The Biggest Resume Hurdle For Experienced Job Seekers - Work It Daily

The Biggest Resume Hurdle For Experienced Job Seekers - Work It Daily The job search market is full of successful professionals who haven’t needed a resume in a decade or more â€" until now. The biggest hurdle for candidates like these to mentally overcome and embrace? Not resume formatting or keywords â€" although they have certainly impacted how resumes look and feel. Related: 5 Key Resume Writing Tips For The Over 50 Job Seeker In my experience, experienced professionals often grapple with the notion of positioning themselves on paper as a specialist versus a generalist. How Generalists Used To Have The Advantage Even as recently as ten years ago, managers wearing a multitude of hats, from lending a hand in finance, marketing and even business development, had the competitive advantage. This was because a resume was reviewed by a handful of people, and a candidate might participate in two or three interviews max before being offered a role. It was easy for a candidate to make the case to a few people that they had the skills and the results for the role. These candidates would not be so lucky today. How Specialists Took Over The job search process takes longer than it used to, with more rounds of interviews and more people than ever before reviewing your resume. It is therefore imperative that you spell out, or spoon feed to the reader, that you are the perfect fit for the role. In other words, it is critical to position yourself as a Specialist or Subject Matter Expert. This means you need to show them you have the skills they ask for and the results to prove it. The House For Sale Analogy Today’s job market is not unlike a buyer’s housing market. In a seller’s market you can put your home up for sale without changing a thing and expect a buyer to live with it or at least make an offer. However, in a buyer’s market your house must be in top shape, in a perfect location, or at a price that is too good to pass up. Embracing The New Mindset Embrace the reality that having a variety of skills is useful but not paramount, and showcase with results those skills that relate to the job you seek. Related Posts Should I Remove My Volunteer Work From My Resume? 5 Ways To Remove Digital Dirt 7 Phrases To Delete From Your LinkedIn Profile   About the author Virginia Franco, NCRW, CPRW is the founder of Virginia Franco Resumes which offers customized executive resume and LinkedIn profile writing services for the 21st century job seeker. Her strategies and documents have helped 100s to secure interviews in 60 days.   Disclosure: This post is sponsored by a CAREEREALISM-approved expert. You can learn more about expert posts here. Photo Credit: Shutterstock Have you joined our career growth club?Join Us Today!