How to Craft an Effective Executive Summary for Your Resume Building Your Future Now

How to Craft an Effective Executive Summary for Your Resume Building Your Future Now If you have ever written an essay before you know that the engine that drives it is the thesis. The thesis is what all the parts of the essay go back to because you are trying to prove it! Same thing goes for your executive summary (or professional summary) on your resume. It is the brain that makes the resume work! The executive summary makes the hiring manager know what your intention is for applying to the job. It also should state why you are the best candidate for the position while highlighting a few key skills and strengths. The length of the executive summary should be about 2-3 sentences long and drive home the bottomline for your career, and future intentions via your goals. Here is a sample of a punchy, effective executive summary: Goal-driven B2B Sales Professional with a proven track record of consistently exceeding sales targets while setting performance benchmarks company-wide. Demonstrated precision negotiation skills with various 500 fortune companies by closing a majority of business and continually finding new areas to grow upon existing portfolio. Take a moment to examine that summary. Your thoughts? Its jam packed with action and sets up the rest of the resume nicely. Obviously this sales professional needs some strong numbers and experience to back-up such claims in the body of the resume! However it gets the point across: a powerfully crafted Executive Summary can give your resume a strong tone and build a strong voice for the hiring manager reviewing it to hear loud and clear! Now try crafting one now. It might take some time but it will be worth it! Image: Pexels

Services or Products As Your Career Focus - VocationVillage

Services or Products As Your Career Focus - VocationVillage Have you ever thought about whether you want services or products as your career focus? Understanding the differences between these two possibilities can help you to choose or change to a work direction that is best for your interests, personality, and skills. I interviewed people with both of these types of careers to get their perspective about their day-to-day experiences with their jobs. Tangible vs. Subjective MeasurementMary Whitney, founder of Women Planting Seeds, is a leader and developer of social change. Ms. Whitney has worked in both service and product-focused roles. She observes that with a product-focused job, you know exactly what is expected of you and the results are easy to measure. By contrast, the most difficult challenge with a service-focused effort is to quantify the success of what you have achieved. Funders ask Ms. Whitney to show metrics for her work with clients and she works to quantify variables that are subjective. She says,It is a victory when a homeless client begins to shower regularly and dress in clean clothes, but this is difficult to measure. By contrast, a product-based endeavor is more easily quantified. When I am selling a product, you can easily tally up by the amount of sales I made compared to another persons total. You can easily tell that Walmart sells more products than quite a few other stores in comparison to the markets t hey serve.Time to market is usually faster with service-oriented businesses. Ms. Whitney comments,It is often easier to convince a client to attend a workshop (service) than to buy and read a self-help book (product).Problem-Solving vs. Self-ExpressionSara Martin is an artist, writer, and designer. Ms. Martin describes herself as a creative, expressive person, and she says her years in business have taught her how her business model affects her satisfaction with work.Ms. Martin notes,In a service business, your job is to facilitate the success of your clients. Their success is your success. The client gets to set the metrics for what constitutes success. You, the service provider, may develop opinions about the best course of action for your client, but at the end of the day, its not your call. This business model is great for people who enjoy solving puzzles, or finding many possible solutions to a given problem. If your creativity is satisfied when you solve a problem for someone, this model will work for you.Thats not how my creativity works. I desire self-expression. My greatest satisfaction comes from putting myself out there and seeing who I attract. Product business models make this possible. A product model is great for people with high idea productivity. The main challenge is finding the intersection between your self-expression and the market. This intersection will not happen with every idea, so resilience is key.Upfront InvestmentDuane Preiss, Business Development Manager for 3M Mobile Interactive Solutions Division, is in a product-focused career. He says,It is rewarding to deal with multiple entities and technologies required to develop a product and to watch the evolution from idea and concept to scale-up and launch. However, product launches can require significant financial outlay in the form of RD and capital expense, and if the product fails to delight the customer, there is no guarantee of a good return on the investment.Direct Connection v s. Behind-The-ScenesLaura George, a business consultant for artists, says that people choosing a career path should reflect on whether they want to connect directly with others or to be more behind-the scenes. Ms. George observes,Theres nothing like getting to build deep relationships with your customers. With a service-based business you are almost forced to interact with your customers on a personal and emotional level because youre working for their needs. You end up discussing their needs, and thus their emotions. And of course, you offer the best service when you do build a relationship with them and become invested in their well being. Its a very joyful situation. On the flip side, product-focused businesses are inspiring because of the initial creation process. Manufacturing (unless you craft your products by hand) and delivery are not full of life and spirit. But the conceptualizing and design those are full of passion and love.ScalabilityMs. George also mentions one of the biggest differences between services and products, which is the limitation of time. Because of this limitation, service businesses can be tough to scale. Ms. George elaborates,With a service-based business, no one else can be you. You cant find someone to take on half your clients without completely restructuring your business, and if you do hire employees or contractors, you have to carefully oversee everything they do. With a product-based business, it is easier to grow larger, because you can outsource different aspects of the business, everything from manufacturing to customer service.Clarity and ConcretenessMichael Civitelli, Director of Sales and Business Development / Parking for SWARCO, says,The biggest rewards in a product based role are the clarity and the concreteness of the business solutions. My customers know what I am offering them: I sell products that enhance mobility and parking systems. When I was a consultant, a big part of the job was helping the client to defin e the deliverable. Once a consulting report is generated, the recommendations may or may not be implemented. With products, it is much more clear to the client what the product is and what they will do with it once they buy it.The Challenge of CommoditizationSome creative service professionals say the market has shifted from a creative thinking (service) focus to a commodity (product) focus where clients ask questions like, How much will it cost to get a brochure done? Rick Tuckerman, Creative Marketing Director of ZoomIQ2, warns,It takes thick skin, courage of conviction, and lots of patience to succeed in a creative services career. The business of creative services requires working within tight budgets, dealing with the whims and misgivings of well-intentioned smaller clients, and gauging the relationship between their time, a clients budget and the ability to work fast and efficient enough to generate a decent income. Understand that to some degree, selling your ideas are just a s important as creating them.Its All Service?Finally, from a customer service perspective, John Tschohl, founder of The Service Quality Institute and author of Achieving Excellence Through Customer Service, says even if youre in the product business youre still in the service business. He says:To be the best in the service business means to be empowered to make decisions in favor of the customer, to be a people person, to be speedy and to offer resolutions to problems that come up. If you dont have the answer, you find someone who does. Its about taking care of details or the little things that most people miss. Its about making the customer experience as smooth and enjoyable as possible.Your TurnSo what do you think? Do you work in a service-focused job, a product-focused job, or both? Do you like it? What should others know to make the best career decision?

Our Errors Present Opportunity - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Our Errors Present Opportunity - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Most entrepreneurs have experienced it â€" we tried a new venue that fell short of fulfilling our vision. If it doesn’t involve another, the situation is only half-bad. But when other companies are depending upon our business savvy that proves to be anything but, it becomes quite embarrassing on top of the very disappointing results. A colleague and I were discussing the value of our hard learned lessons. “Charles” and I both tend to replay as many conversations as possible, in our heads, of every step leading up to the no fly zone. We then analyze all possibilities of where we might have taken a different turn for better results. Plugging those changes into the unhappy situation, we are then able to see where the next time around our projects will be able to take off and land in a much brighter space. Charles then proceeded to sadly confide that he was expecting a large check for delivery of services. However his delivery fell very short on expectations. Consequently there was no exchange of money for his services after a lengthy trial. Disappointment doesn’t describe how he felt for a brief moment. His voice perked up as he began to describe a bright spot upon coming to terms with what transpired. The past few days, Charles spent replaying what he could have done differently. He quickly recognized that should a similar opportunity arise again, he would proceed as a high level consultant versus just a contributor. The title change alone requires he take a leadership role thereby enabling him to attract a better qualified audience. Charles didn’t stop there. Replaying the conversations again, only this time as the consultant, he began to play out new strategies for better outcomes. Doing so brought a stream of new ideas. Suddenly, the picture was bigger and brighter than ever before with improved opportunity ahead. Likewise, as an entrepreneur, I learned my first hard lesson at the very first networking event ever attended. Upon announcing I was a sales trainer (having had a fruitful sales career), the men laughed believing a woman couldn’t possibly know enough about sales to be a trainer, and the women ran away believing I must be unethical. From that day forward I began reading marketing materials. The first point noted was that to build credibility I must write a book. I also recognized the need to communicate more effectively and build my brand demonstrating integrity. Writing and public speaking became requirements. I spent my time learning how to write, speak and build my personal brand to attract the right attention. What transpires when we are willing to face our shortcomings is the dawning of new possibilities and opportunities. As my conversation developed with Charles, an added benefit became recognition that the two of us will very likely collaborate on future projects. As for me, I became a published author of two best-selling books. My parting words to Charles were, “Be proud you recognized what you may do better in the future. You are now positioned for a far better outcome.” When we are willing to face what went wrong to move forward, we are then headed for a Smooth Sale! Author: Elinor Stutz, CEO of Smooth Sale, LLC authored the International Best-Selling book, “Nice Girls DO Get the Sale: Relationship Building That Gets Results”, Sourcebooks and the best selling career book, “HIRED! How to Use Sales Techniques to Sell Yourself On Interviews”, Career Press. She provides team sales training, private coaching and highly acclaimed inspirational keynotes for conferences. Elinor is available upon request for consultation.