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Research Before
You Write
Dominique
Koukol
Since many of
you are writing resumes, I’ve decided to reveal one of my principles in
writing resumes from my years of experience in hiring, interviewing,
etc.
Below is an
excerpt from my book “Job Seekers Gold: What Savvy Job Seekers Know
about Resumes”
Before
writing a resume, there is a lot to “take stock” of. You need to know
what your preferences, strengths and skills are. You need to know the
kind of company culture you want to work in. Once you have a good
idea of these factors, it is time to understand well the requirements
of the job. It’s not as obvious as it seems, so read on for some
enlightening information.
In taking
stock of a job, the required skills must be closely considered. There
are two kinds of skills needed for most jobs; some are technical
skills and some are behavioral skills. The technical skills are the
skills that involve concrete, often measurable actions…. They often
sound like this on a job description: ATP – Airplane Multiengine
Land; “Types 65 words per minute”; “Advanced user of Microsoft
Access”; “Working knowledge of consultative sales skills”; “Knowledge
of pre-fabricated splinting. ”
Behavioral
skills are a little trickier to identify than technical skills.
Companies value these skills highly. They value them so much so that
they will spend thousands of dollars contracting someone like me to
teach them how to accurately assess these attributes in a 30 minute
interview. If they are willing to spend this kind of loot to get it
right, we’d better pay close attention to it in our resumes and cover
letters.
Behavioral
skills are those “soft skills” that not only get you hired, they get
you promoted. They also show up in job descriptions. They usually are
mixed in with the technical competencies or may have a section of
their own. Behavioral skills look like this on a job description:
“Demonstrates decisiveness”; “High energy sales professional”; “Able
to manage complex, cross-functional teams”; “Results driven”; “Able
to thrive in high pressure situations.”
Savvy
Job Seeker Side Note:
If you are a savvy job seeker, you will take note of these phrases in
job descriptions and even research further to the specific company’s web
site, where you will find loads more of them in the description of the
company and their products and services and work force. I also look at a
variety of job postings across the company. Often I will find the same
phrases repeated across positions. This indicates it is a behavioral
attribute the company values. Now you are hitting “gold”, because you
are gathering insight into the values of the organization, and that
translates to “candidate and company fit”, which now begins to separate
the sheep from the goats on that resume pile in front of the hiring
manager. It’s a sure-fire bet they will start looking for these
preferences up front with your cover letter and resume. The ones who
have the right skills and also match the company culture and values well
are the ones that stand out.
I’m
offering this e-book as a special early release to all former Skybus/
ATA employees. It will release in June for $25, but you can receive it
(unedited & unformatted) for only $5. If you are interested in learning
more about this book, follow this link.
http://www.koukolconsulting.com/JobSeekersGoldResumesSkybusATA.htm
For
direct help with your resume, follow this link:
http://www.koukolconsulting.com/Skybus_Pricing.htm
To your Success,
Dominique
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