RESUME WRITING | How to write a great resume that leads to great career opportunities.

Great Resume Writing

Ask yourself one simple question: Who knows more about your career: you or someone else? You do of course! You wouldn’t accept a career opportunity and then turn the execution of your responsibilities over to someone who knows nothing about what you do.

Don’t trust someone who hasn’t walked in your shoes to write - your - resume hoping they will be able to define and communicate your unique career value proposition.

Great resume writing is straightforward. It is simply about knowing how to communicate your unique career value proposition to someone who can leverage it.

The CV Advantage Toolset puts the power to create a great resume in your hands.

Resume Writers

The CV Advantage Toolset will teach you how to communicate your unique career value proposition to someone who can leverage it. Whether your goal is to proactively make a career/job change and land your next great career assignment, or you simply want to update your resume, all - you - need to know to write a resume that will aid in landing you a great career opportunity is - 2 - things:

	How to construct concisely articulated quantified content

	How to format your content in a way that makes it easy for a reader to quickly assimilate as much of your content as possible

Other than those two elements you are simply paying a professional resume writer for secretarial skills. Not too many executives would turn writing their resume, let alone capturing their next career assignment, over to a secretary.

NEVER confuse resume writing with career coaching. Most career coaches will simply write a resume that makes you look - on paper - like everyone else.

The plain simple truth is "resume writers" typically charge $50 - $500 to "write" a resume. So how much time do you think they put into actually writing - your - resume? How much effort do you think they are putting into capturing all the raw material they need to construct concisely articulated quantified content? How much effort do you think they are putting into formatting your content in a way that makes it easy for a reader to assimilate as much of your content as possible? Just ask them. Then do the math yourself to get an idea of how much effort they are going to put into writing - your - resume.

When we take an executive through the CV Advantage executive coaching process we charge $5000 (not $50 - $500). We would spend typically between 40-60 hours -writing - the executive's resume - after we had captured all the raw material.

The $109.95 CV Advantage Toolset is the - exact - same executive coaching process we charge executives $5000 to take them through.

The only difference is the CV Advantage Toolset takes you through the - exact - same executive coaching process in a self guided format.

The CV Advantage Toolset comes complete with all the tools and examples you need to construct a resume infinitely better than anything a resume writer would ever produce.

Resume Templates

Why would you use a resume template?

For one simple reason: to format your resume content in a way that enables the reader to quickly assimilate as much of that content as possible.

CAUTION: What – don’t – you want a resume template to do?

You don’t want a resume template to make your resume look like all the other resumes an executive hiring authority or executive recruiter is bombarded with everyday.

	Most resume templates are incomplete in layout and in formatting of critical content necessary to a great resume.

	At a minimum, most resume templates waste an enormous amount of physical space in their formatting schemes

There are many sources on the Internet where you can acquire free resume templates.

Don’t get sucked into believing all you need to do to write a great resume is drop your resume information into any arbitrary resume template, or that by doing so this will lead to your next great career assignment.

Resume Content

As the saying goes, "Where's the beef?" (i.e., What you've done, and how you did it.)

So what is important to focus on when creating resume content?

This isn't rocket science, but it is amazing what intelligent executives forget to put in their resumes.

Here are some of the components absent from many executive resumes:

	Employer's location
	Employer's Industry
	How you came to be in the role
	Results: Actual - quantified - impact on business metrics

	Size of Employer's company
	Span time in -each- position held
	Responsibility: Actual - quantified - position scope of responsibility/objectives
	Executive Capabilities employed to produce actual - quantified - impact on business metrics

When these and other critical content components are absent from a resume, you risk watering down your unique career value proposition.

The unfortunate reality is that most resumes are filled with Resume Fluff.

What is Resume Fluff?

Resume Fluff is any information falling into the following - 2 - categories:

Information Presented Out-of-Context

	Career: Summaries, Overviews, Intro's, Job Skills, Key Accomplishments
	Lists of Executive Skills

	Lists of Patents, Presentations, Articles, Publications, Speaking Engagements, Associations
	Lists of Technical Skills

Information that is -not- quantified and anchored against actual hard numbers (versus percentages)

	Responsibilities/Objectives that aren't quantified and anchored against actual hard numbers (versus percentages)
	Results that aren't quantified and anchored against actual hard numbers (versus percentages)
	Unquantified statements of effort (e.g., I wrote the business plan for XYZ, Inc.)

CAUTION: A note on percentages:

Percentages by definition only communicate relative change. They do not put the scope and scale of the change in context if they are not anchored against a hard number. This drives many executive hiring authorities crazy when reading resumes. Unfortunately many people try to hide their lack of scope & scale of experience with percentages. For example, if someone improved revenue by 100%, is this good? It depends. What was the objective? Did they take the revenue from $100K to $200K, or did they take the revenue from $100M to $200M? In the extreme, just answer the question: What is the percentage revenue improvement taking a - pre-revenue - start-up to producing it's first dollar of revenue? The answer is it equates to - infinite - improvement in revenue. Where possible, minimize the use of percentages in your resume.

We are not saying you can't include any information that falls into the "resume fluff" categories. We are simply saying be conscious of when you are doing this, attempt to minimize it ,or include it as addendum to your resume.

Information that is out-of-context, not quantified or anchored against actual hard numbers, simply doesn't add to your unique career value proposition as strongly as information that is in-context and quantified.

A CRITICAL DISTINCTION In - many- cases by simply attaching quantification or substituting hard numbers in place of relative percentages you gain substantial ground in improving your resume. However if you want to actually - differentiate - your resume, you need to not simply state "WHAT" you've accomplished, you need to state "HOW" you accomplished what you've done. "WHAT" you've done is simply a check in the box, and it only communicates you have the requisite "been there - done that" scope and scale of experience. "WHAT" does - not - differentiate you. "HOW" you got it done is what executive hiring authorities are really looking to understand. "HOW" you got it done is really what an employer is banking one when they hire you.

The CV Advantage Toolset comes complete with all the tools and examples you need to construct differentiating content.

1-2 Page Resumes

There are all kinds of “resources” on the Internet for identifying resume writing services & free resume advice; traditional resume writing tips, samples; traditional resume design - tips for writing and formatting a traditional resume.

So what is a “Traditional Resume”?

A “Traditional Resume” is a 1-2 page resume.

Using a traditional 1-2 page resume is the equivalent of committing job search suicide.

“WHAT?? But everyone says nobody will read my resume if it is longer than 1-2 pages.”

Anyone that has the length of someone’s resume as hiring criteria is someone you wouldn’t want to work for anyway.

CAUTION: The - only - person that really matters regarding the length or content of your resume is the hiring executive who is seriously considering you for a job opening. This is the only person who stands to benefit from the content of your resume. Anyone else is giving you out of context advice.

CAUTION: It is physically impossible to differentiate your unique career value proposition if you confine yourself to a 1-2 page “Traditional Resume” format. Don't risk getting lost in a – sea – of 1-2 page “Traditional Resumes”

CAUTION: Writing a great resume isn’t about how long or short the resume is.

Writing a great resume that will aid in landing you a great career opportunity is - 2 - things:

	Constructing concisely articulated quantified content that differentiates your unique career value proposition in a -quantified - way.

	Formatting your content in a way that makes it easy for a reader to quickly assimilate as much of your content as possible.

The CV Advantage Toolset comes complete with all the tools and examples you need to construct a resume that will stand out in a - sea - of 1-2 page "Traditional Resumes".

Resume Format

How important is the format of your resume?

Resume format isn't just "important" it is an inseperable critical component of a great resume.

All the effort you put into creating great content for your resume is - lost - on the reader if that content isn't formatted right.

The - 2 - inseperable components that make a great resume are:

	Consicely articulated quantified content that communicates quantified scope & scale of responsibility and quantified business impact.

	A presentation format making it easy for the reader to quickly assimilate the content via a consistent predictable flow of consicely articulated sound-bites.

The very fortunate reality is 100% of the resumes we see can improve dramatically in both of these areas, and this is - exactly - what you can successfuly accomplish with the CV Advantage Toolset process.

Example Resumes

CAUTION: It is just as easy to fall into the same trap with "Free Resume Examples" as you can fall into with "Resume Templates".

If you want to look get lost in a -sea - of look-a-like resumes, there are plenty of "Exampe Resumes" to be found all over the Internet, and many are on the same sites next to the Resume Templates.

Don’t risk creating a resume that looks like all the other resumes executive hiring authorities and recruiters are bombarded with everyday by believing all you need to do to write a great resume is drop your resume information into someone else's resume example, or by doing so this will lead to your next great career assignment.

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