Do I even need a resume?
Think of the best job you’ve ever had. How did you get that job? Chances are you got the job without a resume, or if your did use a resume it came almost as an after thought. When I talk to people in their perfect career paosition, most of them (perhaps as many as 80% of them) got the job because they were able to show their potential employer how their services would help grow the business — NOT because of some killer resume and/or cover letter.
Yet, when we begin the job search, the first thing most of us do is polish up the old resume and begin sending it out. Why do we spend our time doing this if most great jobs are found through some other means? Probably because most of us don’t know how to conduct a career marketing campaign. We resort to doing what we think is most important, and that involves a resume. Besides, everyone tells us we need a resume!
When I talk to people on the other side of the interviewing desk (hiring managers and recruiters), they tell me that they have a problem finding “good candidates” for their advertised positions. When I ask them to tell me about their best employees, there is an acknowledgment that many of those best employees did not come through the traditional search process — at least not for the position they are in now. Again, why do we utilize a method of sending, receiving and sorting through resumes if that is NOT the way most of our best employees are found? That is the method that is expected of us — ineffective as it may be.
The best approach to finding the perfect career position (or the perfect candidate) involves knowing what you want to do, knowing your past successes in accomplishing this type of task, and aggressively marketing yourself to employers who need your services.
If you are searching for that perfect position and finding that your resume isn’t doing the job, perhaps it’s time to try a different approach. Are you ready to begin a career marketing campaign that will help you find the perfect position? Or are you going to continue to be satisfied with settling for less by developing and sending out your resume? The choice is up to you.
