will it be impressive to mention their titles?
Most job seekers find the questions and the before and after
examples that accompany them - quite amazing. By answering the
questions they soon see the value of including detailed descriptions
in their resumes - much like Sally's example illustrates.
Once you've completed the body of your resume, you're then guided
in creating powerful objective statements. The objective statement
in Sally's resume above is a simple one. My favorite type of
objective statement combines your objective with three to four
of your top accomplishments which match the job you want. In-depth
worksheets for provided to guide you in creating this type of
objective and summary of qualifications statement. My book includes
one objective statement sample from a resume that landed $400
more per month and another that landed a job seeker a $42,000
annual salary increase. This style of objective statement is
the one that I prefer as I've seen it contribute to the highest
number of interviews and salary offers generated. I've also tested
it in classes and consistently groups of 20-30 participants pick
this style as the most impressive.
In addition to these steps, the first chapter of the book is
titled, Image Control: The Key to Higher Salaries. This chapter
takes you step by step through an analysis of two sets of before
and after resumes. The first example resulted in taking Fran
from a 0% response rate to a 100% response rate and elevated
Fran's image and salary level by $9,000. The second example resulted
in Tammy applying for two positions, landing two interviews and
being hired for a position that paid her $20,000 more.
The second chapter is a confidence building chapter which provides
a wide range of success stories from real job seekers that I've
worked with. It is packed with examples of people who questioned
if they even had any good skills and then went on to land much
better positions - with the bonus of increasing their confidence!
The third chapter discusses the importance of resumes in putting
you ahead of your competition as well as laying the foundation
for strong interviews. Since many interviewers look at your resume
as they interview you -- a strong resume automatically takes
your interview to a higher level. Whereas if an employer is looking
a weak resume -- then you'll be asked questions based on weak
descriptions provided in your resume. Most people don't have
the verbal ability to transform their image during an interview.
This is another great reason why resumes are so important. Learning
how to control and elevate your image in your resume will allow
you to do the same during your interviews.
Chapter four takes you through 6 Easy Steps to create either
a skill-based or a chronological resume. Both types of resumes
are completed in detail to illustrate the process. You then complete
easy, fill-in-the blank worksheets to create your own resume.
Chapter five provides over 2,000 skills, skill lists and sample
statements for 40 career fields. Chapter six includes the 12
Questions and dozens of sub questions to help you describe your
experience. Chapter seven shows you how to create powerful resume
design and content. This chapter also includes several full-length
resumes that show you how to direct and control the employer's
eye path so that your top skills are seen at a glance.
Chapter eight covers a myriad of questions you may have about
what to tell and not tell employers. It includes tips and examples
on how to present your employment history, deal with gaps in
employment, market your education and involvement in affiliations.
It also includes tips and examples for military personnel transitioning
to civilian jobs.
As you can see these eight chapters take you through the entire
process of writing a resume that controls and directs the employer's
path so that your top skills or job titles are seen at a glance.
It guides you every step of the way in writing content and objective
statements that sell you and convince employers to interview
you. Plus it's packed with confidence building strategies and
stories of real people who have made significant career moves
by learning how to control and elevate their image.
If you click Job Seeker Successes! and What Professionals Say
(in the left column), you'll be able to read dozens of success
stories and endorsements from job seekers and career professionals
who have used the strategies in
Proven Resumes: Strategies That Have Increased Salaries! This book, is a culmination of 10
years of my experience spending more than 10,000 hours working
with job seekers writing resumes and teaching resume workshops
for organizations such as Boeing Reemployment, City of Seattle,
University of Washington Bothell, Northwest High Tech Expo and
many other career events. It is packed with the most innovative
strategies that I've developed -- which really do result in excellent
interview rates and are based on strategies with a proven history
of having increased job seeker salaries.
To read a detailed
section by section description of this booklet click here!
Or click the button below for
immediate download and delivery to your computer.
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425-398-7378
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