340. Expert Interview: Out-of-the-Box Advice for Writing Your Resume
Dr. Susan Bernstein
For more than 20 years, Dr. Susan Bernstein has delivered career and executive coaching for smart, high-performing professionals seeking to boost their career satisfaction. She guides her clients to create work that fits them on their terms. Susan’s deep understanding of the workplace and career transformation comes from her own pioneering research, as well as her own radical career reinvention, which led her from management consulting to executive coaching. A veteran of leadership roles at Franklin Covey, Intel and Accenture, she earned an MBA at the University of California at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, and a Ph.D. in somatic psychology at Santa Barbara Graduate Institute.
Out-of-the-Box Advice for Writing Your Resume
Dr. Bernstein delves into three key principles to make your resume really stand out:
1) Start with a strategy;
2) Think of your resume as your own promotional story; and
3) Don’t plan to use just your resume; plan to connect with real people.
Why Is This Important?
Dr. Susan asks: “Do you want to be out of the box? Do you want to be different?” She encourages listeners to create a tool she calls a Resume Planning Matrix. “It’s super simple but it does take some time to do.” She describes a three-step process, starting with the job description of the position you’re seeking, methodically breaking it down to see how your own record of accomplishments can be transformed into mini-stories that set you apart from the crowd. As a bonus, it will also help you see if the job you’re seeking just isn’t a good fit.
What Are the Key Lessons Learned Here?
With tools like LinkedIn.com and online job hunting, many people have lost the art of conversation. They’re intimidated by the thought of meeting people face-to-face. LinkedIn can be a tremendously powerful tool in a job search, but without a personalized strategy and a plan for making human connections, a resume just gets lost in the black hole of cyberspace. Dr. Bernstein gives practical tips for adding the human element back into the process of networking to find the ideal position.
Connecting With Dr. Susan Bernstein
Website: sensationalshift.com
Twitter: DrSBernstein
Facebook: facebook.com/sensationalshift
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/drsusanbernstein
