Re-wording your resume can make all the difference in the success of your career search.
Ed is the kind of IT guy who can solve problems, high level problems about how systems should come together to achieve business goals. Unfortunately his company, a big systems consulting firm, restructured and eliminated Ed and his team. He needs to find a new gig.
We started organizing his job search by pulling together his job search materials.
We always start with the resume, not because it is such an important tool but because it takes discipline to select the right words and accomplishments to support Ed’s claim that he should have a leadership role in an IT consulting or service firm. We want the fewest words that say the most. That takes discipline.
Then we transferred those descriptions and concepts into his LinkedIn profile, optimizing keywords to maximize his search-ability. This is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Job seekers are now marketers, haven’t you heard? We want to be sure we are using the same keywords in our LinkedIn and other social media profiles as the companies are using to describe the candidates they seek. That way we can make the candidate’s search and the company’s search converge so the candidate looks just right.
It took about a week or two to finalize the resume and LinkedIn profile. In the meantime, Ed was networking like crazy. He contacted important former co-workers and bosses. He identified target companies and reached out to people on LinkedIn.
Very quickly he connected with a former boss who is now CEO of an IT service firm growing very quickly. The CEO was contemplating adding a Chief Operating Officer to take some operational issues off his plate and prepare the company for the planned growth. We turned our attention from the job search materials and networking to interview preparation!
The interview went perfectly! Ed and the CEO connected well.
Within six weeks Ed went from “laid off” to a new role!
Ed is a real person. His journey was shorter than some others who use the same tactics but sometimes that happens. We never discount luck and timing in job search but there are some common elements underlying Ed’s “luck”.
- Ed knew exactly what he wanted.
- We structured his resume around his ideal job selecting the few accomplishments that demonstrate his ability to handle his ideal job.
- We selected the keywords used to describe Ed’s ideal job and inserted those keywords everywhere in LinkedIn so potential hiring managers, seeing his profile, would understand his fit for the ideal job.
- We prepared Ed for his interview. Every story he told and his interview approach was built around the competencies needed to perform that ideal job very well.
How well do your job search materials support your claim that you should have your ideal job?
Does your resume ramble on about every career experience or is it focused around your ideal job? Do you know how to organize your LinkedIn profile to support your claims and effectively utilize SEO?