Most of us feel like some kind of nerd. My brand: word nerdery. I love words when they are used well. I get a thrill when I know I've constructed a well written something; website copy, messaging framework, Facebook status update. The flip side of that is that I sometime agonize over words. Sometimes they don't flow as easily as I'd like them to and I struggle over constructing a page, paragraph or sentence.
I once read that it's best to save creative tasks like writing for the end of the day, when you're a little tired. Your brain doesn't have the energy to put up all those intellectual roadblocks. I've tested this hypothesis and I find that I definitely write better at night. But if I have a glass of wine in my hand, I have about a 30 minute window to get my writing done. Because wine does not improve my writing. Fact.
I was thinking about this as it relates to resume-writing because I've been speaking with a number of you going through the resume writing process. If I haven't mentioned it already, everybody hates resume writing. Every. One. My last rev on my resume, I had the benefit of having had someone interview my clients to get feedback about the value I provide. Call it a little voice-of-the-customer research. I identified themes and then made sure that those themes were reinforced throughout my document. Without hiring a marketing consultant, I think you can do a little version of this by looking back at your performance reviews, that kudos folder you have saved somewhere or even by asking people that you worked with. "What is my brand? When you worked with me, what is it that you came to expect? How did it impact you? How did it impact our business?".
Just taking the time to think about this will, I believe, help you create a much better resume than if you focus on listing tasks, bullet-style. All those words next to those bullets need to add up to something that your future employer (or client) really wants.
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