The Working Resume™: A New Approach for Job Applications
February 26, 2010 @ How to Manage a Camel - Project Management and Recruitment from DanS
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“A clear picture of the business of the employer you want to work for.”
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“Proof of your understanding of the problems and challenges your prospective employer faces.”
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“A plan describing how you would do the work the employer needs done.”
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“An estimate of what/how much you think you could add to the bottom line.”
It’s an inspired read, one we definitely recommend so you gain a full understanding of just what is happening in this new and radical approach to gaining the job you really want. And although we do advise on delivering effective CVs to hiring personnel, we’re not above suggesting The Working Resume™ to you if it can give you a leg up in getting your foot in the door. Frankly, when done effectively, it’s a document worthy of endorsement.
The UK job hunting market as it stands today (see a role, apply for it [through agency or direct], gain interview and hire) is not conducive to The Working Resume™ idea for a number of reasons;
- Lack of need to include anything in terms of working history, the achievements or accreditations is too much of a step change – how on earth would recruitment agents be able to sift and sort without keyword searches (!)
- Most opportunities in the marketplace don’t give enough detail about who the organisation is, the ins and outs of the programmes or projects, or the realism of the job specification and person specification – how can an effective Working Resume be created without this information
- There is not enough of a collective voice to say “we don’t like how the hiring process works” to change the way we do things now – without that, it doesn’t become the norm
But that’s the great thing about The Working Resume™, it is not the norm and we think the principles of it can be adopted for your competitive advantage.
While keeping the four bullets within the context of it, our version of The Working Resume does not eliminate the CV. Rather, it moulds it according to The Working Resume™ standards. Keep the CV, but emphasize the achievements or responsibilities you’ve undertaken previously in your work experience that specifically address the key points in the job specification. If you do the research and can point to those things on your working resume as effective demonstration of your capabilities in the role, you’ve started to gain a competitive advantage already.
The project management field lends itself perfectly to the four principles of The Working Resume™:
- “A clear picture of the business of the employer you want to work for.”
- “Proof of your understanding of the problems and challenges your prospective employer faces.”
- “A plan describing how you would do the work the employer needs done.”
- “An estimate of what/how much you think you could add to the bottom line.”
For The Working Resume™ to be an effective undertaking, it cannot be the same for different roles you apply for. This is a principle that applies to simple CVs as well: The job descriptions are different, and that changes the achievements you’ll need to highlight in your traditional CV. You have to tailor the document you are providing to the job and hiring personnel you’re applying for/to. That means properly prioritising the order of work examples from your past, allowing you to better point to accomplishments that address the problems and issues the new employers need to have solved.
*Corcodilos’ writings rarely use the word ‘CV’, as the commonly-known title for a working history document in America is the French term ‘resume’. We’ve stuck with ‘CV’ in all possible references outside the trademarked The Working Resume™ to avoid confusing our readers.
This article is reprinted from the February edition of Project Management Tipoffs, the project management newsletter from Arras People.
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