What was your most engaging moment in your career?

What was your most engaging career moment?

It is a great question that we don’t often ask ourselves when we write our resumes. Furthermore, it is a question that we may not get in an interview. However, it is something we need to ask ourselves to measure our skills, abilities and more so, our passion for doing the things we enjoy doing.

I had the opportunity to meet with a very bright person about her resume as well as her job search. We were having a great conversation that was going very well, but I needed to know something more powerful, so I asked, “What was your most engaging moment in your career? Where you were the most happy; where you felt that you were really doing what you wanted to be doing?”

Her reaction to this question did not surprise me, but it was exciting to see first hand. As she started to answer my question I saw her posture straighten with confidence, her eyes got wider; her voice got stronger and had more conviction and was deliberate in the delivery of explaining this specific career moment. I responded by saying, “What a great experience, is this in your resume?”

“Umm…no”, she bashfully stated.

I believe that your most engaging career moments are key elements to be included in your resumes for the following reasons:

1. Weather you tackle a project or task one time or 100 times your approach to those items will be consistent, and the way you apply your skills and abilities demonstrate your proficiency.
2. You will demonstrate your passion for these items. Recruiters value passion for related tasks, projects, skills and/or jobs. In my experience, I have hired a people who demonstrates a love for what they do over someone who just has the hard skills to do the job.
3. Including your most engaging career moments are much more descriptive than a bullet point. Let me demonstrate. An example of a bullet point would be a statement such as, “I responsible for selling software.” To contrast, an example of an engaging moment would be, “Using compiled research from our CRM to create a competitive and comprehensive proposal and presentation that exceeded the clients expecations of our services. After the presentation we clearly demonstrated our commitment and the clients signed the contract, which excced our monthly quota by 20%. " If these were two candidates for a job who woudl you be more apt to to hire? The difference here is you know more about performance from one candidate and that is what drives business.

You are answering interview probes in your resume, therefore you are able to demonstrate your skills, abilities, and passions before most other applicants, prompting recruiters to call you to find out more. Your resume IS your First Interview and you will be prepared better for your face to face interview when it comes!

So ask yourself, what is your most engaging career moment and:
1 Write about it!

2. Find themes in your skills, certain tasks that you really enjoyed, particular software/computer applications, etc.

3. Ask yourself deeper questions as to why you were engaged or like doing the tasks in the project.

4. Pare down your story to the important aspects that demonstrate your high level skills, your passion for the work, and the results you were able to achieve.

Resume Revisions, Does It Ever End?

I was recently working with a friend of mine regarding her resume to make sure it demonstrated her experience for a job she was applying for. In our discussion she made the following comment;
“I will be happy when this resume is done and over with and I won’t have to play with it any more.”

Now, this struck me in a funny way that I had to chuckle in sympathy with her for a second and then I realized that resume revisions are never over and a resume is never final. So I explained to my friend that my resume has evolved over the last 11 years to include the words that are commonly searched by recruiters in my field and my own search terms as a professional when I conduct research. I also change, add, and edit wording almost religiously, with new experiences, situations, and projects as they happen so I don’t forget when the time comes to hand out my resume.

I would like to strongly suggest to everyone, be prepared for the unexpected positive or negative situations we may encounter in our careers by editing and revising our resumes regularly. Your resume is a living document. As you evolve in your position, career, and experiences, your resume should evolve in real time too.

You may be completely happy with your job, but on occasion, as you are cruising Jobing.com to see what is out there (come on, I know you do it) ask yourself, “Is my resume updated should my dream job be out there today?” Because, as a jobseeker, we don’t have time to spare when it comes to applying for the right job.

Think of the times when you have been networking and the people you are speaking with ask for your resume. How many of us have scrambled to update it by the next day? I know I have in some cases. Then, because we did not say the right things, forgot experiences, projects, etc. we send three or four revised documents. How well did that make us look in terms of being prepared, proactive, or detailed?

Resume are never finished, they are a real time, living, and evolving documentation of your skills, experiences and passions about your career.