At 12:46 PM 10/23/98 -0500, Peter J. Schoenster so eloquently stated:
>On 23 Oct 98, at 8:33, Brent Eades wrote:
>
>> Very useful post, George. And if I may immodestly say so, it does seem to
>
>ditto and a good followup.
>
>> It's akin to the people -- usually recent university grads -- whom I hear
>> whining about their lack of decent employment: "I've sent out 400
>> resumes, and not a single interview!" By which they mean 400
>> photocopies with fill-in-the-blank covering letters. They've
made little or
>> no effort to research each of those potential employers, to tailor each
>> every application to the employer's needs and specialties -- what do they
>> expect?
>>
>> It's also not enough, even if you're a very talented site
designer, to simply
>> say, "Here's my portfolio. I'm sure you'll agree I'm really
good once you've
>> looked at it. So hire me". Again, what's lacking is any tailoring to the
>> client's specific needs and corporate culture.
>
>This is very interesting. I am very guilty of just saying "here is
>what I have done" look at it and get back to me. But then most
>people just want to know if I can program in C++ or Java which I
>haven't and which they probably don't need.
>
>Another thing is that I keep running into people at companies and I
>keep wondering, "gee how did these people get these jobs and why do
>they still have them; why wasn't a competent person hired?".
>
>I guess most recruiters simply want to boast of years of programming
>in XYZ on systems ABC. I would never win such a contest.
>
>A company, on the other hand, will probably want to hire someone who
>is basically capable, works well within the corporate environment,
>and is able to learn whatever is necessary to get the job done (or
>realize that an expert is needed).
>
>I think I am going to rewrite my resume for the thousandth time.
>
Peter:
Your resume should focus on **Results** -- what you did for the
company, and how much time or money it saved. Or how much
revenue it generated. Or how much efficiency was gained. Or how
many visitors came to a site because of your graphics, or...
Too often folks tend to show their technical abilities and forget
the business end of the equation. My motto, and in a
needlepoint hanging on my wall (and our corporate credo) is
"Don't Confuse Efforts with results" Companies still rate
everything on results.
Start with a page of accomplishments -- list 5-6 of them. Then
go into a chronological resume. Accomplishments could say:
* programmed kzillion lines of code in 168 hours which resulted
in Y2K folks getting off our backs
* designed a web site which generated 1000 visitors a day and
resulted in 20 orders a day
* 75% increase in productivity due to a re-design of an
inefficient order processing system
* 143.5% increase in revenue at one of the top software houses in the US
Be careful not to use actual dollars, as percentages have more
impact. Besides, actual dollars could hurt you, i.e., if you
worked for a smaller company and the 143.5% increase was only
$143,500 and you are applying at a company doing $100 million in
sales, the dollar amount would look bad.
There is a company called WSA
Corp.http://www.wsacorp.com/index.htm that has some excellent
resume samples. They are selling a service, but if you contact
them you can get a packet of material, including sample resumes.
I know they do work. I contacted some of the people listed years
ago when I was on the market. Wayne Starr is the principal and a
former attorney who found he could make more money representing
job hunters. They do a free resume critique.
Good luck.
George
_______________________________________________________
George Matyjewicz, C.M.O. mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
GAP Enterprises, Ltd. http://www.gapent.com/
Moderator of E-Tailer's Digest http://www.gapent.com/etailer/
Your Resource for Retail on the Net
Moderator E-Marketing Digest http://www.webbers.com/emark/
Marketing Your Web http://www.gapent.com/myweb/
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