Not long ago, a job hunter who wasn’t having much success in his search came to your author for advice.
“Let me ask you …” I began to ask. But before I could finish the question, he jumped in.
“Here’s what you need to know about me,” he began. And he meandered on for what seemed like an eternity, yet didn’t covey the facts that were really relevant.
[See: 7 Ways to Crush a Phone Interview.]
Often it is the case that job seekers spend so much time compiling and reciting their story that they go on “autopilot” in virtually every conversation, without knowing in which direction their audience would like to venture.
The lesson here is simple, but often hard to learn: Pay attention to what your audience wants to hear, and meet their needs, whether you are composing your resume or sitting in an interview.
You might think that your resume is your professional story. And it is. But that isn’t all that it is. More than simply that, it is your opportunity to provide potential employers with the kind of information they want to know about you, with the proper level of detail within an easily digestible format.
With this in mind, here are some things you need to take to heart and remember:
Resume evaluators and interviewers need to be able to quickly grasp who you are and what you do. But at least initially, they don’t really need to know every detail of what you did, where you did it and why you did it. Because they are all busy people, with limited time available to determine your fate with their company, you must get to the heart of the matter quickly.
Consequently, your resume should provide a succinct branding statement and a summary grid of your applicable skills.
Employers are interested in what you actually accomplished. If you are in sales or marketing, that means numbers and percentages. But even if you are far removed from sales, it is worth taking the time to figure out how to describe the value of your contributions to your workplace.
[See: 25 Best Business Jobs for 2017.]
Employers don’t care about all the things that are in your job description. They aren’t hiring anyone because of what they were supposed to do in a current or past position. When you talk about your responsibilities and leave it at that, your story is worthless because you are supposing that the employer will assume that you’ve done a stellar job.
Ask yourself: What did you actually do to earn the salary and perks you’ve been receiving? What did you contribute to enabling others in your company to be successful? How have you saved your company time or money? How have you made things run more smoothly? These are key things to speak about in your resume and interviews.
Employers want and need to know about the overall arc of your career. They don’t care about getting down into the weeds — at least initially. Keep your descriptions detailed enough to convey meaning, but not so specific as to be overly comprehensive.
If you are a mid-career professional with over 10 years of experience, for example, they are interested in how many years you’ve been in your various roles. Two years here, three years there, etc. Generally speaking, they don’t care if you had one role for two years and three months, and then you moved to your current company for the past seven years and nine months. Drop the months on your resume!
[See: 8 Ways Millennials Can Build Leadership Skills.]
And, in the same way, drop overly detailed accounts of everything you did in every role you’ve had.
Try this: Place yourself in the role of the person who is looking to hire someone for a role in which you are interested. Ask yourself: What are the key things you are looking for in a successful candidate? What kinds of skills will they have? What kinds of successes will they have amassed? What kind of personality do they display? These are the key elements of what you need to convey to gain serious consideration.
When you pay attention to the questions that are asked of you before you launch into your prepackaged story, you’ll be able to pick out the key parts of that story that will best represent the kind of hire you’ll be.
Happy hunting!
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3 Things Employers Want to Know About You originally appeared on usnews.com
