Easy Come, Easy Go.....

In August 2011, the Fraser Institute cited Alberta as having the best-performing job market among all jurisdictions thanks to the highest total employment growth and the second-lowest duration of unemployment.  Fast forward to the 2^nd Nov 2011 and the Calgary Herald was reporting that Calgary’s labour market was headed for a serious downturn.

Regardless of the manner in which labour market conditions are reported and the tales they convey, the need to have a professionally written resume at your disposal never changes.  The ability to impress a hiring team with a high-impact, well-written resume document and cover letter that actually sells you into your target role is of the utmost importance.

Life Begins At.......

With the anticipated retirement of a significant tranche of the workforce and a lack of suitably skilled or experienced professionals to fill the void, there is a growing realization among many HR professionals that sending older employees out to pasture despite the expertise cited in their resumes isn’t such a good idea after all!

Not so long ago Statistics Canada stated that the number of persons aged 65 years and over doubled between 1981 and 2009 and is expected to double again by 2036.  They also stated that there will be more seniors than children (under 15 years) in Canada for the first time ever, at some point between 2015 and 2021.  Given the anticipated shortfall of skilled labour, it would seem that there is a clear need to develop strategies aimed at retaining employees approaching retirement age.

So what do you do if you are an older employee who has been released by your employer?  In my experience, the older generation have tended to stick with the same company for many years, sometimes decades.  In situations like this, there often has never been a need to have a resume.  Taking a step back from a 20-30 year long career to contemplate what you have to offer a new employer can be a daunting task.  Of course, the fact that you have worked for one employer for so long, in itself, solicits questions at interview as to how you will adapt to working with new processes, policies, procedures, products and people. 

How do you structure such as resume?  Clearly, you do not want spend 3 pages explaining your day-to-day work activity as it was 20 years ago. You will have to edit your career down to two, high-impact pages of successes.  Not an easy task for most people.  Nonetheless, if you intend for your resume to be read, that is what you must accomplish.

Working with a professional to develop a coherent personal brand, high-impact resume strategy, and perfecting your interview skills can go a long way to helping you understand what you can offer, what you want, and the best way to go about getting it.

Third Time Lucky...

In any line of business, choosing the right professional to partner with is crucial to the success of the project and that's one of the reasons I put so much time and effort into my website!

I was recently working with an executive who had paid good money to have his resume written by a firm headquartered in Toronto.  When that resume didn't live up to expectations, he had it re-written by someone in Alberta.  When that resume didn't cut the mustard, he contacted me.

Part of the problem centred around the initial impact of the document.  The font used was a size 10 and the typeface was exotic!  It was very difficult to read line by line and the overall feel was cluttered, un-coordinated and generally messy.  It looked as though someone had tried to squeeze as much detail into it as possible, without going over the two page limit.  That's because they had.

In short, after listening to his career aspirations, drawing out significant detail during the consultation process, re-framing business success metric and creating a resume design specifically for him, he was thrilled!  My abilit to drill down into the technical detail to uncover the business metrics uncovered a significant error had been made by the last resume writer.  The last writer had framed a sales metric carelessly that could have landed my client in hot water had it been checked.

Here's a quote;

“I am very, very pleased with the documents you sent me.  The resume has..a different look, read &
just over all impression...it looks very executive.  I am most impressed with the top portion of
the resume...career objective & core competencies. You really captured what I have been trying to say all along.

I agree with the way you beefed up the XXXX role...my skills & abilities were really under-represented in the old resume..again you did a great job at representing my skills & results.  Which is right on target!!!  Bravo!!”

The problem that some people seeking professional resume services face is that they're not too sure what they're looking for.  Ideally, you should be working with someone who has extensive experience in actually conducting recruitment and selection campaigns, someone who has consulted with a diverse array of business managers, HR directors and executives from multiple industries.

Unfortunately, some people are lured in to working with "writers" on the strength of a resume writing certificate alone.  If a truck driver takes a 6 week online course to obtain a resume writing certificate, does that then qualify him to understand the intricacies of the recruitment process, the requirements and desires of HR professionals, or indeed, actually what they want to see from a resume or interview?  I very much doubt it.  Such expertise can only be gleamed from hard-won practical experience.

If you're going to partner with someone, then choose a specialist who made a living preparing and interviewing job seekers in order to prepare and present resumes that surpass employer expectations!  You don't get relevant skills like these by driving an 18 wheeler.

My resume candidate spent a lot of money before he found me, and after my expertise was brought to bare on his project, we hit the nail on the head and crafted a winning resume that actually showcased his skills and accomplishment.  The document sold him.  That's the key to career success.