The more time you spend on clarifying your
career aspirations before committing to write your resume, the better the chances
this period of job transition will be short-lived.
Before you even start writing
your resume, frantically calling everyone you know seeking referrals and sending
out your resumes willy-nilly "STOP! That’s right stop and do the following exercise.
As the old saying goes, "If you don’t know where you are going then any road
will take you there." It will also lead to job dissatisfaction when you decide
where you do want to go. Spend a day or two doing the following exercises. Do
not attempt to do all of it in one sitting. Carry a notepad and pen with you
and make notes throughout the day.
You need to design the following
simple template. I suggest you do it on the landscape view (the length of the
sheet of paper) not the portrait view, (for sample purposes it is done on portrait
view). You can do this on your computer or with a paper and pen, just take the
time to do it. Put in the headings as shown in the example below, then fill
in your own data.
Sample 1.
Past Jobs / Company
|
What I Did Not Like About
The Job / Company
|
What I Liked About The
Job / Company
|
What I Want In A New
Job / Company
|
Accounts Payable Clerk -
LMN Inc
|
The vendors calling
The old computer
My boss
Had to water plants
|
The people
Cross-training on accounts receivable
Casual environment
All the plants
|
More money
Nice people
The chance to be cross-trained
Good benefits
Ability to try my ideas
Baseball team
|
Labourer " Paul’s Machine
Shop
|
The hours, starting at 6:30 A.M.
The overtime hours required
The union
|
All the overtime money
The benefits
Close to home
The baseball team
The education
|
Vice-President " Desert
Investments
|
The drive to work
Too much travel
Second guessing the boss
The politics
|
The opportunity to try things on my own
Watching my staff develop
|
This is not the place to filter
things out, this is the time to be extremely honest with yourself, to be totally
introspective and face those things that you have not given rein to because
they would make it difficult to work at your job.
Still need some help? Here are
some things you may look at:
Sample2
The Boss
|
Location
|
Extracurricular Activities
|
Company
|
Your Peers
|
Tools To Do Your Job
|
Products / Service
|
Hours
|
Organizational Structure
|
Compensation / Bonuses
|
Your Reporting Structure
|
Culture
|
Benefits
|
Your Work Space
|
Travel
|
Stress
|
Your Responsibilities
|
Safety Record of Company
|
The Chance To Go To Applicable
Seminars
|
Opportunity To Take Outside
Training
|
Training Provided Internally
|
OK, got that done.
Now take another sheet of paper
and divide it into the following columns and headings. Then using the list you
made in Sample 1, column 4 " What I Want In A New Job, you are going
to expand that into a more definitive list.
I Must Have
|
The Job Must Be
|
Would Be Nice
|
Will Not Accept
|
5% more money
|
Be broader in scope
|
An office, not a cubicle
|
Commute of more than 45
minutes
|
Vision care
|
Report to the President
|
3 extra floater holidays
|
Union environment
|
Are you still having a problem
in assessing your career path? This may be the time to turn to your friends
and family and ask them about you. It may surprise you what they know about
your strengths and weakness, based on when you are the happiest, under the most
stress or appear bored.
I know sometimes it is very scary
to open yourself up to others in this way, but that is what friends are for.
Now you can start writing your
resume. Now you know what you want to emphasize in your resume " the things
you want to see in your new job, not those things you will not accept.
Good luck!
Things To Think About Before You Start To Write Your Resume
