These Resume Mistakes Can Slow Your Job Search

When faced with a job search, after years of being nose-down in your day-to-day work, it is natural to feel vulnerable and uncertain.

And when you feel vulnerable, it is normal to reach out for reassurance to make sure you are doing the right things. After all, “you don’t know what you don’t know.”

Beware Friends Poking Holes In Your Resume Narrative

One of the easiest and most tangible items for your friends, colleagues and mentors to provide free advice on is your resume. Whether you’ve sweated hours, days, weeks (or even months) on your resume or you have hired a professional to write for you, your confidantes will find something about your masterpiece to poke a hole in.

One of the most common go-to opinions is that your resume is too long, too dense and/or too wordy.

Muscular Resumes Will Lift Your Career Story

The truth is if your career message is toned and pumped up with the muscle of your relevant story points, the word fabric will fit the body of your audience’s needs. In other words, they will see a fit career fortified with the nutrients they need to help solve their current challenges such as problems with malnourished sales, sagging profits or shrinking market place. And, they will contact you for an interview.

It’s as simple as that.

Why Someone Who Isn’t Seeking Your Qualifications Probably Won’t “Get” Your Resume

And unless someone reviewing your resume is actually hiring for the particular role you are appealing to, they likely will not “get” the strategy. All they will see is a clump of words and a visual impression that compels them to parlay old-school tactics of resume presentation versus story writing strategy.

So, when you are tempted to garner five more friends’, family members’ or trusted advisors’ opinions about your resume, keep in mind the purpose of the resume and the strategy you used, and most importantly, your audience’s needs.

Do The Footwork To Cultivate Your Own Resume Message, Then Stand Strong

If, however, you have not done the research on how to build a beefy story that will matter to your hiring decision maker, then do the hard yards now. Throughout your resume construction process, or after, do not bury yourself in unqualified opinions that may set you off on tangents, mucking up your job search process and ultimately slowing you down.

Stand strong after building a robust resume, then move ahead confidently in your search. Let the hiring decision makers with whom you interact be the judge of your content, ultimately. Once you’ve made relevant changes or have revamped your resume story, keep your blinders on and keep moving forward.