Using a ‘wardrobe’ as an analogy, it was like he was trying to wear every piece of clothing he owned all at the same time! So, I had the delicate job of helping him try to shed the many, many unnecessary layers of history and get to a reasonably attired resume. This “disrobing” of an over-dressed resume is not without challenges, for most people have a real attachment to their work history!

The point I start from is explaining that a resume is not a document where you journal of all the work you’ve ever done…that’s what a diary is for! A resume is a document that helps someone else envision you working in their office. Let me say that a different way–your resume should be a document that I can use to see the potential of you working with me to help solve my problems. And no, I don’t want to waste my time reading 6 pages of your career history…I want to know, in 2 minutes or less, what talents you have that I can use to address my issues and solve my challenges. Your resume needs to be about me (what’s in it for me), not you!

Resume Writing Tips
So, let’s cover the “big picture” points of resume writing so we can get you focused on your new writing approach to creating an effective, brief, targeted resume.

Your purpose for writing a resume is to:

• Help you focus on and articulate your career achievements, awards, and successes
• Build a marketing document used to sell you and your talents to a chosen audience
• Assemble a tool that can help you land an interview when placed in the proper hands
• Allow you to leave a lasting impression with the interviewer after the interview
• Provide a structured document that interviewers can use to facilitate the interview

Your resume is NOT:

• A complete history of your life or work career
• A mere description of tasks performed in prior jobs
• A job application where you must list all work experience back to your first job after high school
• A substitute for face-to-face networking or attending career-related functions
• A vehicle to express your dissatisfaction with prior jobs or managers
• The same document that you wrote and used 10 years ago
• Ever finished!

Bottom Line for Resume Writing Tips: Get your priorities in line…write your new resume as if you were trying to detail how your activities and successes in your prior jobs relates directly to issues I need you to address in my firm. Write your resume to essentially answer or demonstrate that your resume answers all the needs that I’ve put into my job posting. Write it for me…not for you!

Here is a simple approach that requires hard work and pays big dividends:

1. Review your experience and select 3 things you did best and liked most that got results.
2. Write a short story about each selected experience.
3. Put the results you got in each experience in your resume.
4. Tell the story about each experience in the interview.
5. Start looking at your current work for opportunities to do what you do best and like most that gets results.

The hardest part for most people is writing the short story. How do I start? What do I say? How do I finish? The secret to writing a compelling story is actually in the word star: S-T-A-R. Let’s look at each letter to see what I mean.

• S is for the Situation you faced in the story.
• T is for the Task you had to accomplish.
• A is for the Actions you took.
• R stands for the Results you got.

The impact a STAR can make
Let’s take a look at just a simple story about a school picnic. The situation was that my son was in third grade, and the PTA president asked me to head up a spring event to raise money for extra activities at the school. The task to be accomplished was to create an event that would be so fun that most of the kids and parents would come, buy tickets and spend money. The actions I took started with dreaming up the “Great All-American Picnic” with games, contests, prizes and lots of food and drink. Then I wrote it all down, and sent it to parents I knew at school, inviting them over to the house for dessert and coffee. We talked about all the cool things we could do, and I asked who would like to do what. Pretty soon we had a core team of seven to handle food, games, contests, money, promotion and of course, prayer. The results were fantastic… over half the families in the school came, and more money was raised than ever before!

Years later, when I became a candidate for a management job, I told this story. I put the picnic results in my resume. When I got to the interview, the interviewer asked about the picnic. I told him the story of the situation I faced, the task to be accomplished, the actions I took, and finished off with the results we got.

Because I could clearly communicate my accomplishments with little STAR stories, the interviewer could see not only the results, but how I got them.

Developing your own STAR
Okay, your turn. Think about your own life experiences and pick out the best of the best accomplishments of things you did things that you had fun doing. Make little STAR stories. It might take a little digging to get the statistics on the results, but it is worth it. Put the statistics in your resume, and tell the stories in your interviews. That will make you in the eyes of interviewer a STAR candidate.

Just for the fun of it, send us a STAR story about one of your accomplishments. Short and sweet. The sooner you get started, the faster you’ll be looking like a STAR and quicker you’ll be on your way to your next career opportunity.

As we get ready for celebrating Independence day this coming 4th of July, let us consider being In Dependence on God, instead of being in bondage to debt. Free yourself from slavery to the wrong job, because “you need the money.” Make your own declaration of financial freedom from slavery to the wrong job.

Don’t get me wrong. Money is good! It’s the love of money that’s a problem. As one man wrote, “For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away … and pierced themselves with many a pang.” Protect yourself and your family. Exercise self control, set up a budget, and watch your spending.

Vote for financial freedom. The Declaration of Independence was voted on 233 years ago tomorow – July 2nd. You can do the same now. Gather your family together. Talk about a declaration of financial freedom by being in dependence on God.

That’s right. Declare your independence! Might it be necessary for you to dissolve the financial bands that connect you to a job you hate? Get some paper and write “I declare my freedom from financial bondage by cutting expenses, selling unnecessary things, paying off debt and receiving the freedom to explore, educate and employ my gifts and passions in dependence on God.”

Are you in dependence on God or a job? Tell me what you think…

It features not only this blog, but also a prayer wall, the web’s biggest job search engine, our 80-page career guide and more – all fast and free.

Why did we do this? To make it simpler, easier and faster for you to explore and find jobs, careers and calling. After all, if you are going to be a successful explorer, you need to get to the best tools as quickly as possible.

Not only that, exploration is always better with other explorers as a team sport. That’s why we make it even easier for you to find local career groups, meetings and events. You can even connect right through this website with local leaders.

By the way, If you don’t have a group near you, you can ask your church to sponsor one in your community. It is a great way to connect career explorers with local employers, while getting help and resources. If you want help, let us know.

So, please click around and explore the site. Let me know what you like a lot … and not like so much.