Selling You on Your Resume Des Moines IA

Selling You on Your Resume: Job Searching in a Turbulent Economy

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 2.6 million jobs were lost in 2008 – most within the last four months – the highest job losses in 60 years. Employers shed more than 500,000 jobs in December alone, soaring the unemployment rate to 7.2%. As cited by The New York Times, among the industries hardest hit were home-building, real estate, industrial, construction, floristry, auto, financial services, and mortgage. And predictions show the turbulence in our economy is likely to get worse before it gets better.

What does this mean for you? The good news is that while some markets are crashing, new jobs and industries are emerging, making a career transition less difficult for today’s job seeker. Companies are now finding “square peg/round hole” candidates more appealing. They’re looking for fresh ideas and vying for candidates with key transferable skills. But with the influx of competition, it’s time to get smart, stay optimistic, utilize your resources, and turn economic challenges into new job-seeking opportunities.

To begin, get serious about your resume! Now is the time to sell YOU. Your current resume may have landed you a job 10 years ago, but today the competition is very fierce, and the need to convincingly convey your value proposition is more important than ever before. Your resume is a marketing vehicle—a call to action that should generate invitations to job interviews. Does your resume tell your career story? Does it promote your most valuable assets? Have you been invited to interviews? If you answered “no” to any of these questions, then it is time to sharpen your career marketing tools. A newly focused, professional resume can be the link between you and your new job, and could catapult you to the next level of your career.

Suppose you already have a job-winning resume in hand. Your next step is to understand the different job search methods. One method is the Passive job search. While it is the most common job search method, it is without a doubt the most ineffective. A Passive job seeker will paste/upload his resume on job boards all over the Internet, and e-mail/fax his resume in response to company advertisements. He’ll wait by the phone, with fingers crossed, hoping to hear good news. But when he doesn’t get results, the Passive job seeker becomes discouraged and quickly gives up. He thinks he has done everything right to win an interview, when in reality, he has only scratched the surface of using all of the job search resources available to him.

Another job search method is the Aggressive job search. The Aggressive job seeker may use the Passive job search method as well, but he won’t stop there! The Aggressive job-seeker will follow-up with a phone call to ask about the status of the job opening, and most importantly, to ask for the interview. The Aggressive job seeker also understands the importance of networking. While networking is on...

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