How to Bring Your Resume into Focus

How to Bring Your Resume into FocusHaving trouble writing your resume? Not sure how to begin? The answer often lies in the fogginess of your objectives. If you arent sure of which jobs you want to target with your resume, it can easily become an exercise in listing everything you have ever done. Not only is this painful, but it is also supremely ineffective.FOCUS YOUR DIRECTIONBefore you even think about crafting your resume, a great starting point is researching and writing down your career goals as well as the specific positions you want to pursue.Having a focused direction will help you write your resume because resumes are all about direction You might think that they are about your background, but truly impactful resumes are laser-focused documents aligned with your target roles and industry.OBJECTIVE bewertung VS. BRANDING STATEMENTCase in point, the objective meinung vs. the career summary. Gone are the days of the objective statement, the short paragraph at the top of the res ume that reads something like thisAccomplished technology professional with 10 years of experience seeking an executive position overseeing hardware, software, and services portfolio development, revenue growth, and overall strategy.Instead, the career summary or branding statement has come into vogue. Rather than explaining what a job seeker wants, it explains what you offer a company (preferably in a powerful, non-generic, achievement-based approach.) For exampleAward-winning technology leader drives revenue growth of up to $200M through innovative strategies for hardware, software, and services portfolio. Accelerates business development by establishing streamlined client experience process, overhauling stagnant abverkauf culture, and inking deals with Fortune 500 companies.There are many differences between these two statements, but the main point is that the objective statement focuses on what you want from a job, and the branding statement emphasizes what you promise to delive r to meet the employers needs. Its a helpful way to view the entire resume writing processwhich is ultimately all about your audience.How can you even write a branding statement without knowing what the potential employers needs are?QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF BEFORE YOU STARTWhat are my career goals for next 5 years?What are my top 3 goals? (Making more money, moving into the executive level, better work-life balance?)What does my dream job look like?What is my target market?What position titles do I want?What other considerations are important to me in a new job?What is my brand/elevator pitch/area of expertise?ELIMINATE/MINIMIZE IRRELEVANT EXPERIENCEOnce you have a clear vision for the jobs you want, the companies you like, and your own brand, it will be easy to start writing, because the relevant experiences, skills, and achievements will be illuminated, and the irrelevant can now be eliminated or at least minimized.For example, our technology leader in the objective statement abo ve had a good deal of experience in sales as well as in weltweit coverage architecture. He was no longer interested in sales roles, so his early experiences as a Sales Rep could simply be removed, since they werent adding any value. Many of his positions in the past 10 years included sales or sales management, so it became a matter of limiting the emphasis on sales and re-weighting the experiences towards strategic planning and global systems integration.Keep in mind that this process of elimination might be difficult, because it can feel like you are removing important career achievements. But if those achievements are no longer relevant to your goals, the best thing to do is let them go.

Oprah, Bill Gates And Obama All Use This Rule For Success

Oprah, Bill Gates And Obama All Use This Rule For Success The 5-hour what? youre probably asking. Five-hour naps? Networking? Meditation? What exactly am I supposed to be doing for 5 hours?The answer may surprise you, but its simply this deliberate learning. For 5 hours per week. According to 5 hours per week? you might be wondering. Where do I find that kind of time?As a working mom of two little boys who also practices law and runs a business, my own answer is this in bits and pieces. And scheduled intentionally.Heres how I approach Simmons 3 buckets1. Reading No, I dont have a solid hour each day to sit and read a book. But I do have 10 minutes on the metro on the way to work, and another 10 minutes on the way home. I crawl into bed a good 10 minutes before I go to sleep, to curl up with a book, too. I focus my reading most intently on issues related to working parenthood (heres my 2017 list of inspiring reads for working moms), which helps both with my own personal life and with my business. So theres 30 minutes per day, already.2. Reflection My approach here is twofold. First, I am very deliberate about how I use my shower time in the morning. For the few minutes Im alone getting ready every morning, I set an intention for my day, stretch, savor that hot water, and enjoy some quiet thinking time. Second, I schedule days for reflection into my calendar because if something isnt on my calendar, it doesnt happen. Every year, for example, my husband and I schedule two retreat days per year to step back, reflect, and plan out the next 6 months or year. Im also a big fan of scheduled days for quiet reflection and meditation, and I do things like the Half-Day unterbrechung yoga and meditation retreat in D.C. at the change of seasons.3. Experimentation If Ive bothered to take the time to read or learn about something, Im then intentional about putting these learnings to good use. For example, I recently attended the Womens Power Conference in Maryland and attende d some fantastic, really informative sessions. One of the lectures I attended was on using storytelling to boost your presentation skills, and well-timed I had a presentation to give the following week. During my talk, I played around with the concepts I had just learned and tried them on for size. Reading and listening to lectures, podcasts, webinars, etc. are wonderful first steps. But all that knowledge does no good if you dont get out there and apply it.I know so many of us are short on time, and squeezing in 5 hours of anything seems like a stretch. But if you schedule it in first, and use the nooks and crannies of time you already have to be intentional about your learning, I promise youll see leaps in what youre able to accomplish.--Lori K. Mihalich-Levin, JD, is the founder ofMindful Return, author ofBack to Work After Baby How to Plan and Navigate a Mindful Return from Maternity Leave, and creator of theMindful Return E-Course. A partner in the health care practice of a g lobal law firm, she also is mama to two beautiful red-headed boys. Lori holds a law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center and completed her undergraduate studies at Princeton Universitys Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.