www.sharongraham.ca

If you are a senior-level professional, your career is rich with accomplishments, talents, and value. Don’t minimize your worth by trying to fit years of experience and expertise into a resume template.

If you are trying to stand apart from your competition, don’t get caught up in resume writing rules, templates, and formulas that are found in textbooks or on the Internet. By conforming to the masses, you will lose your essence – the unique identity and brand that makes you marketable.

Here’s an example of an imperative that gets many senior level job seekers in trouble. “YOU MUST STICK TO A ONE OR TWO PAGE RESUME.” If you are a six-figure professional with a rich and full career that is brimming with achievements, why cram everything into two pages? Just to follow the pack? Bypass this silly rule and use strategy to sell yourself.

Instead of sticking with a formula, why not determine all the strengths and talents you bring to the table? If you need to incorporate more content to adequately highlight your value, then you need to generate supplementary documents. This will be much more effective than creating a dense, unreadable document, or worse – leaving critical points out.

The lion’s share of Graham Management Group’s clients are successful in attaining high level jobs by presenting unique, branded portfolio documents that represent them as the best – not just “copycats” of everyone else.

Rather than walking into your next interview with just a resume, consider developing something special that really makes you stand apart from your competitors. Create a portfolio that includes your resume and differentiates you with a branded design and individual value proposition.

Strategically position all your information into a portfolio that makes your best features stand out. You’ll outclass your competitors by presenting a lasting reminder of why you are the ideal candidate. Your portfolio should market you well; you could include a wide range of creative documents such as a marketing letter, case study, business case, T-chart, and resume addendum.

For inspiration, check out some of the career portfolio documents GMG has prepared for executives, managers, and six-figure professionals. Simply click on the document name to read a description and see a sample.

If you want to learn what your competition is doing to position themselves ahead of everyone else, take Graham Management Group’s survey, OUTLOOK 2010: Competitive Career Intelligence for Six-Figure Canadians. Here are three great reasons to invest 20 minutes:

• You’ll receive OUTLOOK 2010: Strategic Planning for the Six-Figure Professional – a self-study program designed exclusively for survey participants. The program consists of a downloadable MP3 and study guide.
• We’ll send you an advance issue of Graham Management Group’s Canadian Competitive Intelligence Report with the results of OUTLOOK 2010. You’ll be one of the first to receive the report that is to be compiled and published in the spring of 2010.
• You can take advantage of a $100.00 credit on any portfolio development service from Graham Management Group in 2010.

 

Thank you to all the Canadian executives, directors, managers, and professionals who have already completed the survey and taken advantage of Graham Management Group’s portfolio development service. By structuring your resume and supporting documents in a way that highlights your strengths and minimizes your obstacles, you are giving yourself the best chance of being viewed in a positive light.

Thank you for reading my blog! Please email me if you spot any errors in this post.