Should you write several resumes with different Job Objectives? Definitely!
But each resume should also have a suitable Summary that supports or backs up each objective -- to show diferent readers what qualifies you for each specific position. That is the best advice for today's job market.
In the present recession, your resume/s will be used to apply for a shrinking number of jobs. We are in a Buyer's job market and employers are very "picky".
Why do you need to write several resumes? If you fail to address the specific requirements of each position, your entire application will be toast. You'll be screened out in seconds. That's why you'll need to vary your resume and focus it. This will mean more than one version of your resume. In practice, you'll be writing two or three or even more resumes! p>But some well-meaning folks are still suggesting that a single all-purpose resume is all you need. They are dead wrong and out of touch. Such a resume will get you nowhere! You won't be able to pay your rent or mortgage, the gas and the food bills.
Warren Buffet has warned that this recession will be "long and deep".
What about your job satisfaction? In repeated surveys over the past 50 years, as many as 70% have reported not being happy with their jobs or with the choice of careers they made in their twenties. These are very hard times.
You must make a very serious attempt to "sell" or market yourselves. You should be should be trying hard to create a resume that will get into the much smaller "A" pile of "Probables".
The guiding principle is "Sell the sizzle, not the steak." Facts do NOT sell themselves. They have to be marketed. This is what all advertising and promotion tries to do. What are your best "selling points"?


What is the employer's screening process? All employers are entitled to reject you if you lack something they consider to be CRUCIAL to job performance. This is also referred to as competing for a job. After all, WHO IS HIRING WHO?
You should adjust your resumes in order to offer related or equivalent education, skills and experience in lieu of the advertised requirements. This is often possible and it works!
Many resumes also contain "red flags" or other turnoffs that need to be addressed. We all have resume "blemishes" and many talented job seekers won't reach first base until they write one without any negatives.
20 years ago, Dick Bolles in "PARACHUTE" was also concerned that a two-dimensional resume might easily misrepresent and even distort how valuable you might be. He likened poorly written resumes to fun mirror images of the applicant.
Please offer employers the exact KEYWORDS they'll be searching for and are entitled to expect. Either you can or you can't offer these -- or most of them. Their machine not only rejects -- it also SELECTS.
Employers are entitled to specify which of their REQUIREMENTS are essential (must have's) and which are merely desirable (would be a plus or preferred). Why not address their needs? Their human and OCR screeners will be briefed or programmed accordingly. This process is perfectly fair.
The Scottish poet, Robbie (Auld Lang Syne) Burns gave us sage advice when he wrote:
"O would some Power give us the gift
To see ourselves as others see us."
Our own Clint Eastwood has given us a valuable piece of advice: "A man must know his limitations."
Stop for a moment to question your own resume writing and presentation skills? How well can you create a resume? How did you manage to learn to be so objective about yourself? How were you trained to analyze all of your own skills and strengths? Where did you acquire the language of skills? Where did you learn the art of self-marketing and resume writing? (There's no Self Marketing 101 course available and resume writing has more in common with promotional literature and advertising copy than with English 101.) What has convinced you that you do have an effective resume and cover letter? The awful truth is that many, if not most self-written efforts DON'T seem to work too well.
Believe me, all of your "ingredients" CAN be used to develop a creative, one-of-a-kind resume and cover letter. Much can be incorporated. Yes, it may not capture the entire you in all of your amazing richness. But you should be able to find a skilled writer who can present your talents on paper and knock the employer's socks off. Unless, of course, you are still subscribing to that very old-fashioned notion that you should be designing and constructing your own resume. What would qualify you to do that effectively in a tough job market? Your writing skills? This is seldom enough.
What you need to create is an effective marketing document that "sells" your value -- NOT your father's resume.
Hundreds of Harvard, Chicago, Dartmouth and other graduates with a GPA of 4.0 in English have given up trying to write their own resumes . They came to the realization that resume writing is a specialized form of self-marketing that requires the help of a suitably trained professional writer who can do justice to your worth or value on paper.
[Good writing skills, perfect English, grammar and spelling are NOT the only things you need to create a good resume or cover letter. I have often heard job seekers say something like: "Matthew, I can write term papers, reports, a feature article, a speech or even a short story. But my job resume is something else. What should I include? What can I safely omit? What must I emphasize or highlight? How do I focus it? What is the best format for me to use?" And so on. Important decisions need to be made and a knowledge of good English and writing skills are only the basics! Click here: Resume questions & answers: [[ http://www.winningresumes.com/best_way_to_advance.htm ]
Resumes are very important job search tools. How else must employers cope with and reduce the flood of applicants? They can't possibly interview everyone and we are not yet ready for job selection by computer.
When we have the blessing of full employment again by the year 2028 or so, all employers will roll out the red carpet for you. You won't need a resume at all. In fact, you won't even need to persuade any recruiter how qualified you are.
But, until that very happy day, we will be in a painful BUYER'S JOB MARKET with employers holding most of the cards.
Fortunately, talented resume writers do have the OBJECTIVITY and skills that most job seekers seem to lack. It is never easy to write about one's self.
Nothing sells itself. Not even what accomplished job seekers have to offer.
A resume is your "PERSONAL-SALES-REPRESENTATIVE-ON- PAPER" writes John Lucht. Many other gifted and talented job seekers are also competing to open the same doors as you are. You cannot be exempted from such competition in a BUYER'S MARKET.
Your job resume is still your most important job search tool. The only way you can avoid having to submit a resume to an employer who is a perfect stranger, is if you are personally known to the person-with-the-authority-to-hire or if your father or uncle or friend owns the corporate ladder or if someone owes someone a favor and you can be the lucky beneficiary. Or if you have managed to discover or uncover an urgent vacancy in the unadvertised job market.
But the overwhelming majority of job seekers, will have to create a few different resumes. These will be optically scanned by machine or screened by a human reader.
Those "experts" who pooh-pooh the value of resumes in the hiring process, tend to be those who have never needed one. They are NOT helping the tens of thousands of desperate job seekers struggling with a resume that does not work, and who can easily be helped to be more successful. That is what first class resume writers do all of the time and they have the testimonials to back this up.
it is a well-known fact that the best qualified applicant does NOT always or even necessarily get hired. Rather, it is often the candidate with the best or most impressive resume.
The awful reality is that many creative geniuses or highly gifted individuals DO NOT MAKE IT TO FIRST BASE. Without professional help, those "great", talented but unsuccessful job seekers may need to write sad Blogs of the type: "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." This is the language of quitters and losers. Donald Trump will probably agree.
Let's hope they are not the innocent victims of half-baked resume advice found in many of those amateurish off-the-wall blogs.
Will the anxious majority of job seekers, please note. This Bud's for you.
mattgreene@aol.com
Tel.: 718 436-3504
Copyright, 2006-2009 by Matthew Greene. All rights reserved. .

Tags:
WRITE SEVERAL RESUMES WITH DIFFERENT OBJECTIVES ,
TWEAK YOUR RESUME OBJECTIVE,
FOCUSED RESUME IS CRUCIAL,
ADDRESS EMPLOYER'S SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS,
TARGETED RESUME FOR A RECESSION,
