Job Seeker Mysteries: Career Search Dead? Maybe It’s Your “Tombstone Resume” – Part 2

Last week I wrote about the single most misunderstood use of the resume and that its one and only purpose is to create curiosity. While trying to cram too much personal history onto a few pages is the most common resume offense, the most deadly mistake can end your dream of a new job before it starts.

I call it the “Tombstone Resume”

Ever walk in a cemetery just before dark? All around you are headstones barely outlined with the dying light of day. Carved into the granite tablets are the shorthand notes of people’s lives. “Born 1921, Died 1989. Loved life and his family.” Or those fancy headstones that have flower vases on either side and the family name across the top in foot-high letters. Some now even have photos or carvings of the person’s likeness – those creep me out!

No matter how they try to dress them up, the tombstones can’t get away from their real purpose – birth and death dates. What you remember from them is the time someone emerged on the Earth and when they eventually returned to it.

Surely, each of the folks in that dimly lit graveyard had more to their lives than start dates and end dates, right?

Of course they did!

They all had hopes, dreams, passions, goals, achievements, disappointments, and things that made them completely unique from everyone else in the graveyard.

The problem is that all you see are the headstones – the tombstones.  You never see or get to learn about the real person behind the granite-carved dates.

If your resume looks like a series of job titles and dates of employment,  your job search will be almost be as dead as all the souls buried under the tombstones.  Virtually everyone has had jobs and has either left or lost jobs. Regardless of the significance of the job titles, if you just list what you have done in your life, you are really giving the recruiter your tombstone – your career obituary.

To stand out from the crowd, to really show one of the most vital VOWELS – Uniqueness – you must immediately run out of the cemetery and reorganize your life’s achievements on paper.

As a hiring manager, I look for what makes an applicant stand out on their resume. I want to know something about them that goes way beyond the job/date, job/date monotony. What I’m seeking is someone who will pull back the curtain and tell me the good, the bad, and the very interesting about them. I want honesty, integrity, creativity, and a little swagger.

I want someone to tell me about what they are proud of, to give me examples that back up their achievements, and to challenge me to find out more by contacting them for an interview.

Can you do that on your resume?

If not, let me help you find the right person to rewrite your work life’s proudest moments.

To learn more me or my life-changing program visit BradRaney.com or ImproveYourVowels.com today.

You can learn more about your resume, interviewing tips, cover letters, visualizing your future, and more in my fast-selling book “Improve Your VOWELS, Improve Your Career! The A,E,I,O,U’s of Finding Your Perfect Job!”

Sincerely,

Brad Raney (www.BradRaney.com)

Brad Raney is a motivational speaker, life coach, author and sales trainer. He has over 25 years of experience in sales and sales management within the broadcast industry. Brad developed the VOWELS program in 2009 and the success it brought his sales team has spurred keynote speeches, workshops, seminars, a website, and his first book “Improve Your VOWELS, Improve Your Career!” which was released in July 2010.. Click here to order “Improve Your Vowels, Improve Your Career!: The A, E, I, O, U’s of Finding Your Perfect Job!” — Available Now!

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