There are tons of articles on how to write a powerful resume... Sometimes job seekers have a hard time surfing through all of the available information on the subject. We have decided to inject a little bit of practicality into the mass of theoretical advice and start a resume makeover rubric on our blog. Most job seekers have a resume that they have drafted three, five, or even ten years ago when they were looking for employment. Or they have written their resumes recently but it never landed an interview. The most common challenge then for those pursuing new career opportunities is to revamp their resume so that it would increase their chances of getting hired. Seeing how our resume experts do it may serve a good example and help job seekers turn their subpar application documents into stellar self-marketing tools.
Business Sales Representative Resume [Before]
Steven Crouch is a great person. However, the resume he had before the makeover was pretty bad. That’s what it looked like:
Resume Critique
A brief look at Steven’s resume is all you need to understand that this document will not lead to interviews. The very beginning of Steven’s most important application document implies it is all going to be fluff with no specific information as to his accomplishments and skills he has to offer. The objective says nothing as to what specifically he can do for the company. Generic objectives like that do more harm than good as the hiring managers are reluctant to continue reading the document.
Secondly, the qualifications section is too vague. Even without knowing the target job description, it is easy to assume that no hiring manager will have an interest in this section. Goal-driven… Computer skills… Public communications. What do these things mean for the employer? They are too vague and say nothing to the hiring authorities.
Lastly, the biggest problem though is that Steven has failed to highlight his sales skills. When you take a closer look at his resume, all you see is administration. However, what Steven did was as much successful sales as it was generic administration. The truth of the matter is that his sales ability is one of the key skills to sell to potential employers. Failing to do so will almost inevitably result in failure to get any interviews with this kind of resume. Therefore, it had to be revamped completely in order to have an edge over other candidates' resumes.
Business Sales Representative Resume [After]
The revised version of Steven’s resume positions him as a top contributor. Having emphasized his ability to influence business increase and profitability, he now has a much better chance of succeeding. Numbers make a huge difference. 31% profitability increase, increased business by 41%, top insurance sales agent, 114% sales goals – these are facts that communicate to the prospective employers that based on his past achievements this is what he can do for them in the future. Now, what company doesn’t want to see those numbers become a reality in the context of their own business?
If you have troubles revamping your resume, you can always have our experts do the makeover for you.
