Resumes Would you like to write great resumes! And yes, the word is plural because if you are applying for multiple jobs you are talking about creating resumes – one for each of the jobs for which you are applying. Your resumes are your marketing brochures, your advertisements of yourself and should be approached in that way. Never, never, never just bounce a resume response out the door. The resumes that you send out should be crafted to respond to the specific job for which you are applying. Good add copy is geared to the demographics and lifestyles of the audience, your resumes should be geared to the needs of the job and the company to which you are applying. Before you begin to write, read and dissect the job announcement. What are they looking for? What are the needs of the company? What sort of resumes will appeal to the person who is doing the sorting of the resumes? What skills and abilities will be of the most value to this company? You might ask yourself, “If I was doing the hiring, what would I be looking for in my review of the resumes I received. What would make me stop and take another look? What would it take for me to separate one from the whole pile of resumes? Take some time with this exercise, writing the responses to these questions, each one on a separate page. Go back through and see where your skills and experiences fit. Now you are ready to construct your resume so that it meets the needs of your prospective employer. Make your objective about what the employer will value -increasing sales, providing solutions that increase profits, developing new business. Write it so that someone whose eye rests on it for 10 seconds will say, “Yes, that’s what we need.” Among all the resumes they are reviewing, yours is one that makes the final cut. The other most important part of all of the resumes you will construct are the summaries. The summary talks about you and your abilities, and how those meet the needs of the company. Again, ask yourself, “if I was doing the hiring, what specific skills would I be looking for?” Craft the summary part of all of your resumes so that it’s job specific and clearly shows how what you have to offer meets the job requirements. Remember, you are selling you. And well-crafted resumes are the way to accomplish that goal.