Down with Generic Resumes!
One popular strategy for job hunting is to build a nice generic resume (or have some resume agency build it for you), then blast it out to all the employers that you can find. If you think about it for a moment, you’ll realize that this is about the worst strategy you could adopt. Think about it:
- the hiring manager has a particular job in mind
- that job needs a particular skill set
- he or she gets 10-20 resumes per day for the job
- they’re all generic resumes that sort of address his job, but not well
- why should he choose yours over any of the others?
Instead, try building a semi-custom resume that has the boilerplate stuff like your work experience and education in place, but leaves blank the “career highlights” section. Now, read each job description carefully and ask yourself,
“What problem is the hiring manager trying to solve with this requisition, and how can I make myself look like the perfect person for that job?”
Try to think like the hiring manager and try to imagine the resume that would make him or her sit up and say, “At last! I’ve found a 10-for-10 match!” Now you know what to write in the rest of your resume and in your cover letter. Believe me, this will get your resume to the top of the manager’s stack and make all the other generic resumes fade into obscurity.
So stop thinking that one size fits all when it comes to resumes and become efficient at writing resumes that are custom-tailored to fit the job you’re applying for. Trust me on this, it’ll work much better than blasting out your luke-warm generic resume.
About the Author
Bruce Taylor is the Owner and Principle of Unison Coaching, and provides corporate and executive coaching to a wide variety of businesses including engineering, human resource, consulting, and recruiting firms. Mr Taylor has extensive background in Psychology, Human Resources, and Software Engineering. He holds a Masters degree in Computer Science from Duke University, a Masters in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts, and a Certificate in Job Stress and Healthy Workplace Design from the University of Massachusetts. He can be reached at http://www.unisoncoaching.com or bruce_taylor@unisoncoaching.com
Tags: hiring, job, job description, job search, manager, recruiter, recruiting, resumeCreativity Management Synthesise Collaboration With Competition
I recently gave a presentation at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design on a topic entitled “Is creativity management an oxymoron?”
The essential confusion to people resistant to the idea of “creativity management” was the word “management.” Replace it with the word “optimization” and the resistance disappears; all we’re really trying to do is optimize the quality of the idea pool and optimize the implementation process.
Then you can suggest that most people already implicitly accept the idea of creativity management: if you ask them to solve a problem or engage in a particular endeavour, one of the things they’re likely to do is herd people into a room with a flip chart and conduct some sort of brainstorming session and implicit in that action is the acceptance that certain methods, processes and procedures enhance creative output.
Then you can begin discussing how to improve the enormous amount of creative output people generate, from problem solving in everyday business life right up to the level or art. Which leads to a large number of concepts that diverge significantly from the common misconceptions and mythology that surrounds creativity and innovation.
Collaboration NOT Competition
Whilst competition is a driver of idea generation, collaboration is more productive for a number of reasons, including:
a) Collaboration enhances intellectual cross-pollination whilst competition restricts it.
b) Collaboration does not cause people to shut down as much as competition.
c) Competition increases evaluation apprehension.
d) Collaboration is more inducive to a culture of psychological safety and freedom, which encourages people to express their cognitive activity.
Learn more
WRITE THAT SCREENPLAY!
The Complete 188 stage Hero’s Journey and other story structure templates can be found at http://www.clickok.co.uk/
The Managing Creativity and Innovation MBA dissertation, DIY creativity Audit, Powerpoint presentation and Good Idea generator software can be found at http://www.managing-creativity.com/
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Kal Bishop, MBA
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Tags: creativity, innovation, management, manager, Managing