Do you believe a resume will get you a job or an interview? If you think it gets you the job then it’s time to rework your resume. In today’s world you have to think of yourself as the Product. And if that’s the case then your resume along with your collateral materials, as well as the way you interview have to reflect your product’s personal brand. Gone are the days when your resume used words such as:

• responsible for
• managed
• handled
• led

Instead, your resume should be much more focused on your major accomplishments and the value you added for your employer. It should be skills focused and success oriented with quantitative results used whenever possible that demonstrate your impact on revenue generation, cost reduction, team building, problem solving, and relationship building.

Hard skills (years of experience, education) are what get you in the game. It’s the soft skills (accomplishments, how you work) that provide the differentiating factors when decisions are made between who to bring in for an interview and which resumes to delete. Flexibility and creativity are two important characteristics that employers look for when making new hires. Your listed accomplishments should highlight these characteristics in a show, don’t tell, manner.

Your resume should speak to an employer’s needs and demonstrate how you can help them. When putting together your branded resume try to answer the following questions:

• What are my assets?
• How am I different/better than my competitors?
• What do I bring to the job/company that is unique?
• What are the prospective employer’s greatest needs and how does what I offer help them?
• What weaknesses or shortcomings do I have that might prevent me from getting the interview/job? How can I ameliorate them?

Your resume should be geared to the particular job for which you are applying. The more tailored your resume, the more time you spend customizing it, the better your chances at getting the call to come in.