Do we simply toss together our list of past employment experiences?

Of course not. We need to use this piece of paper to organize our past experiences in such a way to demonstrate that we’re ready for our next experience.

We want the past we are moving away from to make a case for the future we want to move toward.

Can it be done?

Listen in.

Don’t miss our Resume Workshop coming up on February 7th in Los Angeles! Register now.

Catch up on past episodes of Resume Branding here.

We bring a distinct working style, rich values, personality traits, approaches to leadership, teams, problems, communication, etc.

The challenge with a resume is communicating who you are given the limitations of a piece of paper.

How do we then find ways to describe what we bring to the table beyond merely listing past jobs we’ve held?

Listen in.

Don’t miss our Resume Workshop coming up on February 7th in Los Angeles! Register now.

Catch up on past episodes of Resume Branding here.

Traditional resumes ask you to list what you have done. They ask, “What have you already done?” But your next job is not a step toward the past. You want to progress forward. You want your next job, not your last job.

The question, then, becomes, “What do you want?”

In this week’s show, Claudia and I discuss how to turn this question into a resume. How can we use our work experience to make a case for what we want to do next?

Listen in.

I can’t control what another person thinks. I can’t force them to change their mind about me if they have settled on some incorrect perception.

The big deal is that those other people are making decisions that affect you. To the extent that their perception about who you are and what you bring to the professional table is incorrect, so will their decisions be.

Decisions like whether to hire you, promote you, invest in your training, or in the worst case, lay you off in a recessionary season.

While you cannot make someone see what they will not or cannot see, you can exert influence.

Our conversation topic this month is how our resume can be a powerful perception influencer. That is, if we accept responsibility for choosing how we present our professional interests and work history.

Begin by listing three responsibilities you would love to have in a job, even if you don’t have any work experience in them.

Now turn each of them into a job title, however silly it might sound. For example, if I want to be in charge of the development of a new product and lead the process from beginning to end, I might call myself a “Project Manager” or a “Lead Designer” or a “Brilliant Idea Implementor.”

The idea is to create for yourself some job-related vocabulary that would be helpful for describing yourself in terms of what you want to do next.

Try it. Share one or all three of your desired responsibilities and corresponding job titles in a comment here.

On your side,

- Karl Edwards

Don’t forget to sign up for our Resume Workshop: A Fresh Approach to Career Advancement coming up in Los Angeles on February 7th! Or contact us for information on inviting us to your community.

In this series, Claudia and I explore using the resume as a tool for describing what we’ve done in the past in such a way that we communicate what we want to do in the future.

We want to accept responsibility for maximizing the communication opportunity that this awkward piece of paper (the resume) offers us.

Over the course of the next four weeks, we’ll introduce an entire method for crafting a resume that articulates your distinct “brand.”

While listening to the show, make your reservation for the Resume Workshop on February 7th now!