5 Ways to Start Your Resume With a Bang

5 Ways to Start Your Resume With a Bang 5 Ways to Start Your Resume With a Bang Everyone tells you that its important to abflug your resume with a powerful introduction that makes a strong first impression you only have 20 seconds goes the standard advice. And its true. Employers are busy and they get hundreds of resumes for fruchtwein positions which means standing out is vital. But how do you actually do that?The good news is that its elend as hard as you might think. Ive written before about the importance of starting your resume with a strong resume headline. But here are 5 additional ways to start your resume with the kind of bang that makes it impossible for employers to ignore you. 1. Be YourselfIf youre like most people, when it comes time to write a resume, you spend time browsing the web looking for ideas. (In fact thats how you may have come to this website). But its a really bad idea and heres why. You are not like any of those other people. On our samples page, youll fi nd over 50 sample resumes, each one carefully crafted to communicate the strengths, partality traits, experiences and unique value proposition of one individual an individual who is not you.So if youre spending time looking around the web for resume examples, stop it. Seriously. Stop itYou are amazing. You have talents, skills and life experiences that no one else on earth has at least not in that unique combination. So instead of looking for things other people have said about themselves, start your resume by telling people exactly what makes you uniquely valuable.2. Focus on ValueNotice I didnt say tell people what makes you unique. The fact that you own the worlds largest collection of Dr Who figurines makes you unique, but I wouldnt recommend adding it to your resume. No, unique isnt enough the phrase I used was uniquely valuable. Ask yourself what combination of skills, experiences and personality traits makes me valuable to my target employers?When you have the answer, you have the core homilie that will compel employers to call you in for interviews.For example, if I was to apply for a position creating an online training program for job seekers, I would want to highlight several things that, in combination, make me a pretty unique candidateI have 15 years of recruitment experience at all levels of an organizationI have an in-depth understanding of the resume screening and applicant tracking systems used by so many companies today.I have 10 years of experience in curriculum development and training designI have 10 years of experience running Blue Sky Resumes and during that time my company has helped thousands of job seekers to find new jobs. This outline of my experience is what marketers might call the product features. behauptung are the facts about my experience. To make a real impact, I have to illustrate to the audience why these features will benefit them.So I might sayI offer a rare combination of hands-on recruitment, training, resume writin g and career coaching experience, which means that I have an in-depth knowledge of the hiring process from both sides while also knowing how to create adult learning programs that really work.Do this for yourself, and your resume cant fail to make an immediate impact because it will directly address the core needs of your target employers.3. Break the Rules if NecessaryWhen you write your resume, youre immediately constrained by all kinds of rules that youve heard from other people. For example, my favorite is the your resume should only be one page long rule.Who says? Did all the hiring managers, recruiters and HR managers go to a training course where they were all told this was the rule and not to consider anyone who didnt follow it? Of course not Its just a thing someone said one day and it got picked up and communicated to others and now it causes millions of people around the world to write resumes that are less effective than they could be.The truth is that you cant write a p owerful resume that expresses your individuality if you are also following conventions and rules. The two just dont go together.Notice in my example above that I wrote my value proposition summary in the first person. Here it is againI offer a rare combination of hands-on recruitment, training, resume writing and career coaching experience, which means that I have an in-depth knowledge of the hiring process from both sides while also knowing how to create adult learning programs that really work.Standard resume conventions say this is wrong that you should never use I in your resume. I say thats rubbish. Sometimes, using I is the perfect way to speak directly to the hiring manager with a powerful sales message.This doesnt mean your resume should be two pages (maybe it should be three? Or one?). Nor does it mean that you must use I in your resume. Far from it. All it means is that you should always make decisions about your resume based on whats the best sales message for you and no t based on an arbitrary rule designed to make everyone conform. Heres one example of a resume that uses I effectively to introduce the candidate to potential employers. 4. Use TestimonialsEmployers are risk averse. They want to be very sure that they dont make a mistake when hiring. Therefore, one of the most powerful things you can do is to provide evidence, right upfront in your resume introduction, that you will be a good choice. I like to do this by using testimonials either from LinkedIn or from performance reviews or reference letters. If you can use the referrers name, your pitch will be all the stronger. (See here and here for examples).5. Show Dont TellIf youve ever attended a creative writing class, youll know the old adage show dont tell. In creative writing, this refers to the fact that its more powerful to show a characters feelings through action rather than describing those feelings. (So an author shouldnt say he felt sad but should rather say tears welled in his eye s.)When I use this phrase in relation to your resume, I am referring to roughly the same thing. Instead of telling people that youre fabulous, I want you to show them. Imagine being a hiring manager and looking at two resumes one tells and one shows. The tells resume begins with the following gutachtenI am a powerful leader who consistently delivers results even in challenging situations. The shows resume starts this way I have held 3 jobs in the last 10 years and have always increased sales by at least 50% this is true even in my most recent role where I grew sales 62% despite a general industry downturn. Which of these two candidates would you be most interested in meeting? (And would you really care that he used the I word? Or if his resume was 3 pages long?).Of course, not everyone can quantify their impact in this way as we dont all work in sales. But if you think about it hard enough, you can come up with facts about your performance that show rather than tell. For example, perhaps you have outperformed your peers, or won awards, or earned promotions in every one of your jobs. Perhaps youre the teacher who always goes the extra mile, or the sales associate who gets 100% on mystery shopper visits. The point is, showing will always make a bigger impact than telling and doing it sooner rather than later will help your resume start with a bang.It Comes Down to ThisTo make an impact, you need to showcase your unique value right at the start of your resume. Do this and you will find that your resume response rate skyrockets. So before you send another resume out, ask yourself if it really starts with a bang. If it does, youre already overwhelmed with interview requests. If it doesnt, use one of these tactics or find your own to make the desired impact.Good luck And if youre interested in professional resume help, just shoot me an email with a copy of your resume and Ill get back to you with feedback and a price quote. The best bit? As a reader of this blog (and therefore clearly a person with impeccable taste) you are entitled to claim a 15% discount on our resume writing service. Just mention the blog when you email me.You might also be interested inThe One Rule of Resume Writing You Cant Afford to IgnoreResume Writing Its All About What You Leave OutWhy Rewriting Your Resume Will Open Doors