The Job Search Coach

Employers have a variety of concerns, when hiring new staff. A detailed resume that clearly presents your skills, experience, education and achievements can help an employer to address many of these concerns.

Before we go into detail about writing an effective resume, let’s look at some of the issues that your resume can help to address. By addressing these issues your resume can help to improve your chances of getting an interview.

Employers may have concerns in the 3 main areas of:

1. Skills,
2. Personal Characteristics and
3. Money

The above 3 main areas of skills, personal characteristics and money including the following 5 areas:

1. Can you do the job?
    
2. Will you do the job?
    
3. Will you get along well with others?
    
4. Are you manageable?
    
5. Can the company afford you?
    

Skill Concerns

1. Can you do the job?

• Do you possess the skills needed to be productive and make a contribution to organizational objectives within a reasonable time frame?
   
• Have you proven you have done this job elsewhere? If so, how successful were you at this job, and what problems did you encounter? (And did those problems help you develop new skills and insight, or will they likely be stumbling blocks in this position?)
   
• If you have not already done this job elsewhere, is there enough evidence to suggest you have the necessary skills, and thus are very likely to succeed in this job?
   

Personal Characteristics Concerns

2. Will you do the job?

• Even if you possess the skills, are you sufficiently motivated and do you have the energy level and self-confidence to do the job? What evidence is there to support this?
   
• Will you be dedicated, conscientious, fair, hard working, determined, and give 100% – or will you be distracted, drop the ball, be absent or late frequently, or otherwise not measure up to company standards?
   
• Are you sufficiently interested in this type of job to be motivated to do a good job and make a contribution?
   
• Will you stay long enough to make a contribution after the expense and time that is invested in recruiting and training?
   

3. Will you get along well with others?

• Will you fit in and be a team player? Is there evidence to support this?
   
• Will you be a positive influence on your coworkers – or will you cause friction or breed dissension, hurt morale, or talk down about the company?
   
• Will you fit in with the corporate culture – attitudes, values, personality, and personal style?
   

4. Are you manageable ?

• Will you be easy or difficult to manage – by the person who will be your manager or supervisor? Is there evidence to support this?
   
• Will you follow and/or support organizational policies and procedures?
   
• How will you take direction?
   
• Will you support organizational changes?
   
• Will you fit in with the existing style of management?
   

Money Concerns

5. Can the company afford you ?

• Is the salary range of this job compatible with your salary history?
   
• Is what you want to earn, reasonably expect to earn, and/or need to earn compatible with what this job pays?
   
• Is the benefit package consistent with your needs and expectations?

Not every job is right for you

Not every job is the right job for you, but you can address many of these concerns by being prepared. And having a great resume goes a long way to helping you be prepared for an interview.

Be prepared

The above concerns are front and center when a recruiter or employer is reviewing your resume, during interviews and when your references are consulted.

Richard Ward
The Job Search Coach

P.S. My Resumes That Get You Interviews Coaching will help you to create a resume that will effective address employer concerns get you interviews.