A few days ago, I sent a note about a recession coming. I don’t know if it’s true or not but if you read the links, you can see people — who I imagine get paid to follow this sort of thing — think a recession is coming. But guess what?
If you’re focused on that, you missed the main point. So what was the point?
The point is it’s in your best interest to always be ready.
I heard Will Smith (formerly known as the Fresh Prince) say, “if you stay ready, you don’t have to get ready.” That’s one of the most useful pieces of advice I’ve heard from anyone. Read it again.
So do you want to know what you can do right now to stay ready?
Here we go:
First, update your resume to make sure its current. However you’ve written your resume in the past, just update it through whatever job you have today. Don’t think about it. Just do it for now. While you’re at it, do the same for your Linkedin profile.
Optimize your resume and Linkedin profile using copywriting techniques from direct response marketing (you do want a response, right?). For now, let’s focus this effort on updating your information words used in your target industry (this is the equivalent of using voice- of-customer research to figure out how to write sales letters).
And here’s a secret…
A resume is a sales letter, a letter where you’re selling your skills and expertise to get an interview. That’s it and that’s all.
This point on using the right words is especially important for would-be career changers. If you’re a mathematician who wants to be a management consultant and your resume is focused all about theorems instead of the business problems you want to solve (the ones you see on your target company’s website or in their job descriptions), you may not get the traction you want.
This is the reaction you want people to have when they see the words you use.
Even if you haven’t optimized your bullets, this will take you a long way.
I’ll talk more about how to write interview-getting bullets next time.
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