Write your own resume – review

Disclosure: Karen Swim is a friend of mine, she wrote my resume, and basically helped me with my job seeking last year. However, she did not ask for a review of the book, and I tried to be objective – I think I succeeded. So lets cut to the meat.

Karen D. Swim released a new e-book title “Write your own resume”. Being in the middle of job seeking, and frankly, being a person who never could write a decent resume I was quick to jump for the possibility to get this book.
Yes, the fact that Karen is a friend made it pretty easy, as she e-mailed it to me.

As I said I have never been too good with resumes – I am pretty bad with self-marketing, and I can easily dismiss things I created or acomplished that should not be dismissed.
Naturally I wanted to learn all the secrets to the resume writing. Well, it is as suspected, most of the secret is hard work and knowing what to do. Surprise.

“Resume writing is part art and part science. The art of resume writing is one reason it is difficult to judge a resume writer by one or two samples. Resumes are individual. Your value proposition is unique to your experiences, approach and skills. I have presented general guidelines only, as there are a number of variables that are completely subjective. The key is to know your market, and design your resume accordingly.”

That’s the Summary of the book from Karen. There you go, if you translate it, it says: “you gotta work pal”. Actually I was hoping it will be more along the “add personal details, shake it, et voil?, our Wonder-Resume Cooker 2009 produced a freshly baked, marvelous, killer resume. Here’s your new job”.? Ok, a guy can dream, no?

What’s in the book? First of all a really concise check list of materials to be used in your resume.

I got a bit scared seeing the item “Social Media Profiles”.
Being the net-addicted social media dweller, it will take at least a week to get all of them – 3 days to remember every one of them -, but then it’s for my future job. And I need a comprehensive list anyway.

Then after you get everything together Karen leads you through the outline of your resume with examples, and explanations of whats and whys.
I for one always understood that you have this plain text up front, and I was told what kind of info should go there, but never the why, and the goal of the section. Knowing that honestly makes it a bit easier to fill out that bit

And then there is the tips section called “Writing and Design Tips”.
A lot of them are common sense – don’t mix 34,956 different types of fonts -, but as we all know common sense is not that common.
When the inner-designer is released it can run a pretty scary amok on everything we do. Don’t let him.

All in all, the whole book is 23 pages full of useful tips and guidelines in an easy to digest format.

Admittedly not everyone will be able to write a outstanding resume after reading the book, but what is important everyone will be able to write a better resume at least, and everyone will be able to work better with a professional resume writer.
Like starting with a huge armload of material prepared for her instead of spending a week after the first talk to gather these materials, or simply understanding what the resume writer needs and why.
Understanding is the foundation of successful teamwork – and successful teamwork means a higher chance of a successful result.

So I say check “Write your own resume” out – and if you think share your opinion here.

You’re either a Purple Cow or you’re not. You’re either remarkable or invisible. Make your choice. – Seth Godin

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