Apr 8, 2020
Resume Tips
The More Stressful a Resume Can Be, The Better
Showcase Your Tenacity During Your Most Dire Situations
In the midst of the coronavirus, every human being on this planet has hunkered down in their homes, set up dining room offices, round up the kids for their online math lessons, and disinfect everything like Howie Mendel might make a surprise appearance.
I don’t know about you, but that is enough for me to pull my hair out and scream.
Thankfully, many of us have capitalized this as an opportunity to cultivate gratitude. An opportunity to practice human connection — especially those we have lost touch with — from a distance whether that means texting, social media, virtual happy hours, a phone call, or even snail mail. Now that’s a novel idea.
On the employment front, unemployment filings has broken records. In fact, actual numbers have surged way past the official project of four (4) million individuals made just two weeks ago. Sadly, those same individuals may or may not have jobs to return to because their companies may not exist anymore.
So back to the job-search bandwagon they go.
All of a sudden, the resume that may be buried under an enormous pile of folders comes into play.
This is why I am here. To help you, your loved ones, and strangers get their lives back.
Silver Lining
If we think about it, this isolation period would likely rank low on our list of most disturbing work-related situations.
All those deadlines. Customer complaints and demands. Conflicting ideas. Sudden disasters.
I doubt the coronavirus is the first time our jobs are on the line.
So let’s recall all those times when we want to pull our hair out and scream at the top of our lungs.
Actually, it could even be situations when everyone in the office was stressed…except you.
Then remember how you prevailed. How you were able to stay calm and present solutions that all stakeholders appreciated.
The more stressful the accomplishments were, the more we would be able to amplify our significance to our prospective future employers.
Why?
Because it shows we would not be frazzled to a point where we cannot think objectively. It shows that despite the high stakes we faced, we still found solutions.
Anybody who can solve problems while everyone else is scrambling around the office like a chicken without a head will surely catch a lot of employers’ attention.
Translation On Paper
Now, before you take another look at your resume, open a new document or take out a blank sheet of paper.
For every role you ever had, relive and list all those times that irritated either you or everyone except you, especially the most painful ones. What could likely be a problem for others might not have been a problem for you at all.
Then for each of these aggravating occasions, identify and write down the solutions, treatments, or approaches you created and implemented to relieve each issue.
These could be projects. These could be crises. These could be personality conflicts.
Once that is thoroughly thought out, pick the most triumphant ones. Remember, you only have so much space on a two-page document.
The end product would be a list of accomplishments that provokes readers to ask in amusement, “Wow, you were able to pull all that off?”
Climax
As the most successful comedians claim, the best jokes come from the worst situations. It might be painful now, but you would likely laugh about it later.
That goes for our resumes too.
Make whoever reads our past feel the torment we were in, then fill them with suspense and give them a satisfying climax as they reach our results.
Sounds like the movies, doesn’t it?
All in all, there is nothing much we can do about the coronavirus except to follow what the government and health authorities order us to do at the moment. But rather than drowning in cabin fever, view this period as value time to connect with people — and with ourselves.
Also, if you like to receive more tips on how to improve your resume, you can get them at www.sunbreakresumes.com or you can follow me on my LinkedIn business page. Thank you.
