February 2021

"Success is as Easy as 1-2-3"

Monthly Career, Business, and Writing Services Newsletter

1 Promotion

The answer to your less-than-stellar resume isn’t inside a free .pdf you downloaded from Facebook or Instagram. You don’t need to read another blog post or watch another YouTube video. Free content can get you so far, but if you want real results, you need real SUPPORT from a professional.

Instead of trying to piece the puzzle together, choose ONE mentor or ONE comprehensive program. Invest and implement. The interviews and job offers will come much faster.

If NOW is your time to take it to the next level, and you’d like my support, click below to enroll in my Breathe Life Into Your Resume course. Normally $99, I’m offering my course for just $9.99 for a limited time.

Breathe Life Into Your Resume Course Offer Good until March 30, 2021.

Check It Out

2 Books

Two Books We are Loving Right Now

This month we are sharing two books to help you reach the next level in 2021.

Career Advice for High School Students by Jeannine Bennett.
As a result of the pandemic, our high school and early college students are not receiving the career guidance they need. I am sharing my book to help them find their way.

Anyone can achieve career success if they have a playbook telling them precisely what steps to take to achieve their goals.

Drawing experience from her proven track record, Dr. Jeannine Bennett will guide you on your career journey. You will learn how to map out your future by:

- Examining career options that align with your skills, motivations, and interests
- Picking the right college or trade school for your career choice
- Finding an internship to gain experience while you are still in school
- Enlisting a mentor to help you sidestep common career stumbling blocks

Don't get anxious about your future. Instead, focus your energy on mapping out your unique career path by following the advice shared in this book.

Federal Resume Guidebook by Kathryn Troutman.

Stumped? Stuck? Need info or inspiration to write your federal resume? Top fed jobs trainer Kathryn Troutman's Federal Resume Guidebook was the 1st book on these longer resumes, and it is the best-selling guide to writing them. The 7th Edition is 90% new, with more resume samples and case histories than ever! You'll find 17 sample federal resumes and 20+ accomplishment stories. The resumes include before and after resume samples, so you can easily see what you're doing wrong and how to write it right.

Remember, federal resumes are different from private industry resumes. This book helps you navigate the differences.

*Both books are available on Amazon.
Have a book you are reading right now that you think others should check out as well. Send your recommendations to melanie@visiontopurpose.com.

3 Tips

Creating a Top-Notch Resume

To create a top-notch resume that will catch the reviewer's attention, you must design your resume for the modern job search. Below are three tips to help you create the most effective resume.

Tip 1: Visual Appeal. Gone are the days of the boring resume. If you want to be taken seriously, you must design your resume to capture the reader's attention. Be bold and use color, shading, and fonts creatively. I like to use dark blue for headings. Shading is another way to stand out. I typically use light gray shading to help an item pop. Finally, fonts matter. I like to use san serifs for my headings and serifs for my content. San Serif examples include Arial, Calibri, Tahoma, and Verdana. Serif examples include Cambria, Garamond, Georgia, and Times New Roman.

Tip 2: Professional Story. You have six seconds to motivate a reader to continue reviewing your resume. The best way to do that is to convey a story. The resume is merely a professional story of your career. It is not a data dump of every job you have ever held but rather an account of your experiences and accomplishments. To tell a good story, you could include a challenge statement with each job. A challenge statement describes one significant challenge you encountered on the job. This should be responsibility related, not people related. Let's say you were tasked to implement a new software system, but you had a limited budget. How did you do it? You note the challenge statement as the requirement to implement said software system. You then follow it up with a subheading that says "selected contributions and accomplishments." The bullets under the subheading should demonstrate how you implemented the software with that limited budget. You would focus on tasks/actions and provide actual results that address the challenge.

Tip 3: Format. How you layout the content is just as important as the content itself. Again, you have six seconds to impress the reader, so make it count. A good approach is to include a heading at the top that states your expertise. For example, Human Resources Specialist. You would then follow the heading with a short 3-4 sentence paragraph that provides some supporting evidence to support your claim that you are a Human Resources Specialist. Finally, you would follow the summary with a section called core skills or key competencies, including detailed items to support the heading further. In doing so, you demonstrate to a reviewer that you have the qualifications they seek right upfront and thus compel them to read the rest of your resume.

If you are interested in finding a resume writer, here are some sources to check out.

NRWA, which stands for the National Resume Writers Association, offers a listing of hundreds of resume writers around the country.
LinkedIn ProFinder is a great place to find resume writers too.

You can also contact us at Vision to Purpose as resumes are our specialization. We are expert resume writers!

Next Month:

In the next issue, Jeannine will share three tips to help you create an optimized LinkedIn Profile!

Popular Blog Articles:

Need guidance now? Here are some blog articles to help you move forward!

Core Resume Message
How to Develop a Personal Branding Statement
Most Common Reasons Your Resume is Failing You

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