Its all about Work Experience.

By Daryl Wong

Here are two job advertisements that you probably have seen at Jobstreet.com before. Would you apply for these jobs?

ABC Company Sdn Bhd Distributor of machine Position Title: HR Assistant Job Requirement

Candidate must possess at least a Primary/Secondary School/SPM/"O" Level, Higher Secondary/STPM/"A" Level/Pre-U, Diploma or Advanced/Higher/Graduate Diploma, Degree 1-2 years relevant working experience. Able to work independently.

ABC Company Sdn Bhd Mobile Services Position Title: Customer Service Executive Job Requirement Pleasant personality and disposition. Good communication skills. Fresh graduates/Entry level applicants are encouraged to apply.

Ill bet most of you will say no. But if you do say yes, let me ask you this question. Do you think you will have a promising career with this company? Most likely you will answer no. How come? Well, it is obvious, isnt it?
1. No clear information about what the company does.

2. Incomplete description as to what the job does or requires. 3. Too general a description the company does not seem to be too

ambitious about the type of people they are looking for.

Im sure youll find more reasons not to apply for this job and we do understand the frustration you have with such advertisements. These advertisements do not give the impression that they offer a high quality job or company even though it may not be entirely true. If you are feeling the frustration, then I can honestly tell you that employers face the same frustrations when reading some of your resumes. They, too, feel that it is a total waste of time that such candidates even bother to apply for the job in the first place. They too find the applicants resume irrelevant, too general and just does not instill a perception of a high performing employee. We conducted a survey recently in an effort to revamp our system, and we asked the employer what the main point are in a typical resume that they use primarily to evaluate an applicant on whether they are fit for the job they advertised. We did this across a few countries in Asia and consistently, the main point they all focus on is the Work Experience section in a resume. That is pretty obvious, right? Work Experience is the section where one can know what your past experiences are and whether the employer wants that kind of work or skill you have demonstrated previously. If that is so, why do we keep getting appalling written work experience sections when we review hundreds of jobseeker resumes during our Career Talk and Resume Clinics? Lets make this crystal clear. If you are not getting enough or any interviews, even though you have applied to a lot of jobs..it is because your resume is not getting the attention it deserves and the main culprit is the Work Experience section. Just like the job advertisements descriptions are either: above, these work experiences

1. Too short We have seen some resumes where the work experience section covers only 10% of the resume, which does not tell us what the jobseeker actually does. It also gives the impression that they really are not playing an important role in the organizations that they have worked for.

2. Too long The longest resume I have ever reviewed was a 20-page

resume, double sided! One work experience description on average covers almost 2 pages. Who would bother to read all of them? Trying to find information within this resume to identify key skills and experience was a major task. And inconsistent formats and styles do not help either. Your resume is not your autobiography, so it isnt essential to include a complete inventory of your work experience and state everything youve done. It also makes it difficult

for us to understand what your main role is and what you are really good at. 3. Too general - This reads the same as the hundreds of resume that

we have read. I often say if your work experience description can be easily copied and pasted by somebody else to be used to describe them too, you can forget about getting that interview call. Just like the example above, how many advertisements have you seen with such content? There is nothing unique about it at all!

Key to a Good Work Experience Write-up

Its all about perception! If you are not getting any calls for interviews, even though you have applied for hundreds of jobs, its undoubtedly due to your resume lacking the
power and significantly underselling your abilities and experience. While you may actually be a very good fit for the roles to which you have applied, chances are that your resume doesnt instill that perception in the 15-20 seconds that those charged with screening resumes typically spend per applicant. How does one create the perception? First off, what do all employers look for in a candidate, regardless of the position? They are always looking for candidates that can demonstrate or proof one or more of the following: 1. Made the company money: What specific projects or work efforts have you completed that directly increased the bottom line? 2. Saved the company money: Have you developed ways to trim production costs or perform certain tasks more efficiently? 3. Improved operations and made things run more smoothly: Have you changed office operations, improved employee morale and retention, or increased productivity? 4. Gone "above and beyond" the call of duty: Have you delivered superior performance on a special project or had sustained performance over a period of time?

These are common needs in any organization. So, how do you demonstrate or create the perception that you have this experience? You can start by using some Convincing Factors.

Convincing Factors
One of the most common mistake jobseeker makes when writing the work experience is that they list down what they do in their role, what their main duties are and describe the day to day task. However, this only tells the employer what your do and does not sell your capability and experience. Who would want to hire you immediately if you describe yourself doing the following?

Perform any ad-hoc task Provide support to the team whenever needed Assist customers for their needs on buying computer equipments

Nobody is interested in what you do every day. What they want to know is what all these duties are for? What are you trying to achieve for the company? What tools or skill do you use to achieve this? Who do you work with, or work for? How important are those tasks for the company? The following elements can and should be used within any resume point to make it stronger and more convincing.
Results/ Accomplishments/Achievements - Employers want resultoriented employees, so you need to find a way to list every significant result or achievement you have. Your resume should include performancerelated references. o Highest ever-individual sales performance in South Asia Pacific.

Quantify results - the language of businesses is dollars, so use numbers to demonstrate the impact of your accomplishments to the organization. It can be a key differentiator. o Developed Management Operating System (MOS) for managing operation effectively resulting in 20% increase in productivity.

Skills used - never mention a task or accomplishment without highlighting the management, technical or people skills required to accomplish it. Do not list all skills involve but the key skills that the jobs you are applying are looking for. Usually, you can get an idea what it is through the job advertisement o Used root cause analysis to accurately identify and pull all key stakeholders to brainstorm and resolve critical performance gap in the system.

Flaunt the importance of your work - exhibit that you do high-quality important work that the organization relies upon you for and that you deliver it consistently. o Formulated a pricing analysis model to set the pricing for all new product launches in the Asia region.

Awards and Recognition - mention all recognitions received for outstanding work. Include awards received both in school and on the job. One cautious note. Dont assume that people know what the award is all about. Explain the meaning of the award and its significance. o Awarded High Achiever (top sales in the Asia regional) for three years in a row.

Leadership - you do not necessarily have to be a manager to demonstrate your leadership. Mention cases where you led a team or project, even if informally. Highlight challenges addressed and leadership methods used. o Assembled and led a team responsible for developing a plan to expand scope of services provided, overcoming resource limitations, personality conflicts, and communication breakdowns to successfully present the case to the executive committee.

Tools used - Demonstrate that you are not only a doer but a smart doer using whatever tools you have or that you learn and acquire those tools to assist your work. o Tools to highlight: CRM, time management, process reengineering, fish bone analysis, mind map.

Worked with or report to key people - If you have worked for or with a famous or high-level individual, highlight them. This clearly demonstrates that you play among the big boys and it will clearly position yourself to be an important individual for the company. o Nominated by the CEO to led and developed the customer satisfaction index and report back to the Board of Directors.

Problem identification and solving skills - if you have an experience where you were able to identify a problem or have excellent problem solving skills, highlight them as these are attributes that all employers want. State how serious the problem that you have identified or how much the company benefited from you solving the problem. o Uncover serious operational gap that may led to serious key customer complaints. Proposed and implemented an out-of-the-box solution to resolve the gap and potentially avoid a RM1M loss in sales.

Major company names - if any time in your career that you work with, partner with, consult, vendor or supplier to the names of well-known and respectable companies, make sure you list it down. This will give the reader a sense of prestige to the work you have done. o Successfully launched the new product in Malaysia and sold the solution to major accounts like Ericsson Mobile, Motorola, Celcom, Maxis, Western Digital and Matsushita.

Global perspective and Cultural diversity - having knowledge of other markets outside your local country is a well sought-after skill. It also shows that you have the flexibility and capability to work with people from different cultures. o Responsible for developing, localizing and launching new products to the Asia Pacific and Japan region. Worked with each country distributor to achieve the revenue growth of 110%.

How much is too much?

Many times, when the above was suggested to the jobseeker, it is certain the following question will be asked:

Do I have to go to such detail? Isnt it bragging? Then, my resume will be very long; it will be like 10 pages. Is it ok?

Let me address the bragging part first. If there is any time in your life you feel you have the right to brag, the resume is the time. How else are you going to show to a reader who have never met you, know what you have done or what you can bring to the table? It is an accomplishment and it will only sound like bragging if you dont own it. Have you ever met someone who is full of confidence and know exactly what he is talking about? And Im sure you have also met people who like to brag. How are you able to differentiate between the two? The difference between a bragger and a confident person is not what they say, but how they say it. You know that the person who brags is only doing so to make himself feel good, but the person who has the confidence is saying it because he dont mind sharing his background and accomplishment around. Be that person. Your resume is there to share with anyone who is reading it, who wants to know who you really are and what you are capable of. Remember, its a matter of how you say it, rather than what you say, that makes you a person who is confident or a bragger.

Yes, it is true that using the above convincing factors might result in you having a 10-page resume, depending on your years of experience. And no, that is not the right approach. Nobody will spend the time to read a long resume. So how do you tackle this? The decision to leave something out from your resume is just as important as deciding what to put in. Are you all confused now? OK, lets try this approach. Many jobseekers write a standard resume covering all aspects of what he/she does and hope that the resume is applicable for all jobs that he/she applies for. However, every single job out there is unique and your experience is vast. What you have been doing is to create a one size fit all approach but this approach rarely works and it might reduce your chances of securing an interview. Remember, I said that the resume is all about perception. Many professionals now are required to multitask and have multiple responsibilities. You may have experience from multiple aspects of marketing, operations, sales, etc. But how do you want others to perceive you? Do you want to be someone who has excellent selling skills and the ability to build a rapport with your client? Or you want others to see you as a manager with excellent leadership and problem solving skills? Maybe you want others to know what particular and unique skill you have, be it technical or non-technical? Once you have decided on this, align your work experience description to that. Anything that does not fall into that, leave it out even though you may have some good accomplishment. Trying to cover so many aspects will confuse the reader as to what you are really good at and the perception you are trying to sell may get lost amongst all the rest of the things you are trying to cover. Still confused? Ok, let me share a story with you to make it clear. I once met a jobseeker who has been trying to get into a more senior position. Though she has extensive experience, she was frustrated that she was not able to secure any interview for the senior jobs that she applied to. When I study her resume, it was so obvious. Her work experience section covers her daily task and the IT projects she has handled before. Though it was good, but it does not give me a perception of her being a senior manager, in fact, a worker is what I get from her resume. Together, we improved her resume. Since she wants a senior manager position, she has to find out what a senior manager does. Mainly, they manage people. We studied her past experiences to see whether she has managed people before, and how big was the team she managed? It does not matter whether it is an official responsibility or during a project, as long she proves that she is capable of managing people and getting the job done. Other than that, senior managers manage through numbers and setting KPIs. Again, her resume should be describing her accomplishment by numbers and KPIs so that others know that she has experience in

managing by numbers. All the words and descriptions used in the resume need to sound like what a senior manager does, and any other senior hiring manager who read her resume will go: This is what I do too and these are the things Im facing day to day. We made sure all these were covered in each of her work experience and highlighted them clearly. I wont go through all the stuff we did but I hope you get what I mean. Other than deciding how you want others to perceive you, another method is to align yourself to the job you applied to. Always go back to your target job that you wish to get and ask yourself what attributes does this job require? And if you have those attributes, they should be the main theme in your resume. And all your past work experience will align to it. How do you know these attributes? Easy, study the job advertisement and the job descriptions. Many jobseekers do not bother to read the job description that the company advertises. This is by far, the biggest mistake. There is a wrong misconception about the concept of applying for a job. Many think it is about submitting their resume for the potential employer to review to see whether they are fit for the job or not. And that is wrong. Its about answering the job advertisement and aligning yourself through your resume to what they are looking for.

What about Fresh Graduate?

So what happens if you are a fresh graduate and do not have much working experience? How do you position yourself? Whatever little work experience you may have, you should put it in, be it a part time job, freelance work, internships, vacation job, working for your family.anything! Employers just want to know whether you have been exposed to the working world. You can still use the convincing factors suggested above to help you to write a good work experience. We have part-timers that we hired during our Career Fair and they ask me how to write a good work experience description about what they did during the fair.

Part-time in Jobstreet.com 2010 Career Fair, participated by 200 companies, attended by 200,000 professionals.

By describing like this, you highlighted that it was JobStreet.com, a company that is well-known. The numbers give the reader a sense of the size of the event and with the size; it gives the reader an idea about the complexity of your job.

My role as a part-timer is to assist the jobseeker to identify their dream job and to guide them to the companies that have similar positions that they can apply to on the spot.

This description allows the reader to know how important your job is even though it may be on a part-time basis. What if you do not have much or no working experience? Then, you can use your Extra-Curricular activities and describe them as though they were your jobs. If you hold a position of any association during your student days, you can describe what you did as though its a real job and use the above convincing factors.

Final Thoughts
I do hope that this will give you some ideas on how to sell yourself via your resume. I know that not everybody is born or trained to be a salesman but this is how the world of recruitment works. Its not always the best man getting the job but how others perceive you. I have seen too many jobseekers failing to get that interview not because they are not fit for the job, but because their resumes failed to fit the job requirements.