Please note: On a somewhat infrequent basis, Quintessential Careers asks noted
career experts five questions related to their expertise and publishes the interview
in the current issue of QuintZine,
our biweekly newsletter. Here is one such interview.
Deborah Wile-Dib, nationally certified resume writer and career coach, is owner and President of
Advantage Resumes of New York.
Q:
What trends and changes in resumes have you
observed in the last few years?
A:
The evolution of the resume from a historical
document to a strategic personal marketing piece. Strictly traditional chronological resumes no longer
meet the needs of employers. Employers want problem-solvers who can immediately and profitably
react to the almost instantaneous changes in the marketplace. An achievement-oriented resume, one
that showcases the applicant's relevant achievements in a CAR (Challenge/Action/Result) format and
places them in a position of prominence above the traditional job chronology, should prove the
applicant's value to the employer and secure an interview.
Q:
What is the most important piece of advice you feel you
could offer today's job-seeker about resumes? What's the biggest mistake job-seekers make that your
advice could correct?
A:
Job seekers should always remember that the employer
has little or no interest in what the job seeker wants from a job. They want to know what the job seeker can
do for them; what bottom-line impact will they have, and how soon can they expect that impact. All personal
marketing materials must be written with that vision.
The biggest mistake job seekers make is to focus their resume on themselves by using a boring objective
and strictly chronological listing of jobs. A great resume focuses on the job seeker's targeted market and uses
a defined strategy to show the applicant's value to the employer.
Q:
What directions do you see online job-hunting
taking in the next few years?
A:
Online job hunting will become more and more the norm.
Job seekers and employers alike will use the Web for searching for and filling open positions.
However, as more people use the Web for employment purposes, it will become increasingly difficult
for employers and recruiters to sift through the immense number of replies to open positions, even with
the aid of electronic data sorting. Networking will still be the most important way to look for the best jobs
and it will be ever more important to get past the electronic gatekeepers.
The best use of the Web from a job seeker's point of view will be to research companies for networking
and interview purposes. With the proliferation of company Web sites, it will become increasingly easy to
become acquainted with companies' power structures, corporate cultures, directions, and challenges.
Interviewees who want to out-compete the competition have only to do their homework and interview armed
with suggested strategies to help meet corporate challenges.
Q:
Do you see today's job-seekers (especially at
the college grad/entry level) becoming too complacent about job-seeking because of the robust economy?
How can job-seekers make the most of the strong economy and be prepared for when the current boom subsides?
A:
There is often complacency amongst job seekers,
even in poor economies. Most people think "That will never happen to me. My company will never downsize
and even if they do, I'm too valuable to be let go." This head-in-the-sand thinking is rampant and prevents a pro-active
stance that prepares for any eventuality.
A job seeker in any economy must brand herself or himself as does any good marketer of a product.
Personal career management today and in the future will mean creating a brand awareness, of becoming known
in one's industry for certain innate qualities and quantifiable achievements that drive efficiency, innovation, and/or profits.
Resumes and other personal marketing documents must be kept up to date, business, industry and/or technical knowledge
must always be expanded, and networking must always be happening. Looking out for new opportunities must become
second nature.
Q:
What distinguishes your approach to resumes from
everyone else's? What make it different or better?
A:
Resumes are advertisements focused to the need
of the purchaser. The employer is the buyer; the applicant is the product. Pure and simple. In my resume consulting
practice, I work with my clients to identify their target (job, or industry, or even company), determine their skills and
accomplishments, and then strategize the achievements that will capture the interest of their targeted employers.
We also discuss and develop a profile of their soft skills, those intangibles that make them who they are and drive
them to succeed. Then their hard and soft skills, achievements, and job history/education are edited and formatted
into a striking and cohesive resume that drives results. In addition, this beautifully formatted paper document is
converted into a simply formatted computer scannable version and a plain text (ASCII) version for e-mail.
This service provides the job seeker with a resume for every possible situation: networking and interviewing,
faxing, answering want-ads, corresponding with employers and recruiters via e-mail, and answering on-line ads.
Deborah Wile-Dib, nationally certified resume writer and career coach, is owner and President of
Advantage Resumes of New York, a premier provider of
worldwide executive, professional, and technical career marketing and coaching services.
More than 65 examples of Ms. Wile-Dib's work have been nationally published in eight
McGraw-Hill and JIST career books. Ms. Wile-Dib is the exclusive weekly career columnist for
Long Island’s leading tech and new media careers site, IJOBS.com;
has been interviewed for three consecutive years in Newsday’s Business Section, and frequently
speaks on career issues at conferences and colleges. She is a founding member of The National
Resume Writers’ Association (NRWA) where she currently serves on the NRWA’s Certification Commission.
She is also an active member of The Professional Association of Resume Writers (PARW), the Association
for Job Search Training (AJST), the Career Planning and Adult Development Network (CPADN), and Career
Masters Institute (CMI) Ms. Wile-Dib holds four careers industry certifications: Nationally Certified Resume
Writer (NCRW), Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW), Internationally Certified Job and Career
Transition Coach (IJCTC), and Credentialed Career Master (CCM).
