By : Jacqueline Garwood
The first step in an effective job search is writing your resume, right? Wrong! The first thing you need to do is decide exactly what you want to do.
When someone asks me to help them with their resume, the first thing I ask is, "What kind of job are you looking for?" Unless there's a specific job ad they are responding to, invariably the answer is, "I just want a general resume and cover sheet. I want to apply for a lot of different jobs." I sigh. I know I have an uphill battle ahead of me. Because the raw truth is that if they want a general resume and cover letter, they probably won't be successful in their job search. And I like to see people succeed.
I certainly understand their reasoning. It goes something like this. Why limit yourself? You need to be open to all the possibilities, don't you? I can't afford to be picky. I need a job and I need it now! Sounds reasonable but unfortunately, it's just plain wrong. Let me tell you why.
First of all, it's really hard to write a good resume when you don't have a clear employment objective. I'm not suggesting you need to put it on your resume-that's so last century. But you need to know what you want to do in order to write the summary of your skills and abilities. That's the section that should go at the top of your resume, right at the beginning. If you don't know what kind of jobs you want to apply for, you'll have no focus. No focus means a blah resume. A blah resume means no interview. No interview means no opportunity to sell yourself. No opportunity to sell yourself means no job offer.
Second, what are you going to do with that general resume? Are you going to send it out to all the employers you can think of? How will you even choose the companies to target if you don't know what you want to do? Considering that employers receive hundreds and thousands of unsolicited resumes every year, shotgun mailings like that are just a waste of your time and money.
The return on that investment--the printing of the resume, the envelope, the stamp--is usually about 0%. I know of one person who sent out one thousand resumes, at a cost of approximately $1 per resume - that's $1000 for those of you who are mathematically challenged like I am -- and received exactly three responses. All of those responses were along the lines of "Thank you for your resume. We'll keep it on file for six months." What a terrible waste of effort. Those are the kind of stories that promote the negative and erroneous belief that 'there are no jobs out there'. There are jobs out there, but you really need a better strategy to win them.
It's not necessary to tie down a detailed job description at this point. You don't have to decide that you want to be a parts clerk in a company that has a local owner, approximately 50 staff and caters to the local electrical contracting firms. When you actually start your job search, that will help you to target your ideal job but at this stage, deciding that you want to work in the parts/shipping and receiving field would be enough. Start with that and you will be able to write a clear, focused resume and cover letter that will work far better than a general list of every job you've ever had. You will be able to look back on your work history, your education and training, your volunteer work, and your skills and abilities and see just how they will help you to become a great parts clerk or shipping and receiving clerk. Then you have what you need to write a resume that really sells you.
After all, a resume is nothing more than your very own personal marketing tool, your brochure, and it has to do its job. Knowing what you want to do, the kind of job you are looking for is the first step in an effective job search. Don't skip it.
Job Vacancy , Indonesia Job , Job Indonesia
The first step in an effective job search is writing your resume, right? Wrong! The first thing you need to do is decide exactly what you want to do.
When someone asks me to help them with their resume, the first thing I ask is, "What kind of job are you looking for?" Unless there's a specific job ad they are responding to, invariably the answer is, "I just want a general resume and cover sheet. I want to apply for a lot of different jobs." I sigh. I know I have an uphill battle ahead of me. Because the raw truth is that if they want a general resume and cover letter, they probably won't be successful in their job search. And I like to see people succeed.
I certainly understand their reasoning. It goes something like this. Why limit yourself? You need to be open to all the possibilities, don't you? I can't afford to be picky. I need a job and I need it now! Sounds reasonable but unfortunately, it's just plain wrong. Let me tell you why.
First of all, it's really hard to write a good resume when you don't have a clear employment objective. I'm not suggesting you need to put it on your resume-that's so last century. But you need to know what you want to do in order to write the summary of your skills and abilities. That's the section that should go at the top of your resume, right at the beginning. If you don't know what kind of jobs you want to apply for, you'll have no focus. No focus means a blah resume. A blah resume means no interview. No interview means no opportunity to sell yourself. No opportunity to sell yourself means no job offer.
Second, what are you going to do with that general resume? Are you going to send it out to all the employers you can think of? How will you even choose the companies to target if you don't know what you want to do? Considering that employers receive hundreds and thousands of unsolicited resumes every year, shotgun mailings like that are just a waste of your time and money.
The return on that investment--the printing of the resume, the envelope, the stamp--is usually about 0%. I know of one person who sent out one thousand resumes, at a cost of approximately $1 per resume - that's $1000 for those of you who are mathematically challenged like I am -- and received exactly three responses. All of those responses were along the lines of "Thank you for your resume. We'll keep it on file for six months." What a terrible waste of effort. Those are the kind of stories that promote the negative and erroneous belief that 'there are no jobs out there'. There are jobs out there, but you really need a better strategy to win them.
It's not necessary to tie down a detailed job description at this point. You don't have to decide that you want to be a parts clerk in a company that has a local owner, approximately 50 staff and caters to the local electrical contracting firms. When you actually start your job search, that will help you to target your ideal job but at this stage, deciding that you want to work in the parts/shipping and receiving field would be enough. Start with that and you will be able to write a clear, focused resume and cover letter that will work far better than a general list of every job you've ever had. You will be able to look back on your work history, your education and training, your volunteer work, and your skills and abilities and see just how they will help you to become a great parts clerk or shipping and receiving clerk. Then you have what you need to write a resume that really sells you.
After all, a resume is nothing more than your very own personal marketing tool, your brochure, and it has to do its job. Knowing what you want to do, the kind of job you are looking for is the first step in an effective job search. Don't skip it.
Job Vacancy , Indonesia Job , Job Indonesia
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