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A typical approach to a job search includes creating resume profiles on popular job boards, such as Careerbuilder, Monster or Yahoo Jobs, and then targeting professional social media websites like LinkedIn, Google Profiles and Brazen Careerist. Perhaps the very ambitious job seeker takes it a step further by creating a blog which showcases all of their qualifications.

While searching for employment, job seekers can improve their chances of being hired by being more visible on the internet. But being visible does not always mean being registered on every job portal imaginable; being visible means having searchable resume profiles that get noticed.

Utilize SEO to Create Resume Profiles

Chris Perry, personal branding expert and the founder of one of the largest career blogs, Career Rocketeer, suggests that the structure of the internet does not always allow the best job candidates to be visible. In order for a resume profile to be found on the internet, it must be searchable. In order for it to be searchable, resume profiles must include keywords that correspond with search terms that hiring managers and recruiters use to locate top talented job prospects. Furthermore, not only do resume profiles need to include important keywords, but the placement of these keywords is also important to search engines.

The world of employment is competitive and involves many job candidates, all with similar skills and qualifications, just like how the world of business includes many organizations all with similar products and services. The manner in which organizations fight for prime positioning, aiming for the first page on Google, is the same manner in which a job seeker must fight for prime positioning on job boards and professional social media sites such as LinkedIn. The reality is that the best company does not always climb to the top of the search results of an engine, just like how the best job candidate with the most qualified skills sometimes gets placed after the person with little experience. So just how does a candidate implement a SEO approach to creating their resume profile?

Resume Keyword Approach

1.      Repetition: Read a good amount of job postings that are related to the industry that is of interest. Keep a close eye on the required qualifications. Include them in the personal profile/summary section. Repeat these words in the “core competencies” or “area of expertise” section. Repeat them again, varying the terminology, within the body of your resume. For example, say a job seeker uses sales in the personal profile section and negotiation in the core competencies section – it would be effective to repeat sales and negotiation in the body of the resume and add business development, account management, bargaining and consulting too. But also keep in mind if the job posting says sales experience required instead of business development experience required, place greater emphasis on repeating sales throughout the resume profile.

2.      Placement: Use the keywords early on in the personal profile/summary section of your resume profile. Keep in mind that the search engines will value the keyword terms you used first at the beginning of your resume profile over ones you used later. So if a job posting lists experience in engineering design, function analysis, and solution implementation as a minimum requirement and has testing and subcontractor management as additional benefits, put the three minimum requirements in the personal profile section and follow it up with a core competencies section that includes the two additional benefits.

3.  Showcase: Attach powerful action words to the qualification keywords to illustrate how skills were effectively used to accomplish organizational goals. For example, using the job posting qualifications listed in the placement resume keyword approach, a job seeker could say, “Achieved a 100% output growth rate within a 6 month time period by implementing (qualification keyword) an automated performance review solution (qualification keyword) leading to the escalation (action word) of department productivity.

Strong Resume Profiles are Keyword-Rich

In order to develop an exceptional resume profile a candidate must not only have great qualifications, but must also have a strong keyword strategy in place to ensure that all their outstanding qualifications become visible. If a job seeker incorporates SEO techniques into their resume profile development process, they will be one step closer to finding a job. With repetition, placement, and a showcase keyword SEO strategy in place, a resume profile not only becomes exceptional but searchable.

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Anyone can send in a resume, but what makes the difference between viable job candidates who land an interview and those whose CVs get lost in cyberspace is how persuasive the resume is.

Everything from utilizing correct grammar and the right font to understanding how to quantify your job accomplishments is important. Keep reading for tips from the best resume and career bloggers, and use their posts as guides for sending in a persuasive resume.

1. Resume 2.0: Seven Ways to Upgrade Your Resume: Coach’m Up Boni revisits the old resume rules in this post, often dispelling outdated myths about correct resume-writing. “Don’t be afraid to use ‘I’ in your resume summary,” and learn how to customize your resume according to each company you’re applying to. It will take some extra time, but you can also consider it as prep work for your interview. It’s also important to include volunteer work, especially if you took on leadership roles, and make sure you post your resume in your Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook profile.
2. Resume Writing Tips – Composing a CV That Will Get a Response: Read over this blog post from Suite101 to learn about the basics of resume organization. Jessica Oman explains why it’s important to clearly highlight contact information and how to format your resume so that it’s easy to read and understand, even when hiring managers are skimming over lots of other resumes.
3. Resume Editing Tips That Get the Job Done: This blog post from FastJobResume.com explains how to rework your existing resume so that it’s fresh, grammatically correct, and consistent. Make sure your formatting is the same throughout, and it only contains the information that fits with the job description. Don’t be afraid to remove ancillary information if it clogs up your resume and takes attention away from what the employer is really looking for.
4. Five Tips for Better Resume Writing: Dummies.com outlines in great detail — but in its typical easy-to-follow format — its rules for straightforward resume writing. The post recommends using plain English, bullet points and a logical sequence, but doesn’t agree with Coach’m Up Boni’s approval of the use of the first person. That may be a decision you’ll have to make yourself.
5. Seven Tips for a Better Resume: This great blog posts from Rezamaze.com will help you critically examine your resume. Tips like “think accomplishments rather than job duties” will help you clean up your resume and choose your words carefully. Instead of listing every stapling and filing duty you ever had, you’ll be challenged to think about more significant contributions to the whole company.
6. Five Quick Tips for a Better Resume: The Student Branding Blog’s first tip in this post is extremely important for making your resume stand out and act as a persuasive tool on your behalf: “quantify whenever possible.” Instead of using general terms like “many” or “lots,” give exact numbers and explanations for budgets, results, gains, to back up your claims.
7. The 7 Deadly Sins of Resume Design: Before shooting off your resume, take a look at this illustrative blog post from LifeClever.com. The post points out major design “sins” like using fancy resume paper, the wrong font, odd paper size and a horizontal format, all of which can turn off the hiring manager. You’ll learn simple tricks for making your resume stand out, in the right way.
8. What’s Holding You Back from Writing a Better Resume?: Emurse.com’s blog takes a different spin from some of the other blog posts on this list. It challenges you to figure out why you’re making a mistake that many of us make when writing up our job skills — selling ourselves short. Read it to find out how to explain your accomplishments without bragging.
9. Get-It-Done Guy: How to Write a Resume: The Get-It-Done Guy Stever Robbins on Quick and Dirty Tips can help you get over your fear of writing a persuasive resume. He explains how to lead with results, use specific action verbs, and even use your daily to-do lists as inspiration for your resume.
10. Give your resume a face lift: This blog post is also from LifeClever.com, but it’s got great tips for sprucing up an existing resume. Even if you’re not actively looking for a new job, check out this post to learn how to make your resume easier to skim and more effective aesthetically.

To be clear, this is not a knock or insult to the university/college career services department.  They have an enormous value to many students (the ones that actually take the time to seek their input and guidance, anyway).  I am looking to provide further insight into and clarification about a few key issues.

Having said that, I think there are a few areas they miss, or do not stress enough.  The resume and cover letter are about you, but are not just about you.  They are about how you are the best candidate to help the company.  It’s about making a match!

Cover Letter

• 3 Paragraphs – This may seem short to most of you but, for the most part, recruiters don’t want to spend their day reading your cover letter.  Three paragraphs is the perfect length.  First paragraph should be an introduction to you and the role you are applying for.  Second paragraph is to discuss your experience related to the role.  Third paragraph is to close strong with a lead towards an interview.  Do not send a full page cover letter.
• Keep it simple – Please do not give your life or career story.  Convey your message in succinct sentences that highlight your experience related to the role.  Do not write a 10 sentence paragraph either.  Get to the point and show your…
• Value Proposition – You need to convey why your experience makes you the ideal candidate for the company in the particular role.  Companies do not care how they can help you achieve your personal or career goals, companies care about how you will help them achieve their goals.  You may ultimately get a lot out of the opportunity, but that is not why a company will hire you.
• Include all of your contact information

Resume

• Mission Statement – Similar to how companies create their own mission statement, you should consider creating a personal mission statement.  This is a nice way to highlight your experience and provide a little insight into you.  A nice resource to look at is from Randall Hansen that provides a 5-step plan for a personal mission statement.
• Action Words – This is such an easy point but one that so many of us don’t do well.  The majority of us use passive words such as “participated” or “assisted” instead of true action words.  This may lead you to a little revision on your resume but it is a must to highlight the work you actually performed.  Consider the action words from SeekingSuccess.com to help get you started.
• Value Proposition – Again, you must continue to assert why you are the ideal candidate for the particular role.  Your resume should reflect the work you performed and how it relates to what the position you are applying is seeking.  You will probably need to revise your resume for each position to highlight the particular experience.  This is not lying, this is responding directly to each position and treating it like an interview question.

As you can see, value is the critical thread for both the cover letter and the resume.  However, value is most important to the company to which you are applying.  Express your personal interest and why you are the right person for the job but always focus on how you will make the company better.

Image credit goes to MinorityJobs.net

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Keith McIlvaine manages the recruiting social media strategy for a Fortune 500 company and is an avid networker.  He is a social media advisor, coach, speaker, blogger and an all around fanatic.  Connect with Keith on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.  (The statements posted on this site are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer)

During the last two years I have been bombarded with these and similar questions from undergraduate students in one of the most prestigious communications schools in the country.  Here are six tips on how to effectively create an academic resume for communications majors that will impress employers and help you land that coveted internship with the NBC Page Program or a position in Ogilvy & Mather’s Associates Program.

1. Do not place your education section at the top of your resume.

Communications professionals are impressed by your experiences and how the skills gained from these experiences will translate to your future career.  Your experience section should always be first. The work you did using Final Cut Pro and Avid in your TRF 255 class is much more relevant and digestible to employers than stating at the top of your resume that you are a Journalism major graduating from the Medill School of Journalism.

2. Tailor your resume towards your major.

If you’re a graphics major, show your creative side by displaying a creative wordmark or include a design or layout that is consistent throughout your resume.  Be sure to include this design across all aspects of your personal brand, including cover letters, your blog and personal website.

3. Quantify and Qualify Your Experiences

Nothing paints a blander picture than saying that, “you oversaw all social media marketing platforms and SEO strategy.”  This tells employers that you were involved in these two areas, but beyond that does not tell them what you did or if you accomplished anything while in this position.  Avoid using words such as, ‘assisted,’ ‘managed,’ or ‘oversaw.’  These do very little in describing your experience at a company.  Instead, show that you are results-driven and demonstrate this by quantifying and qualifying your experiences.

4. Lose the high school experience!

As a first year communications major, keep the relevant high school experiences that represent your leadership, cooperative skills and skills related to your major.  After your first year, begin to remove these from your resume as you replace these with relevant coursework, internships and extracurricular involvement.

5. Ensure that your paper resume is not a static document.

Include links on your resume to personal websites, blogs, online press releases, your LinkedIn profile and any other social/professional networks where you maintain a marketable presence.  The days of the paper resume being the beginning and ending point are over.  Resumes are just the first point of communication.  Give employers more information to get to know you.  The better they know you, the more likely they are to develop a relationship with you and the better chance you have of getting hired.

6. Include something interesting about yourself in your resume.

Your resume is essentially an abbreviated, bulleted, paraphrased bio of your life during the past few years.  Include items that will jump out at the page to employers.  Here’s a great story: a girl who graduated last year received an offer after including at the end of her resume that she had traveled to 11 different countries.  This one tidbit launched her into a 20-minute conversation with her future employer and one that she asserts was a huge factor in landing her that job.

The communications industry is finicky and opportunities come and go in a moment’s notice.  Be prepared to seize the opportunity with a professional academic resume tailored towards your major that will impress prospective employers.  Looking for some inspiration?  Check out my resume here.

Jim Armstrong is a senior advertising management major in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.  He works in the Tina Press and David Rubin Career Development Center where he reviews resumes and cover letters.

In conducting a job search, I personally use LinkedIn in many ways. However, for the purpose of this post, let’s say that I am a recruiter and have posted a job outside of LinkedIn and am collecting resumes from various sources.

Are You on LinkedIn?

Once I have a number of resumes that pique my interest, I check the candidates on LinkedIn before I even call them on the phone. Are you on there? You need to be on LinkedIn if you are in the job market, because you better bet your competitors are!

Some hiring managers do not do this. Some do. The thing is, you don’t know which ones do and which ones don’t. Be safe, and be on there.

Does Your Resume Match Your Profile?

Once I land on your profile, I will check the LinkedIn version of your resume and compare it to the one that was sent to me. Do they match?

It is simply amazing how many candidates’ LinkedIn profiles do not match their resumes! When I see discrepancies, I toss out the candidate. If you have a LinkedIn profile, make sure jobs, dates, job descriptions, and education information match up to whatever you write on your resume.

Also, post your picture in your profile. It matters, and is part of your personal brand. Show that you are aware of and care about your online image.

Do You Have Recommendations?

The most important thing I look at on LinkedIn is the person’s recommendations. If you are in the job market, the single most important thing you can do with your LinkedIn profile is to have several glowing recommendations.

Yes, it is true that most people only ask people for endorsements if they know they will say good things. This is the same rule that applies when you list references in your resume.  Still, it is good to know that someone holds the candidate in high regard.

In the days before LinkedIn, employers checked references after a job interview.  Today, with LinkedIn, references may be part of the decision to even bring a candidate in for a job interview.

Many LinkedIn users have recommendations on their profile. If I have ten great resumes in my hand but only plan to call in five for interviews, I will check your LinkedIn profile. If you are one without recommendations and seven others have great ones, that is a huge plus for them and a huge minus for you and will likely eliminate you.

Alternatively, if you have 15 recommendations from coworkers on your LinkedIn profile and another candidate has four, but two of them are from people who managed them, that gives them an edge over you.

Are Your Recommendations From the Right People?

Recommendations from people who have managed (or taught) you, directly or indirectly, carry more weight than 10 coworkers’ recommendations. Hiring managers know that these recommendations could be from 10 of your closest friends. Hiring managers want to hear from people who have managed you in the past.

The job titles of the people who endorse you matter as well.  Try for a good mix (managers, coworkers, clients) but keep in mind that higher level employee endorsements are stronger endorsements.

Realistically, you really only need three to five recommendations (as long as you have one or two manager recommendations in there). Ideally, two to three recommendations per job is sufficient.  You should probably go back about 5-10 years.

Do You Talk on LinkedIn?

Are you active on LinkedIn? Do you post updates on yourself? Are you answering questions for others and participating in group discussions?

If you are, and I am considering you as a candidate, I will search you and read what you write. You must always keep that in mind when using LinkedIn. Participating in discussions on a high level can really boost your chances of getting an interview or getting a job. The opposite is true as well.

Does the Number of Connections I Have Matter?

Not really. Ideally, if you are applying for a sales, marketing, or other related position, it would be good to see that you have many connections. However, quality matters more than quantity. Having 20,000 connections (in my opinion) is too many.

The number of connections a candidate has is of least importance to me – UNLESS you have 5,000 connections and no recommendations. That looks odd. A person with 40 connections and 4 recommendations is more impressive to me.

As with any social networking site, you must be smart about how you use it – especially if you are in the job market. You must consider your LinkedIn profile as a part of your resume.  If you are honest, have some glowing recommendations, and are participating intelligently, LinkedIn can be the magic key in your job search.

Jessica Simko is a seasoned senior level Human Resources professional with over 15 years of experience in all facets of Human Resources Management.  She is a Freelance Writer and  Entrepreneur specializing in career/ life coaching and social media.  Connect with her on:
Twitter
Linked In

To accomplish this goal, my next few posts will each pose a question to you, the readers.  Today’s question is:

Will resumes be extinct by the year 2020?

What do you think – will a resume forever be the ultimate proof of your worth to potential employers?  Or will other media prove to be more effective ways to showcase your skills, possibly by 2020 or sooner?  I share my viewpoint below, but since I am neither a psychic or a time traveler, my opinion is merely a guess – please share yours as well.

I believe that by the year 2020, resumes will have joined dinosaurs, woolly mammoths, and dial-up internet in the “fully extinct” category. Personally, I already find an 8.5 x 11 white sheet of paper to be a woefully inadequate representation of a person’s life, career, and skill set.  How can thousands of hours of experience be boiled down to a Microsoft Word document?

Already, 80% of jobs today are not advertised or posted on job boards.  I suspect a large majority of these jobs are filled by candidates with strong existing connections and/or a reputation built and sustained by efforts other than a resume.

The advancement of social and business networks, web profiles, and personal blogs have essentially replaced and upgraded the common resume, in my view.  During the past year, I’ve updated my Linkedin profile dozens of times, I’ve sent over 2,000 tweets, and I’ve updated my resume a grand total of… zero times.  In fact, I don’t even know where my resume file is – maybe somewhere in the My Documents folder between pictures of my dog and an old grocery list?

To be fair, there are still many job openings today that absolutely require a resume.  For these jobs, bloggers like Jorgen Sundberg and Miriam Salpeter are an invaluable resource.  For executive level jobs, there is no question that a perfectly-tailored resume is a near requirement, a specific subject in which Meg Guiseppi carries much expertise. Yet, I can’t help but wonder whether today’s new wave of recruiters and hiring managers will soon start to fill even these roles in a different manner.

I’ve stated my case – but now I want to hear yours.  Fast forward to the year 2020, and envision the job market.  Are jobs still filled via resumes, or has the poor resume seen its time in the sun disappear forever?

Ryan Rancatore can also be found at Personal Branding 101, discussing the tools and tactics that will help you build a killer personal brand in 2010 and beyond.

Ryan would love to connect with you on Twitter at @RyanRancatore, or on Linkedin, Facebook, or Brazen Careerist.

• Resumes are subjective. So are cheeseburgers, hamburgers, boca burgers, etc. Some hiring managers prefer an objective, others are particular about a cover letter, and some have no opinion whatsoever. I once had a hiring manager who would not interview any candidate who misspelled a state abbreviation. If you were a candidate with the right credentials but accidentally wrote Missouri’s state abbreviation as MI instead of MO, you were out of luck. So proofread, pay attention to details, and make sure to cover all your bases.
• Preferences matter. Because recruiters, hiring managers, and human resource professionals spend approximately 10-15 seconds skimming your resume, you need to make a great first impression. What is extremely important is to read the job description and understand the specific instruction outlined as to how to apply. Some applications request that you list your salary expectations while others do not. These guidelines are extremely important.
• Go bold or go home. Some hiring managers like burgers that sizzle. It is important to consider what style, format, and type of resume that is acceptable for your industry, position, or company you are applying for. For example, Jeff Nelson is a marketing director with a very creative and unusual resume. I located his resume after doing a keyword search on Google using the words, “hamburger resume.” Some companies want a little spice with colorful graphics, fonts, and formats while more conservative companies and industries prefer a more standardized format like Guy Macon’s, an electrical engineer which I found using the keyword search “my engineering resume.” Both these examples were found on the first page of the Google keyword search and illustrate how powerful resumes and keywords are when posting your resume online.
• Stay positive & focused. Not every cheeseburger is someone’s favorite, and not every resume appeals to every hiring manager. What is important is to be yourself and articulate your uniqueness and experiences through your resume. Stay inward focused, but look for ways to improve your plating & presentation skills by refining your resume, cover letter, or even your interview. As a candidate, you are focused on yourself and can fail to see the ingredients or characteristics that attract others. Ask people you trust, heed expert advice and get outside opinions to help you refine your recipe.

Photo Credit FindaLink

Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is an author, new mother, and human resources professional with a passion for recruiting and all things social media.  She has over 10 years of experience in human resources & recruiting.

Her company, Xceptional HR provides businesses with social media, recruitment, and human resources strategy and consulting.   Jessica’s book, Tweet This! Twitter for Business will be released in February 2010.  Follow Jessica on Twitter, LinkedIn, & FaceBook.

You’ve written your resume, and sent it out to what seems like hundreds of companies without any success.  Perhaps it’s time to look at one of the most important, and yet often neglected, parts of the resume – your career objective.  If done correctly, this will show potential employers at a glance that you are serious about the job in question and know what you want to do.  A poorly executed objective, however, may disqualify you from the position altogether.

Follow these simple steps to write a winning career objective every time.

• Be pithy. Generally, an objective should be limited to a sentence or two.  It’s all about saying as much as needed in as small a space as possible.  Remember, this is only the first thing that a potential employer sees, and the goal is to write so that he or she wants to continue reading the rest of your resume.
• Begin with ‘To’ not ‘I.’ The career objective on your resume should tell what you can do for the company, and not what you expect to get from the company.  When you’re competing with hundreds of other applicants, the employer’s focus is on which one of you can benefit them the most.  Here is an example of a quality resume objective: “To work for a small graphics company using my graphic design, layout, and drafting skills.” This shows what you can do for them instead of saying, “I want to work for a small graphics company to improve my graphic design and layout skills.”
• Convey facts. Words such as challenging, useful, educational, helpful, etc. mean different things to each person, and therefore do not convey specific messages to a possible employer.  Instead, explain how you want to use your English degree and editing skills to work for a book publisher.
• Use action verbs. It is tempting to try to stand out with your objective by starting it with something other than ‘to’ such as: my goal is, I hope to, my plan is, etc.  Not only does this show employers that you are more concerned with helping yourself than with helping his or her company, but the passive voice makes the sentence wordy and weak.  Phrases such as to work, to promote, and to advance show that you know what your career goal is and how you can help your prospective employer.
• Decide how specific you need to be. This is by far the trickiest part of writing a career objective for your resume.  If you know exactly what job you want within a company and understand what type of skills that job requires, then your objective can be written like this, “To work as an office production assistant with a small film company specializing in television using my clerical skills and Communications degree.” Unless you understand what the job requires and have specific skills, however, you will probably want to write something a bit broader such as “To work in an advertising agency using my experience in graphic design, layout, and copywriting.” This does not mention what position you seek, but includes a varied list of qualifications that would make you an attractive candidate to work in graphics or ad copy.
• Use what experience you have. If you’re a recent college graduate, you may not have many practical, real world skills that you can list in your objective.  Don’t worry.  Consider what you were good at in college (editing, researching, memorizing facts) and re-word it for a corporate environment.  If you were good at gathering data for essays then you have skills as a researcher.  Similarly, if you have a photographic memory then that can be a marketable quality.

Since you have such a short space to make a good impression, be careful in selecting the skills to list.  Choose ones that will be the most advantageous to each individual company.  You may have to re-write your objective several times for different jobs, but a well-written objective will help put you ahead of your competition.

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Bethany Stringer is a graduate of Texas A&M University (class of ‘08) and has her B.A. in English Literature with minors in History and Psychology.  Writing her first story at the age of 5 (with help from Mom), Bethany still enjoys writing and researching about everything from business and history to travel and fiction.  Enamored with languages, she plans to teach English in Russia in 2010 as a CELTA certified teacher.  She owned her own business working horses when she was 17, and still loves riding her horse Romeo.  Always appreciating a challenge, she loves sea kayaking and prefers Rachmaninov to Bach.

A senior-level executive recently told me he was so impressed with a resume sample of mine that he was tempted to copy some of it. Instead, he decided to work with me to create one capturing his own unique promise of value and written for his career target.

You probably know that thousands of good resumes are readily available online and thousands of resume books are full of thousands more.

Because strategic resume writing is always changing to meet the needs of hiring decision makers, it’s a good idea to take a look at up-to-date samples by top resume writers to get a handle on new trends in formatting and what kind of relevant key words and content to include.

But it’s not okay to actually use the content. Why?

► A great resume uniquely brands that specific job seeker. What you read in a sample may sort of  sound like you, but it isn’t really you.

Don’t you want hiring decision makers to clearly know what differentiates you from everyone else and why your value proposition and ROI make you the best hiring choice? You can only do that by differentiating your resume with your own personal brand message crystallizing your own unique combination of key attributes, pivotal strengths, and passions.

► The achievements on the sample couldn’t possible be the same as yours. The situations, people  involved, numbers, and facts are all different.

Your own approach to solving the problem that led to the achievement will provide the evidence to back up your personal brand promise. Don’t settle for some generic achievement that sounds good, but doesn’t specifically brand how you make things happen.

► Your resume needs to target the specific kind of job you’re seeking and resonate with hiring  decision makers assessing people for that job.

The sample that’s tantalizing you can’t possibly align what you have to offer with the stated qualifications for the job(s) you’re seeking. You HAVE to determine the key functional areas  required for the job and pump your resume with your expertise and contributions in those specific  areas.

► The formatting of your resume depends upon the compelling content you’re working with and  how  best to position your value promise.

Create the content first and then decide on the format. Don’t just choose a template and fill in the blanks.

► Even though the resume samples you see probably have fictionalized names and other identifying  information, they’re most likely real resumes written for real people who may still be actively job  searching.

The resume sample that you copy may be in circulation right now for the same jobs you’re interested in. It may be hitting the computer screens or desks of the same recruiters and hiring decision makers you’re trying to impress.

How do you think it will impact your chances, if someone reviewing your resume realizes it’s suspiciously similar to another one they’ve got in their files?

► “Using” published content is stealing and violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

ANYTHING published online is automatically copyrighted to the author, whether or not they clearly state the copyright. Integrity is a critical attribute for any business leader worth her or his salt. Certainly, your ethics should dissuade you from plagiarizing.

If that doesn’t stop you, do you really want to risk a law suit that could possibly tarnish your online and offline brand reputation?

There’s just no way around it — you have to invest the time and do the work yourself or hire a professional (and still expect to do some hard work), if you want to make your mark in today’s overly-competitive executive job search landscape.

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Related series of posts:

Best of Executive Resume Branding Tactics and Advice

A C-level/Senior Executive Branding, Online Identity, and Job Search Strategist, Meg Guiseppi loves collaborating with forward-focused corporate leaders to differentiate their unique value proposition, demystify the new world of executive search, and strategically position them for job search acceleration. She is one of only a handful of career professionals to hold both the Reach Certified Personal Branding Strategist and Master Resume Writer credentials. Meg is also a Certified VisualCV Creator and Certified Professional Resume Writer. For a wealth of insider tips on personal branding and executive job search, visit her Executive Resume Branding Blog/Website. Follow Meg on Twitter.

Including a career objective in your résumé may seem like a no-brainer, but believe it or not it can be controversial. While some see a career objective as a good way to explain your goals in as precise a way as possible, others believe it may limit you when applying for jobs. However, there are ways to write an objective that will maximize your career options while being as specific or broad as you’d like.

Begin by writing your basic outline. An outline will help you organize your thoughts better and can even help you structure your résumé in general.

Your career objective resume should include:

• Who you are. Recent college graduate? Experienced administrator? Accomplished software engineer?  The way you define yourself should be your lead.
• What you can do. Your skill sets should come next. List your strengths one after the other. Your final career objective won’t look like this, but listing all your skills on your outline will allow you to pick and choose later based on the job you are applying to. (Any skills you don’t include in your brief objective statement can always be listed in a separate “other” category.)
• What you are looking for. This is where you simply state the job you are applying for. You can leave this space open in your outline or you can state the type of work you wish to do (entry-level administration, finance, marketing, journalism, etc.). I would recommend being specific here when you finalize your career objective  but there are circumstances when a standard description works best; for instance, if you are handing out multiple résumés at a career fair or applying to a company with no position in mind, you won’t necessarily be able to include a precise job title.
• Goals for your future. You don’t need to end your career objective with a description of your 10-year plan, but it’s a good idea to briefly explain what you hope to accomplish down the road. Unless you’re applying for a temporary position, your employer wants an employee who is going to stick around for a while. State what you hope to get out of the job (besides a decent paycheck) or what you hope to learn from the experience.

Next, consider the employer. This is especially important when deciding which skills or strengths you will use in your objective statement and which you will leave out or list separately. Read up on the company literature to find out all you can about the company’s objective and use it as a guide when writing your own. It might also help to research several different companies in one field, especially if you’re career objective is broad.

A sample career objective could look like this:

Published newspaper journalist with editing background  seeking staff writing position. Looking for room to grow and the ability to increase my knowledge of the industry.

or:

Hard-working, detail-oriented, recent college graduate seeking a career in the newspaper journalist field. Looking for room to grow and the ability to learn all I can about the industry.

Your career objective should be placed at the top of the page and shouldn’t exceed two sentences. It’s your introduction to your entire résumé package. Employers know what they are looking for in an employee, but if you tell them you have specific career aspirations it will come through as motivation and passion, giving you an edge in a pool of applicants.

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Adrienne is a Syracuse University student from Danbury, CT majoring in Writing and Rhetoric with a Leadership Communication minor. She is a big fan of impressionist art, ocean views and classic rock. She hopes to one day have her name in the credits of a hit film whether behind the scenes or in front of the camera.