I’m a reactionary resume writer

I have never met anyone who enjoys working on their resume. I guess because you don’t think about it until you have to and then once you sit down to scale, pare-down, filter all the things you have done into pithy prose your mind goes into deep freeze. Or maybe that’s just me.

I’ve been working with Right Management and I have to admit they’ve been great. I’ve been to two course out at Right Management in Broomfield and aside from some truly tragic directions on their Web site, I think anyone would benefit from working with them. Their courses are insightful and their resume support team is excellent.  It’s interesting. On the whole I have to say my experience has been very positive. If I hadn’t had to be laid off, which made me eligible for this service, I can’t think I would have had any complaints about the whole process.

My first class out at Right Management was sort of like an “Introduction to Being RIFed”. Everyone had to stand up and say their name, where they worked and what they were planning to do next. I guess it was a bit of a catharsis because you could tell that some people were not handling the idea of unemployment too well. Don’t get me wrong, everyone was very professional and ready to get back to work but there were lots of emotions in that room and I’m sure I contributed my own.

I’m now in the resume writing phase and just got off the phone with a long list of things I need to do to improve it. Everything the Resume Case Study woman from Right Management said was correct but I didn’t want to hear it. I don’t know what other people think or feel going through this but at some point I get tired of hearing: “your resume needs to emphasize results”, “make sure you are networking”, “you’re going to need more than just a certification to get a job” etc. etc. All of these words of advice are absolutely correct and I can’t really explain why I didn’t want to hear it but I can now add that to a long list of things I don’t understand.

At any rate, I’m reworking my resume and will be sending it back to them tomorrow morning. I hope I am able to distill 10.5 years of experience into an enticing read for someone. And I do want to get it right because I am really optimistic about my next step and don’t want to blow it because my resume is a dud.