Killer Resume Writing Starts With YOU!

If you are a highly qualified, positive, intelligent person and find yourself shaking at the thought of getting down to resume writing, you’re not alone!

If you believe that you’re unqualified, under-educated and cannot find or don’t deserve work you LOVE because everyone is better than you, then you’re wrong AND you’re not alone.

Every professional – whether currently employed or not – needs to have and maintain an up-to-date master resume. This task is made easier if you’re also keeping your Linked In profile current.

If you’ve been procrastinating about resume writing (or keeping your LI profile current), chances are good that you’re experiencing one or both of these 2 biggest hurdles people put in their own way when procrastinating about resume writing:

Not recognizing their own skills and
Minimizing their accomplishments.

(If you’d like to spend some time analyzing yourself rather than get directly to writing your resume, see: Let Socrates Help You Find Work You LOVE.)

When you’re ready to get down to writing your killer skills-based resume, then here are some links to online self-assessment resources you can use to get the ball rolling. These aren’t merely fun activities to file away in your career portfolio binder when you’re done – the point of doing the self-assessments is 2-fold:

The descriptions of your personality type, interests, skills and values are made of the words YOU can use in your resume. Start keeping track of the powerful descriptors that describe you. Take the inventories listed below and choose the top 3-5 one-word or short-phrase descriptors given. Highlight them in yellow – or write them on a separate sheet of paper.
For each of these descriptors, write about a time when you demonstrated this trait – it doesn’t need to be work-related. On your resume (and in interviews) you will need to illustrate ‘a time when’ for a variety of characteristics. Every resume tells a story – your job at this point of your job search is to start generating these stories of your skills so you have a bank to choose from.

Free Online Career Self-Assessment Tools

Myers-Briggs: http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp
Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences: http://www.bgfl.org/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks3/ict/multiple_int/questions/questions.cfm
Government of Canada Employability Skills: http://www.jobsetc.gc.ca/toolbox/checklists/employability.jsp

Low-Cost Career-Related Self-Assessment Tools

Self-Directed Search (Holland Interest Test): $4.95. https://www.self-directed-search.com/
Strengths-Finder 2.0: If you purchase a copy of the book, you receive a code allowing you to take the online Strengths Test. You can purchase an e-book and do the test ASAP. Here’s the website: http://www.strengthsfinder.com/home.aspx.

OR

Strengths-Explorer: I am a big fan of the teen version of almost anything. You get the same information often in a much cooler format that lends itself to using coloured pencils (and grabbing a glass of wine). You can do the Strengths Explorer online for $7.95 – and download all of the student resources for free. This assessment gives you your top 3 strengths (rather than the adult version`s 5) – and the resource booklet leads you though the ‘illustrate a time when’ activity mentioned above. Website here: https://www.strengths-explorer.com/

Remember, not everybody shares your particular combination of assessment results. Yes – you might know 100 people who just graduated with the same degree you have. That doesn’t mean there are no jobs for you – it means that you’re looking at things from your own vantage point, not from the vantage point of those of the employers out there who need you. Your job now is to break out of that pack of recent grads or current job hunters and find your new pack – the one at work!

Let us know on Facebook what your top strengths or personality type descriptors are!

About the Author

Beth Campbell Duke I'm a member of 'Gen X' or the 'Nexus Generation' - sandwiched firmly between the Boomers and Gen Y! With a foot in both worlds, I often find myself trying to explain one to the other. As Kid President likes to say, 'We're all on one team'.