Here at Puris we work with many clients either within a company or displaced from corporate America due to corporate restructuring. People looking for a promotion or a new job seem so hung up on their resume looking “good”. They spend hours and days cleaning up their resume, updating it and making it pretty.
That’s all well and good, however, I always tell clients the same thing- your resume better not be the first impression I have of you. Meaning if you are just sending out your resume randomly, odds are you are just ending up in a pile of other resumes on someone’s desk or in someone’s in-box.
The only way a resume is truly effective in this economy and job environment is if it is a follow-up documentation method AFTER you have met the individual to whom you send the resume. In this way, you have already created an effective personal brand with someone and get to remind them of how memorable (and employe-able) you are with your resume. Only then, will your resume trigger any type of effective recall for the reader of the resume.
Guess what this means? You guessed it. This means you have to show up to a multitude of places and get to know people by talking to them and reflecting your effective personal brand. Most people call it networking. I call it getting out there and showing up in the world with a genuine interest in others and your personal growth.
Here’s to your resume never being your first impression to others!
