I hate cleaning my house.
With a passion I hate cleaning my house.
It just seems overwhelming to me.
I start with one thing - "Today I do all the laundry".
In sorting the laundry I go into the bathroom to gather anything that did not make it into the hamper and I notice that I have not put away the girly things in the bathroom, so I straighten that.
Then back I go to the hamper in the closet and notice that I haven't put my shoes away and there is one in there without a match - so off I go to search for its match, which I find by the bed.
But then notice the bed isn't made so I have to make the bed, then I notice there is stuff on my nightstand that needs to be put away.
So I start putting that away and notice there is a glass that needs to go down to the kitchen, so off I go to the kitchen.
Do you see where I am going here? One thing leads to another and another and another - I meander from one room to another stopping and doing little things here and there but never really cleaning.
Things on the surface look okay, but please do not look closely, there are dust bunnies hiding everywhere.
But I am a grown up with teenage boys, dogs and a fiancé - so I have to suck it up and clean.
No matter how hard I hope and wish those damn cleaning fairies just never show up in the middle of the night! My best friend Jackie on the other hand - total Betty Crocker Super Mom! She is awesome and amazing and I want to be her when I grow up.
She is focused, organized and an amazing housekeeper - with pre-teen kids, dogs and a husband.
How does she do it? She determines what part she is going to do and sticks to it, she goes into the closet, sorts the cloths, gathers them takes them down to the laundry room and gets it done.
Does she see the other stuff, yes, but she stays focused on one task at a time.
She breaks her house down to little components, makes a list and is able to check things off one by one.
How does this relate to your resume? Take Jackie's approach.
We tend to get so overwhelmed by the entire process that we spend little time on each section but then it reminds us of something else in another section so we start working on that and we end up with a product that is may look good at a quick glance, but then when we begin to look at it closer we see dust bunnies.
(And as a side note - why on earth are those called dust bunnies? I think Dust Tumbleweeds is more appropriate, but I digress...
) Remember when you are writing your resume, you know what you are trying to say, but to another person there is vital information missing.
I recently sat down with a woman who was a purchasing goddess.
She saved over $350k in less than six months just in evaluating a department and the internal system.
This was one of her highlights and she stated it as she manages purchasing departments to run more smoothly and effectively.
I asked her what does that mean, how does she contribute to making it more efficient? She explained that she would evaluate the people working in the department and their responsibilities making sure that their strengths matched up with the tasks at hand, she was also responsible for training individuals on the internal processes, recruit people, perform internal testing to make sure there were no duplicate procedures - she did a lot more than just "manage".
We talked about how to incorporate the key factors that she did to highlight those in her bullet point.
Instead of "Manage Purchasing Departments to run more smoothly and effectively" we stated with "Manage Purchasing Department systems, controls and personnel by effectively evaluating processes, procedures and individual responsibilities to incorporate time management, system efficiency and development of individuals resulting in a cost savings of over $350,000 in six months.
" Now that is something you can work with! You can take that into two different strengths - the development of the individuals incorporating the evaluation, hiring, training and development and the management of the systems and processes.
Take a look at your resume - copy and paste one section, one job or one highlight and paste it into another document.
Underneath that statement or section start making notes on what exactly that means.
How did you add value, save money, save time or increase client satisfaction? Really break it down.
Do not try to put it into pretty resume language, just make notes.
Again, just talk plain English as though you are explaining it to someone who knows nothing about what you do.
Do not worry about proper grammar or sentence structure, just write.
Once you have done this then you have a lot of material that you can work with.
Ask a friend to read your original statement and ask them what that means to them.
Is it coming through loud and clear what your strength is in that statement? If not, start to read your notes to them then ask them if it defines what you were attempting to say.
More often than not they will tell you that it is much clearer picture.
It is a long and difficult process, but staying focused and breaking down each section bit by bit will create a much stronger resume, one that communicates more clearly what your strengths are and leaves room for an interviewer to ask you follow up questions.
And there will be no dust bunnies!
With a passion I hate cleaning my house.
It just seems overwhelming to me.
I start with one thing - "Today I do all the laundry".
In sorting the laundry I go into the bathroom to gather anything that did not make it into the hamper and I notice that I have not put away the girly things in the bathroom, so I straighten that.
Then back I go to the hamper in the closet and notice that I haven't put my shoes away and there is one in there without a match - so off I go to search for its match, which I find by the bed.
But then notice the bed isn't made so I have to make the bed, then I notice there is stuff on my nightstand that needs to be put away.
So I start putting that away and notice there is a glass that needs to go down to the kitchen, so off I go to the kitchen.
Do you see where I am going here? One thing leads to another and another and another - I meander from one room to another stopping and doing little things here and there but never really cleaning.
Things on the surface look okay, but please do not look closely, there are dust bunnies hiding everywhere.
But I am a grown up with teenage boys, dogs and a fiancé - so I have to suck it up and clean.
No matter how hard I hope and wish those damn cleaning fairies just never show up in the middle of the night! My best friend Jackie on the other hand - total Betty Crocker Super Mom! She is awesome and amazing and I want to be her when I grow up.
She is focused, organized and an amazing housekeeper - with pre-teen kids, dogs and a husband.
How does she do it? She determines what part she is going to do and sticks to it, she goes into the closet, sorts the cloths, gathers them takes them down to the laundry room and gets it done.
Does she see the other stuff, yes, but she stays focused on one task at a time.
She breaks her house down to little components, makes a list and is able to check things off one by one.
How does this relate to your resume? Take Jackie's approach.
We tend to get so overwhelmed by the entire process that we spend little time on each section but then it reminds us of something else in another section so we start working on that and we end up with a product that is may look good at a quick glance, but then when we begin to look at it closer we see dust bunnies.
(And as a side note - why on earth are those called dust bunnies? I think Dust Tumbleweeds is more appropriate, but I digress...
) Remember when you are writing your resume, you know what you are trying to say, but to another person there is vital information missing.
I recently sat down with a woman who was a purchasing goddess.
She saved over $350k in less than six months just in evaluating a department and the internal system.
This was one of her highlights and she stated it as she manages purchasing departments to run more smoothly and effectively.
I asked her what does that mean, how does she contribute to making it more efficient? She explained that she would evaluate the people working in the department and their responsibilities making sure that their strengths matched up with the tasks at hand, she was also responsible for training individuals on the internal processes, recruit people, perform internal testing to make sure there were no duplicate procedures - she did a lot more than just "manage".
We talked about how to incorporate the key factors that she did to highlight those in her bullet point.
Instead of "Manage Purchasing Departments to run more smoothly and effectively" we stated with "Manage Purchasing Department systems, controls and personnel by effectively evaluating processes, procedures and individual responsibilities to incorporate time management, system efficiency and development of individuals resulting in a cost savings of over $350,000 in six months.
" Now that is something you can work with! You can take that into two different strengths - the development of the individuals incorporating the evaluation, hiring, training and development and the management of the systems and processes.
Take a look at your resume - copy and paste one section, one job or one highlight and paste it into another document.
Underneath that statement or section start making notes on what exactly that means.
How did you add value, save money, save time or increase client satisfaction? Really break it down.
Do not try to put it into pretty resume language, just make notes.
Again, just talk plain English as though you are explaining it to someone who knows nothing about what you do.
Do not worry about proper grammar or sentence structure, just write.
Once you have done this then you have a lot of material that you can work with.
Ask a friend to read your original statement and ask them what that means to them.
Is it coming through loud and clear what your strength is in that statement? If not, start to read your notes to them then ask them if it defines what you were attempting to say.
More often than not they will tell you that it is much clearer picture.
It is a long and difficult process, but staying focused and breaking down each section bit by bit will create a much stronger resume, one that communicates more clearly what your strengths are and leaves room for an interviewer to ask you follow up questions.
And there will be no dust bunnies!