If you are feeling so down on yourself and just can't get started, then focus on celebrating your wins to motivate you to go after your career dreams.  

​In one of my Discover Your Career Weekly Q&A sessions on Facebook Live I talked about how to get started when you don’t know how to get started. 

I chose that topic because I had spoken to a lot of people that week who were just so overwhelmed, who felt that they didn’t know where to begin but it all just seemed TOO much.  Too much information to wade through, too many conflicting ideas, too many things on the to do list, too much everything. 

When your feelings are in overdrive – you are overwhelmed, stressed out, anxious and depressed, exhausted and just discouraged.  When your head is spinning and your self esteem is in a downward spiral. 

So I presented a plan in how to take action, 5 steps that will help you figure out a first step:

1. Knowing That you Need A Change
2. Honouring Your Feelings AND Using Them As Fuel
3. Digging Deep – getting all the problems out there
4. Brainstorming solutions
5. Pick ONE thing.

A gave a list of suggestions for what that one thing could be.  And one of those things could be to just write your resume.  

But I want you to think differently about it.  Instead of feeling overwhelmed and discouraged by all the noise out there – what format, how to optimize it, how to make sure it gets you the interview – and instead just think about this as a first draft.  You can worry about all the rest later. 

So for the first draft – use it as an opportunity to build your self-confidence up.  This is a chance to celebrate you, your accomplishments and all the amazing things you can offer to a potential employer. 

So there are a few exercises I want you to go through that will not only get you great content for your resume but will also help you feel ready to take on the world!

WRITE A LIST
This is a list of all the ways you made a difference, all the accomplishments you have under your belt and all the things you are really proud of doing in your career.

I only want you to focus on the last 2-3 roles and think about at least 2-3 wins for each.  These accomplishments could be ways you reduced costs or brought in money, improved employee morale, helped the company go through a major transition phase (technical implementation, process improvements, merger & acquisition), or how you made the lives of others run smoother (clients, customers, team members or bosses). 

“But I don’t have any accomplishments”, is something I hear all the time.  All jobs have accomplishments!  Yes there are jobs out there that are accomplishment based (ie sales, project management) but don’t discredit yourself.  Task oriented jobs all have those times – when it is expected that you do the seemingly impossible!  Sometimes the accomplishment is just being so good at your job that your error rate or time to complete are amazing.

BRAG, BRAG, BRAG
I know so many of us our conditioned that it isn’t okay to brag.  But honestly now is the time!  Take each of those accomplishments and just start bragging away.

One way to really get some robust stories is to approach it as you would preparing for an interview.  Use the acronym BAR to write out your stories.  Background – what was the situation (problem, project, job aspect), your role and who you worked with.  Action – what are the steps you took throughout the situation (steps to solve, project lifecycle, etc). Result – what happened?  Use numbers here whenever possible to quantify but also think about it terms of Improving, Increasing, Reducing. 

I also suggest that you do this in a separate document than your resume that way you can save it for your interview prep.  Talk about using your time wisely.

PARE IT DOWN
Now you aren’t going to use the whole story for each of your accomplishments in your resume so now it is time to distill it into 1-2 bullet points.

Start each bullet point with an ACTION VERB and ensure that you are using keywords like skills, knowledge and experience that really show you off.

WHO YOU ARE
Read through those accomplishments. Think about how you want to build on those accomplishments.  Now you are ready to write your objective/profile statement of who you are, what you bring and what you want.

NOW YOU ARE READY
You have now completed the hardest part of the resume!  So you are ready to find a snazzy template that you like and that will get past those Applicant Tracking Systems (here’s a hint: one with colour but no tables).
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Most of your content is written, now all you need is to make sure the resume is filled will all the right components.  And I have you covered for that.  Get my free resume checklist – a handy way to make sure you are showcasing your worth without any added stress.
 
The resume feels like this impossible thing sometimes.  Especially when we are feeling lost and stuck and not feeling so great about ourselves!  But going through these exercises will not only give you WINNING resume content but will also get you ready to go out there and sell yourself!
Don’t forget to get my THE ULTIMATE RESUME CHECKLIST, make your live easier with this to guide you.

You want a job.  You know you need a resume but you think “how do I write a resume”, maybe you google it and then are lost in a sea of conflicting information!  Should you do a super formatted “fun” resume that you see all over Pinterest?  Or a super pared down resume to get past those resume bots known as Applicant Tracking Systems.  I’ve already answered some of those questions but in short, you should have one resume that will get noticed by an ATS but also one that is aesthetically pleasing because after all a human will eventually read it.
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But what information do you actually need in a resume?!  

I’ve got you covered.  I have a list of what you must have in your resume and what you might have in your resume that will ensure that it leads to interviews, and lots of them!

Must Haves Resume Components

1. Contact Information
I know that this seems obvious but you would be surprised!  Make sure that your email is professional, that you list your cell phone number.  Otherwise some optional pieces of information would be to include your LinkedIn profile link and your address, you could just put the city you live in and leave it at that.

2. Objective/Profile
There are some differing opinions on this.  However for me it is mandatory.  Not everyone will read it (like me for instance) but there will be a lot of people that do.  It sets a nice tone for the resume and I like how it looks in terms of the format.

The key to an objective statement is that it is 1-3 sentences long and gives a brief overview of who you are and what you bring to the table (think of it like a micro-elevator pitch).

3. Skills Summary
The skills summary is all about those resume bots.  Applicant Tracking Systems are very keyword focused and the skills summary is a great way to increase your chance of making it to the ATS’ list of recommended candidates.

Just don’t make it too long please!  Have 6-12 skills and focus on matching the words to the words of the job posting.

4. Education
You want to start with the most relevant education first so that is what gets noticed.

Are you a New Grad? Then feel free to include further details like course names, GPA scores, scholarships and awards.  If you are not a New Grad then please do not include this information, your experience is what matters not the courses you took.

Further training, like courses, certifications and memberships could all be included under the Education section.

5. Experience
This is probably the most obvious section of your resume!  The key is to follow the Reverse Chronological with your most recent job at the top. 
What gets confusing for individuals is how to format this section and how to explain different working situations.  Also, there are tricks you can do to highlight certain details that you want the reader to be drawn to.  Ask yourself, what do you want the recruiter to notice first – the job title or the company name?  Whatever your choice is put that on the first line, and maybe add some colour!  Here is how it could look:

Company Name                                                                                      September 2015 to present  Job Title (part-time/contract)
 
Notice how I used months.  As a recruiter I hated it when people didn’t use months, at least for the last 5 years.  Why?  It doesn’t tell a complete picture.  Let me outline why.  Say I see the dates 2017-2018.  I don’t know if someone worked there for two months (Dec 2017-Jan 2018), one year (March 2017-March 2018) or almost two years (Jan 2017-Dec 2018).  I’m less likely to call someone for an interview when these sort of questions are raised.

Now to the content, the hardest part of the experience section.  There are two things to focus on: your examples of how you made a difference and your accomplishments that will benefit your potential employer.  Think of what you did that you were proud of (in terms of tasks, responsibilities and accomplishments) what skills, knowledge and experience did you use?

Most experts’ state to use an accomplishment based resume and while I fully agree, I also know that nothing about the job search process is black and white.  There are many jobs that are very tasked based where you could be doing a disservice by ignoring that in your resume.

Optional Components

The next five components of a resume are completely optional but what I mean by that is for each of them there is a time and a place when they should be included (and when not to).

1. Volunteer
While volunteering is one of those things that are good to do that doesn’t mean that you need to include it on your resume.

So my first caveat is that if you volunteer and you have some room to fill out on your resume (say it is 1.5 pages) then by all means include it.  If the Volunteer section means you will be going on to the next page and it doesn’t add any significant value then don’t include it.

What do I mean by significant value though? 
Industry: There are certain industries that value volunteer work (education, arts and culture, not for profit, healthcare) and for those industries I would highly recommend including it. 
Volunteer Relevance: If you are applying for a role that requires a skill set that you only used while volunteering then include it. 
Career Story: Most entry level, new grads and individuals with a career break lean on volunteer experience to round out their time working, skill set and experience and in those cases you should always have a volunteer section.

I did want to note that Internships and Volunteer are not the same thing, even though both are unpaid work.  An internship belongs in your experience section, just note it as such using the brackets (internship).

2. Memberships/Professional Associations
This section is only added when you are a member of a professional association common in industries like Supply Chain, Finance, Human Resources, Engineering, etc. 

For streamlining purposes I do find that including them in your Education section is most effective.

3. Languages
List all languages spoken fluently, can included conversational as well if relevant for the job. Can also list in the Skills Summary to save space.

4. Technical Skills 
This section is typically used in replace of the Skills Summary for individuals in the IT space. 

5. Interests
In 98% of cases I recommend not including interests, even for New Grads.  However there are times when it does add value.  For example, if you are applying for a job in the arts and you are dedicated to that community include it.  If you happen to know who the hiring manager is and their interests then definitely list any shared ones!  But this is another section that should not put you onto another page, if it does then please leave it out!

Take the must haves, sprinkle in the optional components that make sense for you and your job search and you will end up with a winning resume that will lead to interviews.

I also have a handy checklist that you can download for free that will help guide you while writing it. Sign up here to get it!

I’m curious, what optional sections have you included that really added value to your resume?

For most of us selling ourselves doesn’t come naturally.  I know I always feel really awkward and weird.  It is really hard.  It doesn’t help that I’m a female Canadian – two identifying factors that encourage, actually DEMAND humility.  But a long time ago I learned that I can be proud of what I have to offer and still be humble.  Okay, who is kidding who here, this is something I continue to work on.  Though, I did learn how vital it is to my success to use the following four reminders to help me sell myself effectively. 

These four reminders work, they get me in the right mindset and act as prompts to encourage me to focus on what I bring to the table and how to get my message across without sounding like a used car salesman or getting all socially awkward!

1. You are the product.

When I’m interviewing new coaching clients and candidates I hear a lot of “buts”,  I noticed a problem and I came up with a solution BUT I was really lucky to have noticed it. 

I also hear a lot of “we”.  We managed or we implemented or we were involved.

When you are dealing with ANYONE that has the future of your career in your hands forget about the normal you – the person who maybe was really lucky to have stumbled across the perfect solution – and focus on the SUPERYOU, the incredibly observant, innovative and intelligent person who came across the perfect solution.

Think about advertisers.  Do they tell us how delicious that Big Mac is BUT that it can cause weight gain?  Nope! Or those battery commercials, do they say all batteries are the best? No way, they say THEY are the best. 

So what are the best things about you?  Get any objections out of your head.  And own those things, don’t share them with anyone else!

2. You are different.

If you are looking for a job you have a lot of competition since each job posting sees about 250 resumes.  If you are hoping for a promotion, look around you – there is your competition.
Chances are most of that competition are qualified to do the job, they have nice and friendly personalities and have a good work ethic.  And most of those people probably try to sell themselves by focusing on 1 of those 3 things.  That gets pretty boring, pretty quick!

You need to stand out.  How are you the unicorn, what is your superpower that differentiates you from the masses?  Figure that out and lead with that.  Make sure it is highlighted in your LinkedIn, your cover letter, your resume and elevator speech.  At work, showcase that power every chance you get (where it makes sense) and smoothly make sure the decision makers know about it.

3. You have potential.

Studies show that you are more likely to get hired or get the promotion/raise if you have the potential for greatness.  The crazy thing is if you take a candidate who has potential versus someone with actual experience, it is the former one that stands a better chance of getting hired! 

The thinking is that those who have potential makes the decision maker spend more time thinking about them which leads to an unconscious favourable view as long as there is evidence backing up the potential.

How do you make this work for you?  Especially if you do offer a ton of great experience.  It is all in the spin.  Tell the decision makers about your future and how what you have accomplished in the past will benefit and translate to a great things to come for you and therefore them. 

4. You are persistent. 

I don’t think it comes as a surprise but I love all forms of networking (events, informational interviews) and to me networking is key to a successful career.

As a recruiter, I get asked a lot – “do you know anyone who could be a fit for…”? Well let me tell you something – recency bias is for real.   It is usually the people I’ve spoken with in the past month or so that I recommend.  That is not to say you need to send weekly update emails to people in your network, you want to be persistent not annoying.

If you want to be considered for new opportunities than I would recommend connecting with the key people in your network about once every 3-6 months – just a quick email is good and don’t worry if they don’t email back!  Also be active where they are active.  If they tend to be on LinkedIn or Twitter, engage them by liking and commenting on their posts.  If they attend regular association events, show up too – an in person meeting is more memorable anyway.  On Social Media, I recommend sharing relevant articles, updating your status or writing new articles.  Keeping your name on their radar will go a long way.

If you want to be considered for any upcoming promotions, make sure management and HR are aware and remind them during any performance reviews or conversations.  Ask about job shadowing and training opportunities and ensure they know once you have completed those activities.  When you have had a win find a natural way to bring it up to them.

 
I don’t know about you but a lot of the above can seem at first to be very icky.  I certainly don’t want to have to schmooze my way into a new job or promotion, it just doesn’t come naturally to me.  In fact, I hate those people who seem to spend more time schmoozing and scheming than working.  But you know what is worse than not getting the job or promotion?  Is when THOSE people do!  And they do, all the time, I’ve seen it happen time and time again.  And trust me the goal of this article is not for you to become one of those people. 

I want you to be AMAZING at what you do but also learn to be AMAZING at selling yourself so that it is YOU, someone who so deserves it who gets the job or promotion! 

And obviously if this whole marketing yourself seems too much, that is what I’m here for!  Reach out and let me know how I can help.