C-Suite Job Search - Executive Resume, Executive Branding, LinkedIn Profiles, Online Identity

Executive Resume Writers’ Best Kept Secret

by Meg Guiseppi on May 14, 2012 · 0 comments

I’ll give you a hint.

This is NOT the secret:

Writing a resume is easy . . . anyone can do it.

That’s simply not true.

If you’ve ever tried writing your own, you know that it’s really hard to do.

It’s just as hard for us. Even seasoned resume writers with many years’ experience labor over each resume.

It doesn’t get much easier over time to craft resumes that do their job – brand and differentiate our clients to help them gain job interviews.

So much goes into the writing strategy. And each resume has to be tailored to each job seeker’s particular target, situation and career goals.

I know you’ve already scrolled down for this, so here it is. Our best kept secret is . . .

There’s no right or wrong way to write a resume.

One of the variables is who will be reading the resume – recruiters, HR professionals, top-level management in on the hiring process, Board members . . . the list goes on.

They have different needs and may look for different things in resumes. Resumes may need to be adjusted to appeal to specific kinds of people.

Something often repeated among my colleagues:

If you pass around the same resume to 10 different people, you’ll get 10 different opinions.

That’s the thing with marketing . . . and that’s what a resume is, a marketing document. Different things appeal to different people. You just never know what’s going to hit home with people. Entirely.

But if your resume contains the right information, positions that information in a clear and easily accessible manner, and presents you in the right way, chances are it will do its job.

As long as it’s highly targeted — as it MUST be — a resume can look and read various ways and still work.

The hard part is determining what the “right” information is and strategically positioning it on the page . . . the paper, digital and web page, that is.

This can be hard for you, as a job seeker, to do. You’ve probably only written a handful of resumes for yourself over your career, if that. Many top-level executives have never needed a resume before, or never written one themselves.

So how do you determine what the right information is?

Decide who you are targeting, what those target employers’ needs are, how you can help them meet those needs, and what keywords and phrases their hiring professionals will be searching for when they source talent.

You need to align your good-fit qualities with what those employers are looking for in candidates.

The biggest resume writing mistake job seekers make is NO CLEAR JOB SEARCH TARGETING. That is, not determining at the start of their job search which companies and positions within them are a good mutual fit.

Start there. If you hit all the marks correctly, chances are your resume will hit home, get you the interviews you want, and help you land the gig you want.

How to Write An Irresistible C-level Executive Resume in 10 Steps

What NOT To Put in Your C-level Executive Resume

photo by stevendepolo

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7 Reasons Not To Be a Personal Brand Copycat

by Meg Guiseppi on May 8, 2012 · 0 comments

(Following is a slightly modified version of my latest Personal Branding article at Job-Hunt.org.)

You see a beautifully written, branded resume – or maybe a LinkedIn profile – of a job seeker with similar qualifications to yours, seeking the kind of job you want. It sounds a lot like you, and you don’t write so well, so you see no reason why you shouldn’t use some of that good writing in your own resume or LinkedIn profile.

Somehow, because it’s right in front of you, and there for all the world to see (if it’s online), you don’t think of it as stealing. But it most certainly is stealing.

I’ve seen it more times than I can count . . . people copying parts or all of brand statements or other brand content I’ve written for clients and using it for their own. In other words, plagiarizing – known as copyright infringement, and in the social media sphere as “scraping”.

Copyright infringement can lead you into all kinds of problems. When you borrow someone else’s brand, you put yourself in a tenuous position. How will you come across in an interview – confident and convincing or floundering and failing? When you borrow content, you risk exposing yourself as “less than” what you intended and who you know you are.

Several times I’ve found content from the sample resumes on my blogsite in the resumes prospective clients have sent to me. I have to wonder, did they think I wouldn’t notice or that I’d be flattered that they thought that much of my writing?

As the manager of Job-Hunt’s Personal Branding LinkedIn Group (a subgroup of the Job-Hunt Help Group), I was recently monitoring a new discussion started by a new member who was introducing herself.

Her intro was vaguely familiar. Then I realized she had copied it verbatim from a sample personal brand statement in a Job-Hunt article of mine. I responded to her privately, and gently, that it’s never a good idea to “use” other people’s content, and why she needed to start from scratch and write her own brand messaging.

Here are 7 reasons why borrowing content is a bad idea:

1. Copyright infringement has expensive penalties.

In the USA, the government thinks stealing content is wrong, too, and makes violating copyright law a serious, punishable offense, with fines up to $150,000 for each infringement.

ANY content you’ve found online, even if it doesn’t carry a “© Copyright” claim, is protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which is international in scope and consistent with similar laws in the European Union and most other parts of the globe.

2. A borrowed “personal” brand isn’t personal enough.

A “personal” brand is just that. It’s associated with a specific “person,” designed to resonate with their specific target employers, and crafted to showcase that person’s unique set of personal attributes, motivated strengths, passions, and value proposition. The content you’re stealing may sound like you, but it’s really not your brand story.

Employers are increasingly using the Internet to validate what is contained on a resume or in an online profile. If everything isn’t “in sync” it will look very odd, and will likely negatively impact your chances.

3. Not your unique personal brand.

Branding is all about differentiating yourself. It’s not about how you’re the same as the others competing for the jobs you want. In today’s highly competitive job market, you need to stand out . . . not get lost in a sea of sameness.

Identify and help people assessing you understand what specifically elevates you above the rest, and makes you the best-fit candidate for your target companies.

4. May not be appropriate for your situation.

The well-written content that’s tantalizing you may not do the job a resume or online profile is meant to do – aligning what you have to offer with the current needs of your target employers. You MUST research those companies to determine the key functional areas that will be important to them, and pump your resume and LinkedIn profile with your specific expertise, contributions, and value-add in those specific areas.

5. May cause you to be shut out by identity confusion and conflicts.

That resume you stole from may still be in circulation, being used by an active job seeker, or the LinkedIn profile you borrowed may belong to a job seeker who is pursuing the same jobs you are. What do you suppose happens when a recruiter or hiring professional notices the same content for two (or more, if others have stolen the content, too) candidates they’re considering for the same job? All of you get shut out. Nobody wins.

6. Puts your integrity in question.

If hiring professionals find out, you could be jeopardizing your chances to land the jobs you want. What does stealing say about your integrity? What kind of employee are you likely to be if you have no qualms about scraping copyrighted content? Even if you never heard of the DMCA, you should know that stealing is wrong.

7. Bad SEO (search engine optimization) reduces impact and authority.

If you create a web resume that duplicates more than 50% of someone else’s web resume (or any other web page), Google and other search engines will view yours as “duplicate content” and will place it further down in search results, below the “earlier” version done by the originator. Search engines penalize duplicate content!

Bottom Line:

You’re an original. Reflect that in your brand. Authentic branding doesn’t come from using someone else’s brand messaging. It comes from digging deep and differentiating yourself. Read my 10-Step Personal Branding Worksheet to learn how to develop your own brand content.

Related posts:

What Personal Branding is NOT

Executive Brand Online Reputation Management: Relevance, Quality, Diversity, Volume, Consistency

Top 10 Executive Resume Branding Tips

photo by woodleywonderworks

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