A Class with Drucker - Headway | Work on yourself

92 ■ A CLASS WITH DRUCKER
you need to do. You have just taken your first step toward freedom from
job loss fear.
THE IMPORTANCE OF A CURRENT RESUME
Through the magic of a computer, it is easy to keep a continuously updated
version of your accomplishments. And this is really important, even if you
won’t be sending it to anyone. And I don’t recommend sending out
resumes or posting them on the internet. I know that just this statement
will have a lot of folks wanting to know why not. First, why keep a current
resume?
Human beings tend to forget. Trying to capture all the great things
we’ve accomplished under the pressures of having to look for a new job
is daunting and not very effective. Being human, you will forget a lot. It’s
much better to get everything down now, and keep adding to it. One of
the insights I’ve discovered is that some project you may have worked on
for a couple of days can turn out to be more valuable to another company
than one you’ve been working on for several years.
Don’t just write down experience. That’s not a very valuable piece of
information. Unfortunately that’s what many people do in their resumes.
They write down a job title, the dates they held the job, and a couple of
sentences that describe their responsibilities. That’s hardly enough. What
did you actually accomplish during that period? Quantify increases in
sales, profits, awards, etc., and write down exactly what happened making
this so significant. That’s what makes all the difference.
The more you document and read about your exploits yourself, the
more you are going to feel what a great candidate you are for any particular
job. That’s another value to this continuously updated resume which
goes all the way back to the beginnings of your career. It’s a tremendous
boost to your self-confidence, and if you are suddenly out of work, it is of
significant value for keeping your thinking positive.
SALES LETTERS ARE BETTER THAN RESUMES
You shouldn’t send your resume to everyone. This is one of the most surprising
aspects about successful job finding, but it’s true. A resume can
actually prevent you from getting more jobs than it will help you to get,
even though we’ve been brainwashed to think that this is the only way to
get a job. Remember that classmate of mine who got that top job at
Twentieth Century Fox? He didn’t submit a resume.