For most people, writing a resume is intimidating. It is an important career document, yet, we are rarely taught how to write one. As a Career Coach, I get many questions about the process of writing resumes. What do you write? What should you leave out? How should you phrase things? How do you format it?

I am going to make this easier for you. Writing a resume does not need to be hard. No matter if you are pursuing an entry-level job or a C-Suite opportunity, the basics of resume writing will apply. These basics are:

• Understand what your audience will value

• Writing about that value 

• Formatting your resume in a way that makes it easy to read

Easy, right?

Well, sort of. 

Let me help you by showing you how to address all three of these “basics.” Once you understand each, writing a great resume will be so much easier and less stressful.

In Part 1 of the series Secrets of a Great Resume, let’s explore understanding what your audience values.

What Will Your Audience Value?

If you have been in an occupation for many years and you are looking for a new job in a similar role and industry, you may have a clear idea of what a hiring manager would value. A review of your present job description and thinking about what you do every day and what your get praised for (or asked to do better) will be a good guide.

But many people are not in that situation, and they struggle to understand what a future employer values. That is when conducting research is essential.

So, where do you start?

There are some online tools that can help you better understand what typical employers for the type of role you desire will value.

Note: If you do not know what type of role(s) would be of interest, then you really must do career exploration first. It is very hard to write a resume that will appeal to employers when you do not know what you want to do is very hard. 

This article about finding your career purpose may help.

LinkedIn

Because one of LinkedIn’s strengths is its access to career information, LinkedIn can offer some unique tools to help individuals navigate their careers. One of these tools is called Career Explorer (https://linkedin.github.io/career-explorer/). 

With Career Explorer, you can enter the name of a job and any location.

You will get back a listing of the most popular knowledge and skills of that job.

You then have an idea of the skills, knowledge, and experience that employers might find of value and that you should include on your resume.

Note: Never add knowledge, skills, or experience on a resume that you do not have. 

Career Explorer will also compare your profile information to the typical skills needed in a similar job to the one you selected and tell you where your skills overlap, skills to build, and the popularity of transitioning from your current role to the one indicated.

O*Net Online

O*Net (www.onetonline.org) stands for the Occupational Information Network, developed through sponsorship from the US Department of Labor. It has nearly 1,000 occupations covering every aspect of the US economy. You can use it to find information about the requirements in specific fields.

Enter the title of the job in the Occupation Quick Search box on the top right of the home page.

You will get information a summary of the role and specifics in the following areas.

• Tasks

• Technology Skills

• Knowledge

• Skills

• Abilities

• Work Activities

• Work Context

• Job Zone

• Education

• Credentials

• Work Styles

• Work Values

• Related Occupations

• Wages & Employment Trends

Note: You can use My Next Move (www.mynextmove.org) to do career research. There you can search careers by keywords, industries, or answer questions to let the site suggest careers that match your interests and training.

Word Clouds

Use of a Word Cloud is a quick way to identify what your audience will value. The Word Cloud allows you to visually see the most important terms in job postings. It stands to reason that if words appear consistently in a number of job postings, they are important to most employers that hire this type of role.

Here is how to use Word Cloud software for identifying keywords.

1. Find 4-5 job descriptions from different companies that use the same or similar job titles.

2. Cut and paste only the job duties and requirements (not company information or benefits) into a Word Cloud. Examples of free programs are WordItOut (https://worditout.com/word-cloud/create) or WordArt (https://wordart.com/).

3. Look at the Word Cloud to determine the important skills, experience, and knowledge desired by the employer. Here is an example for the Marketing Manager example.

Informational Interviews

Sometimes the best way to find out what your resume or LinkedIn audience will value is by asking them. This is where informational interviews can come into place. Talking with people that currently do the job you desire, or have in the past, can provide significant information you can use to understand the job, the employers, and the industry. You can also try to speak with people that are or have hired for these types of roles as well.

So what should you ask to elicit the information needed to determine what value means to these employers? Here is a sampling of the types of questions you might want to ask.

• Tell me about the main responsibilities of the role.

• Tell me about a typical day in the life of an X.

• What kind of problems do/did you routinely have to solve in the role?

• What are/were the decisions that you typically had to make in the role?

• What keeps/kept your manager up at night?

• What skills, abilities, or personal attributes do successful people in this role have?

• Is there any specific type of training or education that is highly prized?

• Do you see anything in my background that would set me apart from other applicants for this type of role?

As always, when you do start a conversation with someone for an informational interview, make sure to ask if they know anyone else that you could speak with and if they would offer an introduction. The more people you can speak to, the better.

Conclusion

Part 1 on Secrets of a Great Resume is about understanding your audience and what they value. This is going to take some research on your part. I have given you some ways to do this research. Don’t skip this step. It is the most important of the three. You can’t write about your value when you do not know what it is for an employer. And worrying about formatting your resume will be a fool's errand if your content doesn’t address what that employer needs. 

Shelley Piedmont is a job search coach. She wants to help job seekers put their best foot forward by providing the tools for a successful job search. If you need career coaching, resume preparation, interview skills assessment, or LinkedIn profile assistance, she can help. Schedule a 15-minute no-obligation consultation.