You might be ready for a promotion but is your Resume? Here are 6 of the top issues I see constantly with my Resume clients.
1. You don’t demonstrate industry focus
- To be promoted your Resume must communicate you’re committed to your field. Thus, your Resume must have industry specific titles, skills, education & outside job activity. Checking out my article for more details on how to do this 7 Hacks to Build Education & Experience for a New Career.
2. You don’t demonstrate career progression
- Resumes must demonstrate promotion is the next logical step in your career. Does your Resume clearly show how you moved up the corporate ladder? If you’re looking for a Sr. Project Manager role do you have Project Manager and/or project coordinator roles on your Resume?
3. You don’t demonstrate you have skills for the next job
- Do you have the skills written into the job description of the job right above yours? Add them to yourself, if you’re not an expert then watch Youtube videos and practice them independently.
4. Writing task oriented bullet points
- Does your Resume demonstrate what you DID or what you ACHIEVED? Promotion-ready professionals clearly demonstrate the impact they create empirically.
- Here’s an example of a task oriented bullet point:
– Lead weekly brainstorming meetings with 5+ members of marketing team
- A better achievement oriented way to write that is:
– Developed market penetration strategies in brainstorming meetings directly responsible for increasing market share by 33%
5. Unsophisticated formatting
- Does your Resume look like a 4th grader wrote it? The gift might be awesome but if it comes in horrible wrapping paper you’ll turn HR Managers off before they even see what’s inside.
6. Lack of leadership experience outside your job
- I know your Resume says “Led team of 5 blah blah blah…” but Leaders go beyond the call of duty. Do you volunteer? Are you involved in industry specific organizations? Do you lead in those organizations?
If you’d like to download our RESUME REVIEW CHECKLIST & review your own Resume click here
Notice in the promotion ready example below…
- It’s all about Technical Writing with relevant job titles, skills, terminology and software
- It shows how I started as a Tech Writer, moved up to a Lead and then a Senior level writer
- The skills relevant to a Senior Tech Writer are prominently displayed
- The bullet points capture the impact I create clearly and numerically
- Finally, my use of color, text and overall formatting work to communicate my sophistication
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