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January 20, 2011

Write A Resume Better Than A Career Coach

By Ken Sundheim

If you work hard enough and are smart enough, you will be able to teach yourself how to write a resume without a career coach's help.

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Upon seeing frequent rejection of their resume submissions, many job seekers immediately turn to an expensive career coach to immediately have their resume professionally done thinking someone else can make their employment woes vanish.

When it comes to writing a great resume, for the most part resume and cover letter outsourcing is hardly a necessity. If you practice enough, there are certain resume tweaks as well as various resume methodologies that can be implemented on your own. Best of yet, being able to write a resume yourself will provide the luxury of not having to pay someone to have your CV written properly.

These career services are mostly subpar and they typically come gift wrapped with astronomical fee that most unemployed job seekers cannot afford, but are scared into doing.

For the time being, put away the checkbook, keep your wallet padded and I will tell you how to better your resume with two simplistic, yet crucial resume-writing tips. By starting to implement these resume writing techniques and by fully incorporating them within your CV, you could seamlessly improve the quality, content and overall theme of your resume while circumventing costly, professional resume writers some of whom may not be as good as you from the onset.

- Implementing the Who, What, Where, When and Why (5W's)

Each sentence on your resume needs to be very descriptive and robust, yet succinct (don't ramble - obvious tip, but needs mentioning). To be able to write resume sentences / phrases in an interesting and descriptive manner, you first must closely read over your current resume line by line.

Following this, repeat the reading from line 1, but this time actually verbalize each sentence as you continuously ask yourself, "Who, What, Where, When and Why."

To walk you through an example regarding proper implementation of the 5W's, I've listed a generic, commonly used resume phrase below. Then, I compare it to the result one gets when the 5W's resume tactic is factored into the equation.

ORIGINAL RESUME PHRASE:

"Helped customers with incoming inquires"

At KAS, we see it all the time. The above description means little to nothing to those who will be evaluating the resume. This is regardless of whether the screening parties are in the same industry as you are currently working in or are in an entirely different vertical that you're trying to penetrate. Candidly speaking, it's not in the least bit enticing and this phrase requires more thought, a lot more effort and obvious alteration.

NEW RESUME PHRASE AFTER 5W'S

"Helped incoming customers primarily from the insurance, finance and human resources industries become familiarized with the firm's flagship product which is x software, an educational learning technology."

Which one do you think is better?

By starting to go through the motions and getting in the habit of asking the 5W's upon reviewing your current resume content, you will have a presentable, intelligently written and well thought out professional resume.

When done correctly, this can also significantly boost your interviewing confidence.

- It's All About the Adjectives Put In the Resume

Strong, bold and candidly stated adjectives make-up the resumes that win time after time. Always ensure that your resume is worded in a compelling sense.

To incorporate this method within your resume, begin by examining nearly every adjective that is currently on your resume. Then, it is high suggested that you use a thesaurus and begin finding powerful, attention grabbing adjectives that.

In the end, use the adjectives that you feel paint you in the best light while remaining in your comfort zone. By doing this, you will appear much more intelligent than you previously did on paper.

In fact, a big form of persuasion is how you phrase the terms that you both speak and write. That is why having solid adjectives can make or break a resume.

Do you prefer sentence one or sentence two:

"Bob had great accuracy." 
"Bob had pinpoint accuracy that can be described as nothing short of astonishing."

Writing a resume is not rocket science. It just takes time, work and patience. I don't always suggest outsourcing the work because many times you could express yourself better. Use these two tips, then please comment on the article so I can decipher as to whether or not I just saved you a $1,000 or not.

Started in 2005, Ken Sundheim is President of KAS Placement a sales and marketing staffing agency in New York 



Authors Bio:
About Ken Sundheim:

31 year-old business owner of an executive search firm by the name of KAS Placement based in New York City. KAS Placement was started in 2005 from studio apartment by the CEO and now has clients from over 30 countries in 100 different industries .

As a business writer, Ken's articles have been syndicated or published in: WSJ.com, Forbes.com, NYTimes.com, USAToday.com, BusinessInsider.com, About.com, AOL.com, Huffington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Houston Chronicle, FUSE.tv, CollegeRecruiter.com, Yahoo!, Opednews.com, DallasNews.com, YoungEntrepreneur.com, Entrepreneurs-journey.com, Examiner.com as well as many, many more.

Ken was also the runner-up to be the About.com Sales Career Guide. Interviews have included CBS MoneyWatch.com, FINS.com (WSJ.com Careers), Oprah's MORE (October Issue), About.com and Monster.com.

Ken has also been asked to speak at NYU, Syracuse University's Whitman School of Business as well as at Pace University's Alumni Career Services.

KAS Placement is headquartered in New York City NYC Headhunters NYC Sales Recruiters with a secondary staffing specialty in Chicago Headhunters Marketing Sales Recruiters Chicago

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