How to develop a resume so it doesn’t stress you out (every time).

Writing a customized resume from scratch every single time you apply for a position can take hours. It is energy-draining, stressful, and often people start the process so late in the game they send a sub-par resume and don’t get the interview call.

You want to move from creating a targeted resume from scratch to fine-tuning work you have already done for maximum appeal. Resume creation should be less time writing and brainstorming and more time strategizing.

If you do the work in the front-end, you leave room for the beautiful details when you need them.

The Process

Instead of starting from scratch every time, identify your key accomplishment stories and systematize them.

• Write out your accomplishment stories. If you don’t know stories, take the free Career Stories challenge to gather them. Load the stories with details.
• Edit them into neat little accomplishment bullets that tell a story, explain your action and the result you got.
• Save them all in one document, this is your keystone resume.
• Sort and label every accomplishment by the skill used.
• Add in all your education (online courses count too!)
• Add in volunteer and paid roles with titles and dates

This takes all your work experience and gives you an awesome starting place.

Start researching which resume formats are right for you. I built a short class on how to choose the best format depending on your situation. Do you have the job experience — go for chronological or hybrid. Are you changing careers? — Try hybrid or functional. I break it all down in this class on Ideal Formats and Incredible Resume Profiles.

The Fun Part

The fun part comes when a new job comes up. Here is what you do every time.

• When a position comes up, look at what the company is looking for. Go line by line through their job ad.
• Review your keystone resume and choose the most appropriate bullet points that match their ad. Copy and paste those over into your resume template.
• Go back to the job ad and look for keywords – words they use more than three times.
• Look at the subtleness of their language. Tweak the language of your resume to show you fit and understand their culture.

This takes the stress out of resume creation and saves you time.

Instead, your new system allows you a simple way to demonstrate your value, get ultra-specific, and share all your accomplishments. You can focus on strategy and finesse instead — the little stuff that usually gets you the interview.

How to find accomplishment stories

• The Career Stories method for gathering your stories
• How to know what stories are appropriate for a resume
• How to turn everyday stories into resume bullet points
• How to identify common themes to build a career brand
• And much more