Now, let's graph
Fran's first job title of Directory Operator. Is this title at
the level of a $33,000 Customer Service Representative position?
If you look at the graph shown above, you'll see most people
graph it below Fran's goal.
Fran's 2nd and 3rd job titles were telemarketer. Does this title
make Fran's image go up or down? Most people graph Telemarketer
way below Directory Operator.
What happens with the next title of Assembly Worker? Does Fran's
image go up or down. Most people say way down.
How about her next title of Owner? Up or down? Most people say
up slightly - but they don't know how Owner relates to customer
service.
Then we see Fran's last two job titles of Operator. Most people
say these titles bring her image back down.
As
you can see, Fran's job titles present her at a level far beneath
her goal.
Now Let's
Look At Fran's Skill Headings
Fran
used Customer Service Representative and Marketing & Administrative Management as headings in her after
resume. Let's use the graph below to show how
they affected her image. Does the first heading of Customer Service
Representative match Fran's salary goal of $33,000? Does her
image go up, down or stay on the same level as you read the heading
of Customer Service Representative? Most people graph it even
to Fran's goal.
Does the second heading of Marketing & Administrative Management
match Fran's goal? Does her image go up, down or stay on the
same level as her goal? Again, most people graph it even to Fran's
goal.
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As you can
see, by
identifying and marketing skills and experience that matched
the job Fran wanted, she was able to significantly elevate her
image and the salary level she was qualified for. Being able to land interviews
for positions at higher salary levels is like getting a raise
without the wait. Starting positions at higher salary levels
also accelerates
your career growth since each of your subsequent promotions or positions
will usually be calculated
on the new salary versus the lower salary you would generate
with a weak resume! Here are two more testimonials that speak of the
effectiveness of my
Proven
Resumes
materials
to build job seeker confidence as well as land more interviews
and higher salary offers:
|
This book
really motivates job seekers. One of the job seekers in my class piped up and
said, "I bought the book two weeks ago and have already
read it. It is wonderful. I
was feeling bummed out, couldn't find a job and felt like I didn't
have any skills. Then I started reading this book and couldn't
put it down." It's getting started that's so hard for job seekers
but this book makes it easy. The questions and examples really help people
pull out and identify their best skills and this builds confidence
and motivation...plus
it lands jobs! Gina Meyers, Counselor / Instructor |
As with any
testimonial please keep in mind that your particular results
will vary! |
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Using Regina's book,
a job seeker wrote her resumes to match the descriptions of 3 job announcements.
She sent out 3 resumes, each of which led to an interview. All
3 employers extended job offers and she was able to choose the
one that was best for her. A 100% success rate!" Nancy Kolosseus, Career Center Consultant |
As Fran's story
and these testimonials illustrate, our careers and work life
have a powerful impact upon our lives. If we feel we don't have skills, or the
skills employers want, it has a dramatic affect on our self-esteem,
motivation to change jobs and even write a resume. If we've come from
an environment at home or at work where we've been treated with
little respect or under-valued all of these feelings can surface
as we begin to write a powerful resume ... and particularly when we begin the work
of elevating our image (even if everything we put in the new
resume is 100% truthful).
If our new
elevated image doesn't match the current image we have of ourselves
there is a very strong tendency to weaken our resumes in order
to make them feel acceptable and comfortable to us. This process happened
with Fran. In the class of about 20 people that she had attended,
we critiqued her resume and developed the new skill headings
for it as shown on the last graph above. I was quite surprised when Fran brought
back her resume after completing it at home.
She had replaced the headings of Customer Service Representative"
and "Marketing & Administrative Management" with
the weaker headings of "Customer Service" and "Marketing
& Administrative Skills."
What salary range do you think Fran looks qualified for using
"Customer Service" and "Marketing & Administrative
Skills?" What salary range does she look qualified for using
"Customer Service Representative" and "Marketing
& Administrative Management?"
The people in the class who had spent 15 minutes learning about
Fran's work history felt that the first set of headings presented
her in the $20,000 to $24,000 range and the second set presented
her in the $33,000 range (which was her goal).
It wasn't
until Fran saw that her feelings were leading to her create a
weak resume -- and how much it impacted her salary level -- that
she became willing to override her feelings and use the stronger
headings.
Fran's story illustrates that our feelings and our self-image
control to a very large degree what we are willing to say about
our skills and abilities in a resume.
Being attuned to this, my books integrate top marketing and advertising
strategies with the psychological issues of self-esteem and confidence
building! My
materials focus on building confidence by sharing lots and lots
of examples like Fran's while teaching readers how to create
top notch resumes. Here's what another instructor who uses my
book on a regular basis with her class has to say about resumes
and self-confidence building:
This is the
only resume book I've found that addresses self-confidence issues and that's critical to achieving maximum
job search success. I've used Regina's strategies with hundreds
of job seekers and learning how to control your image really
does increase your confidence, land more interviews and results
in higher salary offers.
Angela Picardo, Job Search Instructor |
In addition to all the success stories in my Increase Salaries
booklets,
I've packed them with tools to help job seekers identify their
skills (such
as 2,000 skills, keywords, and sample resume statements for 40
career fields along with 12 Questions (which have about 60 sub
questions) to help job seekers identify and describe their top
skills. As
job seekers work through these tools and worksheets they begin
to see how many skills they really do have ... and this increases
their confidence substantially. As they move through this process
their image of their own skills and abilities expands and their
feelings then lead them to create much more powerful resumes.
Since we've focused on skill based resumes so far, it's usually
at this point that people begin asking, "But what about
chronological resumes? Do you recommend them?" Yes! For many job seekers
a chronological resume is the very best choice for them. However, many job seekers
using chronological resumes also need to expand and diversify
their titles.
They
may want to provide a chronological listing of their jobs but
if they have a weak title in one particular job - they may need
to strengthen it or replace it with a skill heading. The fourth
chapter of my 148 page Increase Salaries booklet provides extensive,
detailed worksheets that walk job seekers through the process
of creating either a skill based resume or a chronological resume.
They both provide excellent worksheets to analyze your job titles
and determine if a particular title or skill heading will work
best for marketing each job you've held.
Getting
more intrigued with the prospect of buying my materials? If so, click the titles below for complete
descriptions of each product!
Now that
we've talked about two of the most critical issues: elevating
your image and building your confidence ... let's move on to
the next workshop which discusses the importance of resume design
and content!
Click
for NEXT
WORKSHOP
or ORDER
NOW! |