It's Time to Put Your Strengths to Work – Page 3

“It’s Time to Put Your Resume to Work”, Part 5 – Creating a Universal Resume (When you Don’t have All the Facts)

It’s Time to Put Crews Strengths to Work for You

Previous posts in the “It’s Time to Put Your Resume to Work” series have explained ways to:

Match your experience to the requirements of the job listing.
Align your resume’s language to the language of the job listing.

The fourth post in the series discussed using word clouds to reveal important language in a job listing and in your resume. In part three of the series, you found out how to create an à la carte resume by breaking down all of your job experience into individual statements, so that you can address the requirements of a particular position.

The a la carte resume system is great, but what are you supposed to do when you don’t have a job description. This can happen for a variety of reasons, like when you find out about the job before the position is posted.

Remember, the vast majority of companies have fewer than 20 employees. Such companies may not have a large or any human resources department. There may be times when such a small organization has an employee quit. The boss decides there’s no reason to fill the position. Oh what the heck. If everybody pitches in, we can get Mary’s work done and not hire anyone. Then 6 months later, she realizes that nobody has been taking care of accounts receivable or ordering office supplies or paying the rent.

An emergency has occurred. Now what happens?

Hysteria! Anger! Confusion!

Then, the owner and several of the employees spread the urgent news with their neighbors, friends and even total strangers. They desperately need somebody to collect their outstanding bills. No formal job description may even or ever exist for everything that Mary used to do.

Other situations, like job fairs, may require you to do things a little bit differently. When you do not have sufficient information about any particular position to be able to use the a la carte resume system and word clouds to create a customized resume, what are you supposed to do?

You are going to employ similar techniques to the à la carte resume and word cloud method to create a resume. Because you are going to use broader information, it will be more generic, but it will also be more universal.

Note: If you know about a particular employer you want to approach at a job fair, try to prepare a customized resume specifically for them. This post is about situations where you are just tossing a ”flyer” in their general direction.

Creating a Universal Resume

There are a few steps to preparing a universal resume. First, gather job descriptions for five or more positions that describe exactly the kind of work you wish to do. These job listings may be jobs that are already filled or ones that you would not apply for because of their geographic location. It doesn’t matter. What you are looking for are clear descriptions of work that you would be interested in and able to do.

Step two is to combine listings into a single Word or equivalent document. Document A, above, shows such a document made from five job listings.

Next, go to your word cloud app (I recommend wordart.com ). Run your word document through the word cloud creator. Just as discussed in post four of the series, the word cloud creator will give emphasis (make bigger) to prominent terms. Since it is based on a larger amount of information than the single job listing example, you will be discovering industry rather than individual organization language. What is lost is information about a specific job. But, what is gained is information about current language and expectations in your field.

Document B: Word cloud for collected Job listings above.

Document B, above, is a word cloud created using Document A. In preparing this, any words which only appeared one time were deleted. Also words like “job” were deleted because they add nothing of value to the word cloud. Note that in this example, words like “Payroll”, “Train(ing)” and “Supply (Office Supplies)” stand out.

If the word cloud indicates that a particular skill is very important or highly valued in your field, you should select relevant statements from your a la carte resume menu to be included in your universal resume. Things like knowledge of a particular software package, expertise in applying industry standards or additional functions that seem to appear in multiple job listings in your field are all things you should address in your universal resume. If you lack experience in, say payroll, in the example above, it may be of value to learn whatever you can about payroll and be prepared to address this.

What Does the Industry Call That?

Additionally, you will look at the language describing your career field indicating the terminology that is standard in the field. This can be particularly helpful if you have worked in a large organization with its own patois or language idiosyncrasies which may not be universal. This is another example of the necessity to make it easy for the hiring manager to connect the dots. Don’t expect a hiring manager to translate GE speak to P&G speak.

Consider language disconnects when changing industries. Standard terminology in one field may be utterly incomprehensible to someone in another field, even for similar work. This is also likely for someone leaving the military.

In addition to the word cloud exercise, you should review the Word document you created from the five or more jobs to see what common things are appearing in multiple job descriptions. One technique to contrast and compare the various job descriptions you selected, while still being able to know which job listing contained each requirement, is to color the text for each job. Use a different color for each job listing. i.e. black for job a, job b in red, job c in green, etc. An example of this would look like Document C.

Document C: Collected job listings divided by individual job listing

Next, deconstruct the descriptions into individual sentences and compare and rearrange the various sentences into categories representing skills, knowledge and talents required. This is similar to what the a la carte resume process required you to do with your collected resumes in part 4 of this series. The multiple job listings document may reveal categories such as Supervision, Customer Service, Presentations, Contract Negotiations, etc. The categories you create could be like those in Document D below.

It really is time to put Crews Strengths to work for you

After organizing the several job descriptions by major functions, you should have a good indication of what experience most organizations would be looking for to fill a job in your field.

Now that you have a list of industry needs, it’s time to highlight your experiences that address these requirements. Taking your a la carte resume menu document, you will find the items which respond to the major areas addressed in the multi-job listing document. For example, if three of the five job listings mention supervision of 4 to 6 employees, you go to you’re a la carte resume menu document and choose from the several statements you have indicating your superior ability to lead teams of that size. If numerous supervision statements appear in several of the job listings, you will select more statements to include abut this in your resume.

Document D indicates training and a knowledge of payroll and office supplies. Your experience with this kind of work needs to be addressed in your universal resume. Remember the chronological resume is the standard format, so you will be describing your experience with payroll under the last job you held and also in the previous position before that. And so on into the past.

Update a la Carte Resume with Universal Resume Information

You can also use the word cloud and multiple job listing documents to update your a la carte resume menu by editing and adjusting the language you used in previous resumes. Language used in job description evolves just like the language in our culture. If several of the job listings use the term supervise rather than manage, you should certainly consider modifying or changing “management” to “supervision” in the a la carte menu as well as in the universal resume. While matching language using multiple job listings may not be as obvious as it is using the à la carte menu to respond to a specific job listing, this is one way to try to update your information with current industry language.

What should you do if you become aware of an actual job listing with a company after you have submitted your universal resume to them? For instance, if you give a representative of a company your universal resume while attending a job fair and discover that company has a job posted a week later. Should you hope that the universal resume works?

If you discover there are things on that job listing that you did not address, then send them a customized resume. Use a cover letter, to explain that you wanted to make sure they were aware of your experience doing such and such. It is also valuable to mention that you met Mr. Tanaka at the job fair and wanted him to have the most complete information to address his company’s needs. It is doubtful that a second resume would be held against you as a possible candidate for an interview.

Thank you for Your Support

If you need help in your resume, your search or in putting your Strengths to work, please contact Crews Strengths at https://www.crewsstrengths.com/pages/contact.html

Reading and using the suggestions provided in the “It’s Time to Put Your Resume to Work” series, you are getting lots of valuable information you can apply. Since you seem to like what you’ve read, go back to the LinkedIn article and give it a like and a positive comment.

Thanks!

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There is still more to come on resumes and Strengths and the whole job search experience.

If you need to catch up on the earlier posts in this series, here is the way to get to that valuable content:

Part 1 contains background information about resumes.

Part 2 describes parts of a resume and what information ought to be in them.

Part 3 covers the a la Carte Resume or customizable resume, a method to quickly create a resume that responds to the “demands” of any job listing.

Part 3a is a BONUS short post about the proper length for a resume

Part 4 shows how to discover the potential employer’s language and then use it in your resume.

“It’s Time to Put Your Resume to Work” – Part 4: Finding the Words (literally)

From the first post in the “It’s Time to Put Your Resume to Work” series, remember that the purpose of a resume is not to get a job, but to get an interview. To do that, your resume must survive a process of winnowing and weeding.

At each step, your resume is in danger.

Tossed about like a raft in a raging sea!

In danger of being capsized!

Oops.

Sorry . . . I got a little carried away.

Seriously, when your resume is received at the organization looking to fill the position, either digitally or physically, it is likely to first be run through screening software. An algorithm (fancy name for math and logic voodoo) is applied that attempts to determine if your resume meets some standard. If it doesn’t, it is electronically trashed.

If it survives the electronic cut, a human being will probably review it for a matter of seconds (literally) and again decide to keep or trash it. In smaller organizations, it may only be physically reviewed. Keepers will probably be given another look over for a slightly longer time period before a decision is made to finally invite a job seeker to an interview.

The exact process is a mystery protected by an HR department vow of silence. However, insiders willing to break the HR code of omerta indicate it looks something like that. One HR snitch shared that the ATS (Applicant Tracking Software) algorithm includes word searching. This informant shared an example of a search for a mid-level buyer at a large department store chain. The ATS was programmed to look for eight particular words which they felt indicated experience and expertise in the field. The initial cut was made based on the inclusion of at least 6 of those words. Five words or less, . . . well, those resumes sleep with the fishes.

The take-away from this story is that the language of the job listing holds the key words for that job. If you can align your resume with that language, you can help the hiring manager connect the dots that lead from their job opening to you.

Language Matters: How to Find the KEY WORDS

The effective resume plants the seed in the mind of the hiring manager that this is a viable candidate for the position in their organization. Aligning the language in your resume with the language in the job listing can go a long way to make your resume a keeper.

How are you going to determine the key words in a job listing? You can read through the job listing and note the description of the work and required skills. Actually, you must do this.

Additionally, a job listing holds a (not so) secret code which you can reveal by deconstructing it in a word cloud generator.

Word clouds are those attractive collections of words in a graphic arrangement in which the size of the text is proportional to its frequency of a words appearance. The word cloud generator makes particular words stand out mostly because of their frequency. It helps make it more obvious what matters most to the person who created the job listing.

Here is the process.

Find a word cloud generator.
Copy the text from the job listing which you are interested in analyzing.
Insert the copied text into the word cloud generator.
Run the word cloud generator and review the results.

There are lots of word cloud creators online. My favorite is wordart.com. It is simple enough to master in a few minutes, but highly flexible and, frankly, fun. In addition to the visual format, it also generates a word count list which lists the words in the job listing ranked by frequency of appearance. Wordart.com is highly customizable, allowing you to select font, color, shape (imagine a job in a circus shaped like an elephant) and much more. It also does not require you to upload any software.

An Example

This example is based on wordart.com, but the process would be the same in almost any word cloud generator.

Open the word cloud generator.
Click CREATE NOW.
It will take you to the create page where you click on IMPORT (red arrow below).

Insert the copied job description into the Import words box. The example is a job listing for an Executive Chef.
Click the IMPORT WORDS box (green arrow below).

The word cloud generator simultaneously creates a word list and a word cloud graphic. Under WORDS you can use -REMOVE to get rid of words which are not helpful to determine the important words. For instance, “Include” and “Skill” do not provide valuable insight. The same for place names. Deleting such words makes the important words more obvious.

The grey bars (red brackets above) at the bottom of the word list are used to customize the word cloud as follows.:

SHAPES: Choose the shape of your word cloud or add one of your own. For simplicity, choose something like a circle or square from the Geometric list for this project.
FONTS: Choose a font. The simpler the font, the easier it is to read.
LAYOUT: This controls the direction of the words in the word cloud: horizontal, vertical or diagonal or some combination. For this exercise, horizontal is the easiest way to arrange them.
STYLE: Style controls the color of the words and background. There are a variety of adjustments here to make the words more visible. Play with this a little bit to see what you prefer.

Clicking the red VISUALIZE button (upper left corner above) creates the word cloud. The prominent and most used words will be larger than the rest of the words. After reviewing the initial results, you may want to go back and remove items from the word list or adjust colors, etc.

Editing insignificant words from the list for this example, I discovered that there are lots of expectations about managing a kitchen staff versus just concentrating on cooking. Comparing this to another executive chef job listing could reveal differences in expectations of the two potential employers.

Next Word Cloud Your Resume

The next step in the process is to run your resume through the word cloud generator. Any words that appear larger are the things your resume is indicating to be important, whether you planned it that way or not. This is a way for you to discover what you are broadcasting in your primary individual marketing tool.

Next take your a la carte resume menu created after reading my post, “The a la Carte Resume” and run it through the word cloud generator. That will give you an even better idea of what the most prominent things are in your career history.

This isn’t necessarily supposed to be fun, it’s about work. However, you still might want to see if your resume looks cooler when you import it into a word cloud shaped like a skull.

Contrast and Compare

What you are going to do next, is compare the word cloud of your resume with the word cloud of the job listing. Does your resume seem to favorably correspond to the requirements in the job listing? Are the most important requirements in the job listing showing up as the most important things in your resume? If not, you can’t change the job listing, so what you will need to do is change your resume.

For example, if your resume leans heavily on your experience directing musicals, but the job listing is for a stage manager, you need to select the statements in you a la carte resume which indicate your experience in managing all aspects of the theater with only a passing mention (if any) of your directorial prowess.

Answer the “questions” posed by the job listing, not the ones you were hoping would be asked. The hiring manager holds all the cards at this stage. Respect that and use it to your advantage.

Comparing the two word clouds, look for the same words and for synonyms in both word clouds. When you find them or other similar wordings, which one do you think you ought to be using? The answer is the one in the job listing. Why? Because it is the language being used by the hiring manager. Using the hiring manager’s language makes it easier for him to connect the dots.

Note, in some organizations, an HR generalist may be assigned to post jobs without really knowing what the work entails. If your language doesn’t match the language in the job listing, the person receiving it may not have the depth of knowledge to figure out how well your resume actually matches their opening. Make it easy for them. Help them to connect the dots.

By now, you should be getting a better idea of what the potential employer is interested in seeing. It is your job to look interesting to the hiring manager.

Time to Start Writing

OK, time to start writing.

First you are going to take the boilerplate form you created after you read the post about a la carte resumes.

Remember the boilerplate resume form (shown here) is a version of your resume with the info you will need for each job to which you apply, like your letterhead, your education, etc. included, but with blank spaces for the Experience and Summary sections.

Next, go through your a la carte “menu” or master document, and select the statements that address the demands stated in the job listing and begin to build your resume.

To do this, take each statement in the job listing and determine what it is about. Let’s say three requirements relate to managing a team, hiring staff and annual reviews. You could group them under a single heading of “Management”. Now go to you’re a la carte resume and review the statements you have filed under Management. Select bullet points you have that respond to the items in the job listing.

Next edit your bullet point statement to make use of the language found in the job listing, especially making use of the word clouds. Don’t forget that the hiring manager’s words beat your words every time.

Here is an example.

Job Listing: “Responsible for all supervisory duties at the branch. Duties include hiring, training, annual reviews and discipline.”

For this example, let’s assume you look at the job listing’s word cloud and see that words like management, supervisor, lead, etc. all showed up in big letters.

Resume: Pick statements from your a la carte resume that relate to your management experience like “˖ Managed the night shift at third busiest location in City X including scheduling.” or “˖ Responsible for all personnel matters for three branch locations.” Probably contained in your master document under the heading “MANAGEMENT”.

Edit the Resume: Using the sentences in the job description and words from the word cloud, modify the above sentences. For instance, “˖ Handled all supervisory duties as the night shift at third busiest branch in City X including scheduling.” And “˖ Responsible for hiring, training, annual reviews and discipline for three branch locations.”.

Using the job listing language makes it easier for the person reviewing your resume to recognize you can do the work that she needs to get done. Make it easy for them to pick you.

Help the hiring manager connect the dots.

A Few More Thoughts about Resumes

Include sufficient statements to cover the topics that the hiring manager finds most important. But, remember your resume is only designed to “wet their appetite”, not to create an episode of Biography for TV. While looking for a chef’s job, you may be dying to include that you won the Betty Crocker Junior National Bake Off when you were 10 years old. If the job listing indicates they are most interested in a chef who can manage a large kitchen in an all-night restaurant, skip your tiny tot cooking success and show them that you have managed 40 people, served 1500 meals per shift and never had any of your kitchen staff quit.

The word cloud is not the only method for determining the important words your resume should contain. But it will reveal some of the most important functions, skills, talents and the words the hiring manager thinks describe them as well as the point of view of that prospective employer.

You still need to research the company offering the job to understand what matters to them. Researching the organization can help you understand company-centric language which may be different from your preferred terms. Remember their language and their way of describing it is the most important thing. If you want them to think of you in their organization, you need to describe yourself as if you had done the amazing things you’ve done in their organization.

Future posts will give you some other ideas about how to further improve your resume as well as how to create a resume to use when you don’t have a job listing.

Thank you

Thank you for continuing to read these posts. I trust that you find them valuable. Helping people find meaningful, purposeful, engaged employment is my goal. If you need help with a job search, creating a resume, deciding to make a career move or figuring out how to put your Strengths to work, please reach out to me.

___________________________________________________

If you need to catch up on the earlier posts in this series, here is the way to get to that valuable content:

Part 1 contains background information about resumes.

Part 2 covers parts of a resume and what information ought to be in them.

Part 3 covers the a la Carte Resume or customizable resume, a method to quickly create a resume that responds to the “demands” of any job listing.

Part 3a is a BONUS short post about the proper length for a resume

BONUS – “It’s Time to Put Your Resume to Work”- Part 3a : What is the Correct Length for Your Resume?

What is the right length for a resume?

How long should your resume be?

Long enough to spark the interest of the hiring manager, but not more than two pages. Unless you are a CEO of a major firm or foundation, you should limit your resume to two pages. Even if you created the next evolution of social media or a working light saber, keep it to two pages.

If you have run a Fortune 500 company, you can add an additional page, but only if you fill it with valuable information.

Remember, you also have a LinkedIn profile. So, you have a place where more details of what you have done, etc. is. If your resume is sufficiently interesting the hiring manager will want to check out your LinkedIn profile.

Don’t confuse a resume with a CV. A Curriculum Vitae or CV is an extensive multi-page detailed career record which in the United States is almost exclusively used in academia. It includes information about every paper written and class taught. In other countries, the term CV may be used as a synonym for resume.

Let me restate, mere mortals, even one’s with superpowers (Strengths) need no more than a two page resume. If you are early in the work force, one page may even be enough.

Please check out the other posts in the “It’s Time to Put Your Resume to Work” series.

“It’s Time to Put Your Resume to Work”- Part 3 : The a la Carte or Customizable Resume

What happens to your resume when it gets to the hiring manager?

Before creating your resume, consider what will happen to it when it gets to the potential employer.

Let’s call the person who will receive your resume the hiring manager. It is likely going to someone with a different title, but hiring manager describes the role. Most companies assign this task to someone in HR whose duties may include benefits, training, policies, payroll and probably discipline and firing and, oh yeah, receiving resumes. With 85% of companies having under 20 employees, the owner may be the hiring manager. In any case, the “hiring manager” is probably busy. Try to save her time.

How long will someone spend with your resume when it is first received. The truth is possibly none. In a large organization, it is going to be run through a computer program before a single second of human energy is exerted upon it. Smaller companies may also run it through screening or AST software. More on AST systems in upcoming posts.

If it makes it past the computer review, a human being is going to look at it. Even if a human being is the first to see it, figure a resume gets 28 seconds max including the time to open the file or envelope and pick up a paperclip dropped on the floor. That is all the time likely spent to decide whether your resume goes in the review pile or the trash.

Help your resume avoid the trash

A resume should contain information that makes it easy for the recipient to do the following:

Understand the work you have done as it relates to the job she needs to fill.
See the progress of your career from position to position.
Get in touch with you.

A resume is a response to a particular job listing. An effective resume plants the seed in the mind of the hiring manager that you are a viable candidate for the opening in her organization. The most successful way to do this is NOT to try to create one perfect document and use it over and over. Instead, you should respond to each job listing with a customized resume.

Successful customization requires you to:

Respond to each requirement in the job listing. (The topic of this post).
Align the language in your resume with the language in the job listing. (The topic of the next post).

Don’t make her search to see if you fit her needs. Help the hiring manager help you by connecting the dots to the job listing. The fewer connections that the hiring manager is forced to make, the easier it is for her to imagine you in the job!

What are they looking for?

A skill you need to master in the job search is interpreting a job listing. You need to understand what the organization is looking for.

You may be able to walk on water, but if you do not make it obvious that you can do the important things in the job listing, your hydro-perambulating will not get you in the door. Dissect the help wanted ad to determine each of the main job requirements: “direct reports” indicate supervision or management, “some travel” means leaving the office, “coordinating events” says planning and follow-up.

For instance, dissecting a job listing might tell you that they are looking for a person with:

a particular degree
X number of years of experience
proficiency in a second language
sales experience
presentation experience
management of a staff of four people

When you respond to such a job listing, you need to address each of these requirements. You need to address your management experience by telling them how many people you have supervised. You need to quantify (remember numbers are important) sale’s success. You need to highlight your great presentations. Also mention your rudimentary knowledge of Urdu. Your degrees will be covered in the education section and your years of experience are found in the dates of your previous employment.

Why the perfect resume isn’t perfect, at least the second time

Here is a little resume history. Back in the day, a job seeker, using a typewriter (a very primitive word processing device), crafted a document they hoped to be valued by every potential employer. The resume was created directly to paper and the correction system was manual requiring erasers and correction strips and white liquid and frequently, holes in the paper.

Archeologists call this a typewriter eraser

With such an arduous correction system, a person was lucky to create a single high-quality document. Then multiple copies were printed on the highest quality paper hoping to make it seem more impressive. Customization was done via a cover letter.

With the advent of personal computers, the one size fits all jobs resume became counterproductive. Now job seekers must customize each resume to respond to each open position.

What are you going to do to be able to quickly respond with a custom resume for a job listing that has a deadline of tomorrow? Will you have to type an entirely new resume to respond to each job opportunity? If you really like to type, you are welcome to do so. Otherwise, you should create an a la carte resume.

The a la Carte Resume

Part 2 of this blog series described the parts of a resume. As a reminder, they include:

personal information
1. name
2. address
3. communications details
work experience
education
professional organizations
other accomplishments
summary

Looking over the list, realize that some sections will be the same for every resume. Experience and Summary are the main sections that will need to be customized for every resume. Almost everything else is “boilerplate”. Even the Experience section will contain information like names of former employers that is the same no matter what job listing you respond to.

An a la carte restaurant menu allows you to select each item you wish to dine upon to create a customized meal. The a la carte resume allows you to select from a menu of well-crafted statements describing your successes, skills and talents. It will create a “tasty” resume responding to as much of the hiring manager’s desires as possible.

Chronological and functional resumes were discussed in the post, It’s Time to Put Your Resume to Work – Part 1. Because chronological resumes tend to be the standard, the a la carte resume system will lead you to create a functional menu from which you will be able to create your customized chronological resume.

Creating the a La Carte Resume

There are two documents you need to create for the a la carte resume system. They are:

The boilerplate resume form
the menu or master document

You will first create a resume “boilerplate” form. This is the fill in the blank form for your a la carte resume.

The boilerplate form is a version of your resume with blank spaces for sections requiring customization and the reusable material already included: things like your name, address, education, skills. To create this, start with your most recent resume. Under Experience, each past position will have employers, position, location and dates are included. Other Experience information is stripped out. The example shown here has green boxes indicating where information will be inserted from the menu.

To start to prepare the menu/master document, review the last resume you created. This will be the first source document.

Take the Experience section and break it into sentences. This is easier if you are using bullet points instead of paragraphs. If not, you should convert it to bullet points. Separate the paragraphs into individual sentences. Insert a bullet point at the start of each sentence. Then, as much as possible, edit each bullet point to start with an action verb, even if this occasionally creates sentence fragments.

Next, look at each bullet point and categorize them by the area of work it represents. For instance, if the bullet point reads “Increased sale of turnip twaddlers by 11.7% or more for each of 5 consecutive quarters.” then it should go on the menu under SALES. A bullet point like “Selected as keynote speaker for the UVW and the EIEIO conferences in 2015, 2017 and 2019.”, would be categorized as PUBLIC SPEAKING or PRESENTATIONS.

Before adding a bullet point to the menu, assign each bullet point a designation for the job at which you performed that amazing accomplishment.

Continue this process with your next to last resume, which you will deconstruct giving you more menu items.

All of these will go on a menu that looks like this:

The menu then allows you to be able to select from the topics like sales, software development and negotiating skills with well-crafted bullet points already designed to respond to the requirements in any job listing.

Using the menu, the resume can now be filled in reverse chronological order. Using the menu of an a la carte resume, you would refill the chronological listing for INC. CO with the two statements shown (you will have more) occurred at that workplace. Ditto for COMPANY INC. You probably won’t use every statement, because everything you have done will not apply to every opportunity.

This is what it would look like inserted in the boilerplate document.

You can populate the menu from a variety of different sources:

If you have a well-developed LinkedIn profile, that can serve as a source document for your customized resume.
If you have been working for a number of years, you can take the experience sections from your past resumes and turn them into your menu document.
You can create the master document completely from scratch.

The bullet points selected to fill the boilerplate form will be those that most directly address the job listing. If sales is the primary task, then several bullet points concerning sales should be included from the menu. A more recent job should have more entries than earlier ones, when possible.

You may add bullet points to your menu as you respond to more jobs. A job listing may remind you of some task not included in previous resumes or LinkedIn. Save that new bullet point for future resumes. The great thing is that you have a powerful tool to quickly respond quickly to any job listing.

Creating the SUMMARY

Once the Experience section is complete, you can craft a Summary. The Summary should highlight the information in the rest of the resume, especially your Experience. The Summary is likely to be the only part read when the review vs. trash considerations are being made. Spark interest to keep the hiring manager reading.

For both the Summary and the Experience sections, show, don’t tell. Rather than use hackneyed terms like “goal oriented”, show how creating and achieving goals has led to your success. Instead of assuming “team player” means something to the hiring manager, show how you made a team amazing. Help the hiring manager picture you doing what they need you to do. Connect the dots between what you do and what their needs are. Make it easy for them to imagine you doing the things that are in a job listing in their company.

Finally, take a look at sections like Education to see if you should enhance a line about extracurricular activities or class that relate to the job listing.

Conclusion

Using the a la carte resume, you are prepared to review a job listing and respond to each of the potential employers’ needs in a timely manner. There is no better way to put your resume to work.

Thank you for checking out this blog. Be sure to read the two earlier posts.

Part 1 contains background information about resumes.

Part 2 covers parts of a resume and what information ought to be in them.

Crews Strengths can help you sort through your career to determine what you want and what you can contribute. Whether it’s being more successful, comfortable and confident where you are or planning what you need to do in order to move on, starting figuring out your next steps. For over 10 years people like you have been helped with resumes, LinkedIn, job research, and networking as well as discovering and leaning into amazing talents.

Let’s talk.

It’s time to put your Strengths to work.

It’s Time to Put Your Resume to Work – part 2

A successful resume gives the hiring manager reason to see you in the role. Do that by highlighting your experiences showing your ability to solve their problems and to do the job.

Highlight your value.

Emphasize what you have done, so employers can figure out what you can do.

Help the recipient connect the dots.

Parts of a Resume:

What are the parts of a resume? Here is what you need to start creating your customizable resume. Don’t be too concerned about the text in the sample resume. It is here to give examples of the formatting. The red, circled letters correspond between the descriptive text and the sections of the resume.

Contact information

This section can be considered as a letterhead. Even consider creating a letterhead, but don’t overdo it.

Contact information:

Name: It should be what most people call you, unless people call you “Stinky” or “Bubba”. If your given name is William, but everyone knows you as Bill, include “Bill”. If you use your middle initial or middle name, include it.
Credential after name:
1. Degrees like PhD, MBA, JD are always OK. Especially if related to the job. The same with professional credentials like CPA or CFA.
Address: Physical street addresses are becoming less common. Listing the city and state is usually acceptable. With GoogleMaps snooping is easy and you may not want to be judged by what your residence looks like. (You could use an address for a nicer house than yours. But that can lead to a bunch of other problems, so don’t). Where you lay your head at night isn’t quite as important as it used to be. Just make sure it is obvious you are close enough to get to the job.

Communications:
- Phone: Use the number where you can be reached. Most people now use their cell phone for everything, so no need to say it is a cell.
- Email: In a job search, you need a professional email address, meaning your name followed by @gmail.com or similar.
  - DO NOT use your current business email.
  - DO NOT use an email address like: GizzardBreath298@yahoo.com.
- LinkedIn URL: They are going to look, so make it easy to find. Before you do this, edit your LinkedIn URL to a simple format that basically consists of your name. If you don’t know how to do this, contact me and I’ll send you instructions.
- Other social media: Don’t include unless you are using Facebook, Instagram, etc. professionally. If you haven’t already figured it out or been told, clean up your social media before you go on a job search. Skimpy clothing and drunkenness are not going to help you find work. And if they do, you don’t want that job.
- Motto: A simple professional core statement can help clarify what they are all about. If you truly have one, then consider using it. In my last search “Transforming Information to Knowledge” was mine.

Summary

In days gone by, the first major section was entitled Objective. No longer. Every resume author has an object. It is to find a job. Hiring managers get that.

The summary is a brief or abstract of your career to grab the attention of the hiring manager. Having this at the top is like the blurb on a book. “Oh this sounds interesting. I can spend some time on this one”.

Highlight your value. A successful summary shows rather than tells what you contribute. It is a place to emphasize what you have done, so employers can figure out what you can do.

Avoid “hard working”, “innovative”, “goal oriented”. Instead show how you worked hard, examples of your innovation and how goals have guided your success. “Number one salesperson for company for 9 consecutive quarters” beats “highly success salesperson”. Give a brief highlight here and flesh out the same success story in your Experience section.

Certifications & Licenses

If the job requires a license issued by a governmental authority, such as those in medicine, the merchant marine or aviation, or a professional credential like a Certified Financial Advisor, then show you have it. The same is true if it is highly valued, but not mentioned in the listing. If you don’t have it, consider explaining why and how close you are to getting it in your cover letter.

Certifications are big deals in a lot of technical and computer fields. They may be more important than degrees, so include them.

Experience

Here is where you show what you have done. A successful resume gives the hiring manager reason to see you in the role. Do that by highlighting your experiences showing your ability to solve their problems and to do the job. For instance, if frequent presentations are required, help them picture you successfully presenting. Where they have customer service needs, give them reason to think of you serving their customers. Upcoming posts will help you with this.

Bullet points followed by action verbs is the most powerful way to tell your story. Information in paragraphs requires additional work for the recipient. (Remember, make it easy for them).

Remember from the first part of this series, chronological resumes are your best choice. Most bullets should be under your most recent job, though your time in a particular job may alter that.

Internships or volunteer work can be considered real work if they rise to the level of real work. If you’ve done extensive computer work for a not-for-profit, consider counting it. Building websites or garden walls for your church, fraternity, or blood bank, is real work. Consider including it in Experience.

How far back should you go? Far enough to tell the story of your future success. Some people say no further back than 15 years. Don’t let that restriction keep you from including valuable experience further in the past. The important thing is showing how your experience connects to what you can do now and will do in the future.

OK. Take a rest.

There is a lot of information here. Pace yourself. Get some tea.

La la la la

. . . . . . .

Time to get back to work

Education

Degrees: List each degree, the college which granted it, its location and the year earned. If it was a long time ago, consider omitting the date. The most recent degree earned should be listed first. If your thesis or dissertation relates to the job, consider including its topic.

In addition to a degree, did you do amazing things while you were in college. My brother-in-law founded a pub on his college campus. That was probably a better indication of his capabilities than his degree.

More than 50 % of all college grads are not working in their undergraduate field. Consider describing classes that explain why you are doing what you do. A guy I know who has a BS in mortuary science, now manages 6 tire stores. He got the job because of his business classes. Help the recipient connect the dots.

While some work requires a particular degree, realize that formal education becomes less important, the farther it is in the past. Consider that when writing this section.

If your degree isn’t necessary for the job, try to explain how it still helps. Degrees do indicate hard work even when they don’t relate. Spell out the initials (Masters of Business Administration vs MBA) for degrees and certifications.

High school is best left off if you have a college degree.

Professional Development and Continuing education

Use this section to indicate that you’re still learning. The ability to learn can be more valuable that what you already know.

Other

Professional organizations

These serve 2 purposes. Work related organizations show your engagement beyond the office. Leadership roles can augment your portfolio. Do be circumspect about what organizations you list. (Engineers’ Club – YES, Ladies Knitting and Moonshining Society – NO.)

Articles, books, presentations, etc.

If you are a successful writer or speaker, share that. If the topic is germane, share titles or topics. Alternatively, if it relates to a particular job list it under Experience.

Personal interests

If you put anything here, select stuff that improves your profile. Knowing what the recipient’s interest are, can guide what you might wish to include. Avoid dangerous stuff like skydiving and lava surfing.

Volunteer activity

Include volunteer activity that relates to the job and the company. If community involvement is valued by the company, relate to that. Volunteering fits especially well for a not-for-profit job.

When choosing what to include think two hours per year manning the church rummage sale, probably won’t help. Chairing the rummage sale for 5 years and raising $25,000 might be worth including.

Skills

Almost everyone can use Microsoft Office. You can leave out unless the job listing indicates it is mandatory. If you claim to be an expert at Excel, you better be able to do Pivot Tables in your sleep. Think value added or an additional opportunity to mention.

Some formats put Skills directly under the Summary. I don’t think it is critical either way. If space is an issue show the use of the skills rather than listing them.

At the top of the second page of a physical, on paper resume, include your last name (maybe first) and “Page 2”. That way the recipient can associate your page 1 and 2 if they get separated.

References

DO NOT INCLUDE THE LINE “References available upon request. Whoever receives your resume knows you have a list of references and will share it, if asked. Make sure you do have such a list.

Those are the major sections of a 21^st Century resume. Don’t fret too much about the exact order. Every expert claims this goes before that, etc. Neat, organized and leading the recipient to think of you as the best possible candidate is what is important.

The next posts will get into writing your resume and creating and using the source document for your a-la-carte resume.

If you haven’t read “It’s Time to Put Your Resume to Work – Part 1”, now would be a really good time to do so. Find it here.

If you need help with your job search, please reach out to https://www.crewsstrengths.com/pages/contact.html . And remember, “It’s Time to Put Your Strengths to Work”.

It’s Time to Put Your Resume to Work – part 1

If you are going to “Put Your Strengths to Work” in a job, other than the one you currently hold, you are going to need a resume. As a change from posts that concentrate on applying your CliftonStrengths to the job search, let’s concentrate on the unavoidable tool you need to get your foot in the door.

The resume is a huge job search topic, so it will be spread over a few posts. That way, you don’t drown in information. Plus, you might actually read all the info.

What is a resume?

First, you need to understand what a resume is and the purpose it serves. The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines a resume as “a short account of one’s career and qualifications or a set of accomplishments”. That description is accurate, but incomplete. A more precise description is a short account of one’s career activities which relate to a potential job.

Your resume is a record of what you have done in jobs you have held. It should highlight examples of your skills, accomplishments, and talents. A successful resume is one customized so that the person reading it can begin to envision you sitting at the desk down the hall, or on the construction site, or in the Monday morning Zoom call. It is not an all-inclusive list of everything you have done in your life. A resume should provide the recipient with sufficient information to encourage her to decide that you should be given further consideration for a position.

Should you create a resume?

Why would you go to the trouble of creating a resume?

To get a job! Seems obvious, doesn’t it.

More accurately, you create a resume to get an interview, to get a job. One thing at a time, if you please.

Beginning with the end in mind, you need to prepare your resume so the person receiving it becomes sufficiently interested in your ability to fill a position in her organization to be willing to grant you an interview.

Creating a resume is a lot of work. If you are not currently looking for a job, why would you spend time doing this (probably) less than fun activity. Well, there is a positive and a negative reason.

The negative reason is that fate has a way of interrupting lives at the most inconvenient time. Think about the Great Recession or Covid pandemic job losses. Even in a healthy economy, companies downsize, right-size or capsize. In other words, you may be looking for work for reasons that are not of your choosing.

On the positive side, someone may contact you out of the blue and say they have heard that you are the best salesperson, biochemical patent attorney, blacksmith or whatever. They are wondering if you might be interested in a new opportunity and would you be so kind as to send them your resume.

The Boy Scouts recommend be prepared. So does your career coach!

Another positive reason to go to the trouble of creating a resume is that the process can give you a chance to take stock in your career and your life. What have you done so far? What do you need to add to your experience to increase opportunities? Make use of the opportunity to think about what you have done and want to do in the future.

Types of resumes

There are two major resume types, chronological and functional. The names refer to how your experience and skills are described. The chronological resume presents your experience in reverse chronological order (bet you weren’t expecting that). For each job, you give your job title, the name of the organization you worked for and your dates of employment. You then describe your successes in the various tasks you performed during each job.

The functional resume presents your experience by skills and functions rather than by position held. This may seem like a great way to present your information. Grouping all your successes with a particular skill together seems like a great way to go. It is not. Functional resumes tend to raise red flags with employers. They assume the applicant is trying to hide something. This is because the main reason that people use functional resumes is to hide something, like a stretch of unemployment. Info in a functional resume can also be much harder for a hiring manager to corroborate It is seriously recommended that you avoid submitting a functional resume unless you know that it is common in your industry or more importantly, if they are accepted favorably by the company that you apply to.

After I have denigrated the functional resume, be forewarned, you will be using the concept of the functional resume in the creation of a customizable chronological (a-la-carte) resume.

As information (I am a recovering librarian), there is a specialized resume referred to as a curriculum vitae or CV which is used almost exclusively in academia. The CV is a near exhaustive description of academic work completed, papers written, and classes taught. It can be as many pages long as the applicant’s experience might justify. That is not true for resumes for business, industry, or not-for-profit.

The proper length for a standard resume is where we will pick up the subject of resumes in the next post.

Time to take a break

That is enough for now. Stay tuned for information about what should be included in your resume and how to create a “tool” that will help you to be able to quickly respond to any opportunity with a customized resume.

“It’s Time to Put Your Resume to Work – Part 2” is now available. You should read it ASAP.

Part 3 in the series covers “The a la Carte or Customizable Resume”.

If you need help with your job search, please reach out to https://www.crewsstrengths.com/pages/contact.html . And remember, “It’s Time to Put Your Strengths to Work”.

Strengths Help You Hear the Music

And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.

Credited to Friedrich Nietzsche

Wondering what this quote has to do with CliftonStrengths. For clarity, Strengths and CliftonStrengths refers to the information revealed about yourself from the StrengthsFinder (or CliftonStrengths) assessment.What does Friedrich Nietzsche have to do with Strengths? What does dancing have to do with Strengths? What does being insane have to do with Strengths? What a great bunch of questions!

The answer to the first question is that the quotation probably didn’t originate with Friedrich Nietzsche. It’s not clear who initially proposed this origin though it is often misattributed to him. Not attributing it to Friedrich Nietzsche is something of a blessing for this post. It means I don’t have to discuss how the concepts of the “will to power” or God is dead (I am quoting not agreeing with this) have anything to do with Strengths. Let’s just agree, Friedrich Nietzsche has nothing to do with CliftonStrengths.

Dancing could be connected to Strengths. Perhaps you have high Positivity™ and that might reveal itself is through joyful movement in the form of dance. But that is not how I am thinking of the quotation.

The only way I can connect CliftonStrengths’ to insanity is thinking how crazy it would be not to put your Strengths to work. That would be insane.

So here is how I connect the quotation, “And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music” with CliftonStrengths:

When you first discover your CliftonStrengths from the assessment, there are probably things that are obvious as well as traits that you never thought of or could never describe. When you first become familiar with Strengths, you see them like a personality test. The information revealed about you is fascinating. Admit it, we all kinda think stuff about ourselves is fascinating.

The next step is to see your themes as more than some interesting facts about yourself. You could take the assessment, look over your results and put it in the back of a drawer with the 2013 March Madness bracket. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who do that. But Strengths power and value are revealed when you recognize them as your hows, whys and motivations. If you really want to get the most out of your assessment, you find ways to lean into your Strengths and work around your weaknesses.

But Strengths is not just about you and your Strengths.

How often have you wondered what was going on in somebody else’s head? Have you ever wondered how certain people are able to do things that you don’t even understand? Or, noticed how some colleagues approach a problem from an entirely different way than you would? Do you sometimes find that annoying? Even when things work out? Have you ever been so upset by the way other people deal with things, even when they succeed, that you’ve thought they were crazy. You’ve even thought they might be “insane”.

There’s that guy who keeps asking questions when you are ready to move forward. He asks about this and he asks about that. Yeah, you know he has helped you find shortcomings in plans before they cause problems, but he makes meetings go on and on. Do you ever wonder why he does that?

Or the woman who keeps talking about what is fair. You know she gets everyone onboard with new plans, but wouldn’t that have happened anyway? Well, it could happen anyway, couldn’t it?

Hmmm, insane or crazy or maybe just wrong – even when things actually turn out better.

Stop and think for just a minute. Maybe they’re not insane. Maybe they are just dancing to music that you can’t hear. Perhaps they look at you sometimes and wonder if you are the one who is “off your rocker”. Maybe that’s because they don’t hear the music you’re dancing to.

Strengths power multiplies when they help us hear the tune that others are dancing to and can help us invite each other onto the dancefloor. When you can hear your colleagues tango and she can hear your two-step, you can make beautiful music together. Or at least you can avoid stepping on each other’s feet, which is a pretty good start.

Why don’t you turn the (alleged) words of Friedrich Nietzsche into the wisdom of the American songwriter Irving Berlin who suggested, “Let’s face the music and dance”.

StrengthsFinder & the Ancient Philosopher

Ανιχνευτής δυνάμεων και Επιτέτ

How does ancient philosophy align with the CliftonStrengths?

Discovering the quote which appears above, “How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself”, I was struck by the call it makes to align ourselves with our talents (Strengths) so that we can endeavor to be our best.

Transparency requires me to volunteer that I possess no expertise or authority related to the field of philosophy. I have not so much as taken a philosophy class. With that in mind, I still decided to see if I could connect a few thoughts of a 1^st century philosopher to the call that the Strengths movement echoes for us to better ourselves.

Epictetus was a Stoic. Stoicism is a school of philosophy developed by the Greeks, but more closely associated with the Romans. Its three best known proponents were Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, Imperial advisor and playwright, Seneca the Younger and Epictetus, a former slave turned philosophy teacher.

Epictetus lived in the first and second century AD. A major theme of Epictetus’ writing is that most of what we encounter in life is beyond our control. What is within our control is how we react to and with these unchangeable things.

“Some things are in our control and others not. Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever are our own actions. Things not in our control are body, property, reputation, command, and, in one word, whatever are not our own actions.”

His life experience as a former slave and partial invalid, probably brought this concept to the forefront for him. Much like Viktor Frankl stated in Man’s Search for Meaning, ” Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. “

Applying Epictetus’ reasoning, we are required not to waste energy and emotion on things we cannot influence, but rather we should examine our thoughts, take responsibility for our actions, and apply self-discipline to live a valued and valuable life. A version of the serenity prayer comes to mind.

The full version, of the line quoted in the picture above, comes from Epictetus’ Discourse 51, and reads:

“How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself and in no instance bypass the discriminations of reason? You have been given the principles that you ought to endorse, and you have endorsed them. What kind of teacher, then, are you still waiting for in order to refer your self-improvement to him?
You are no longer a boy, but a full-grown man. If you are careless and lazy now and keep putting things off and always deferring the day after which you will attend to yourself, you will not notice that you are making no progress, but you will live and die as someone quite ordinary.”

The quote probably makes more sense to our 21^st century ears, changing first line to read, “How long are you going to wait before you demand the best of yourself”. Also, please avoid fixating on the male centric “boy” and “full-grown man” but recognize the subject is an adult. This is much as Paul in 1Corinthians says, “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man (adult), I put away childish things.” In other words, you’re a grownup; act your age. Relating this with Strengths, it is good to remember that the results of the assessment should be accurate and for the most part unchanged after 25 years of age, since that is about when our brains have completed their growing phase and sort of stabilize (or congeal).

Epictetus goes on to say, if you do not put in the work that demanding the best of yourself requires, you are likely to spend your entire life being mediocre. Stoicism teaches recognition that we are temporal and mortal beings. Tempus fugit. The clock is ticking. Do and be while there is still time. It is more important when our mortality is considered.

CliftonStrengths or StrengthsFinder separates itself from the other major assessments by being more than a test which reveals who you are. It reveals what matters to you and asks what are you going to do with it. And it even goes a step further because it reveals your hows, your whys and your motivation. It is both a map and a compass. Understood, aligned and followed, Strengths can be a way to live and die as someone quite extra-ordinary.

StrengthsFinder Domains: A View of Your Strengths from 50,000 Feet

Looking at the big picture, let’s say the 50,000 feet view, you can’t concentrate on the details. Why? Because you can’t see them. However, you are able to recognize overarching connections and broad concepts.

When you first learn about something, you may find it helpful to begin with the big picture. Like looking at a road map to travel across country and only later working down to a more detailed one, to find your precise destination. And by the way, that is pretty much how it works digitally as well. Details can get in the way when you’re trying to get from one place to another on the interstate. Maps of towns that are a mile off the expressway aren’t pertinent, while knowing the next exit is fourteen miles away, is.

Beginning your Strengths’ journey can be very similar. Starting with at least five of your Strengths to understand, it may be easier to look at what they tell you all together before delving into each of them, one by one. It is even possible to start this observation before you even have your Strengths’ results by figuring how you approach the world.

So, when you need to deal with something, how do you approach it? If you need to perform a task or find a solution, what is your first step? How do you move forward?

Do you immediately begin to perform some action?

Do you begin to work through the various possibilities and permutations in your head?

Do you let your emotions be your compass directing how you begin?

Do you start with the idea that you will influence others to come to a solution?

Understanding your natural way to approach most situations reveals a great deal about how you are wired and how you are motivated. Having a solid grasp of what your natural tendency is when dealing with situations, gives you the power of self-awareness. Also noting how others approach situations can help to indicate how they are wired.

The Clifton Strengths Finder assessment reveals which of 34 Strengths or talents that an individual possesses. When you take the assessment you discover the top five Strengths which predominate your approach to the world. The Strengths are ordered by how they predominate in you. The first one has greater prominence than the fifth one. (Note: Most people have between eight and 12 predominate Strengths, that can be revealed by gaining access to your full 34 Strengths).

To start effectively using them, it can be easier to start with an understanding of the Strengths in the aggregate rather than in the specific. Each of the 34 Strengths falls into one of four domains. Each domain indicates how the Strengths within the domain are applied. For instance, the Achiever™ Strength is in the Executing domain, because the natural tendency of someone with the Achiever™ Strength is to do things.

The four domains are Executing, Strategic Thinking, Relationship Building and Influencing. Understanding what your dominant domain is can make it easier to grasp the concept of the Strengths, especially for someone who is just becoming familiar with them.

If your natural start is action, you are most likely an executing dominant person.
If you are someone who first deals with things in your head probably the strategic thinking domain is the prominent domain.
Relationship builders are most effective when guided (not misguided) by their keen sense of emotion and relationship.
Influencers approach the world with a desire to influence people and bring them along to effectively deal with the world.

None of these approaches is right or wrong. They are right or wrong for you because of how you are wired.

There are a couple of interesting situations worth taking note of. You may have all of your top five Strengths in one domain. If you do, you will tend to exhibit the broad description of the domain very strongly. Alternatively, your top five may be composed of Strengths that fall in three or even all four domains. Sometimes the dominant domain may not be quite as obvious. However, most people will have a clue how they approach things, and therefore which domain is leading. A Gallup Certified Strengths Coach, like Crews Strengths LLC, can help with this.

Gaining clarity about your leading domain can help you define that big picture (50,000 ft. view) of yourself and serves as a good starting point for applying your Strengths.

Talents are Your Edge in a Job Search

Two things needed for a successful job search are a knowledge of your skills and an understanding of your talents.

Every help wanted ad lists skills deemed necessary for that job. It may require expertise with particular software or familiarity with a process or piece of equipment. Job descriptions sometimes include vague requirements about can-do attitude, hard work or being highly organized.

Skills are the things you know how to do. Skills change as you go through your work life. A skill’s value fluctuates depending on the job market, the technology and your career field. Changing careers can make skills obsolete or inconsequential. While expertise in programs like WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3 once indicated a timely skill set, the odds are some of you reading this article don’t even know what those once ubiquitous computer programs even were.

Skills are important. A brain surgeon obviously needs to have impressive skills. It is a good idea to only open someone’s skull if you know how to put it back together. Being current in the use of technology, computer programs, social media and the use of state-of-the-art tools can greatly contribute to success in your career.

However, there are many work skills that a reasonably competent person can figure out. That is how people have been able to go from using earlier versions of anything to the most current one. It is a blessing that knowledge builds on top of knowledge. Once we have mastered one skill, we tend to be able to use that skill to develop additional skills.

Talents are not as easily understood. Talents are about your hows, whys and motivation. “A talent is a naturally recurring pattern of thought, feeling, behavior that can be productively applied.” Talents are like an emotional and psychological GPS serving as both roadmap and routing system. They describe how you interact with the world. Depending on your talents, you will tend to relate to the world and interact with people in particular ways. For instance, your talents may have a bias towards action. In almost every situation, you want to do something about something, like completing tasks, checking things off your list, getting colleagues to come to an agreement or living up to commitments.

Identifying your talents can be tougher than knowing your skills. You can test to see how many words per minute you are able to type. You probably have a good idea how fluent your Icelandic is. But how are you going to find out what talents you bring to the table? How can you describe them to recruiters or interviewers?

Talents can be very hard to observe in yourself. Frequently they are so ingrained that you don’t realize their value or uniqueness.

Your talent can be revealed by the Clifton StrengthsFinder assessment. The assessment requires your opinion on 177 double statements indicating which of the two statements resonates the most with you. Upon completion of the assessment, you are provided with information about the talents or Strengths which represent your hows, whys and motivation. The information provided explains what the talents you possess are and what they are likely to look like in your life.

There are 34 talents. You are likely to be highly attuned to 8 to 12 of them. The reports, generated based on your answers, consist of “textbook” versions of your top talents as well as highly individualized versions, describing your talents based on how they are influenced by all of the other talents in your profile

Understanding your talents can give you an edge in the job search in several ways. More than 23 million people have taken the StrengthsFinder assessment meaning that many people are familiar with the assessment and have some knowledge of what the results mean. More importantly for you, the assessment supplies language to describe what motivates you. It also provides you with verifiable answers to questions about how you get along with your coworkers, what you bring that is unique to this potential position and how and why you are likely to succeed this new job.

Strengths, which are essentially your talents honed to their best, share a common thread with skills. Talents and skills can both be developed and improved, like an athlete who possesses a talent that is honed into a superpower by hard work and coaching. The StrengthsFinder assessment indicates your talents which you can work on and develop to the highest level. This can save you a great deal of grief by pointing out where your efforts are most likely to bear fruit and where you are likely to find long term satisfaction.

Your skills and talents both need to be understood to most effectively present yourself to potential employers. However, developing you Strengths is more likely to give you an edge in the job market than boning up on the latest edition of Microsoft whatever. Finally, talents can also help you recognize an environment in which you are likely to thrive and avoid pitfalls in your job search. If you understand your motivation and that pattern of thought, feeling and behavior, then you can productively apply them to your job search and your new position.

For help discovering and aligning with your talents, reach out to Crews Strengths LLC.

It’s Time to Put Your Strengths (talents) to Work!