patti wilson's blog

Writing a Master Resume

The first step to writing or updating your resume is to create a Master Resume.

What’s that you say?

Your Master Resume is a comprehensive compilation of all your experience from your 1^st college job forward including: education, awards, certificates, patents, publications, part-time and full-time jobs/internships/contracts, presentations, affiliations and volunteer participation.

This should be as detailed as possible and multiple pages long. Be sure and list the dates, titles, and locations, audiences of all courses, awards, presentations and publications. List the names of all the clients, customers, vendors, partners, affiliates and sponsors that you and your company worked with.

I know it may not seem possible that you might forget the details of your work down the road but it happens. I have had clients in their 30’s try to recall the customers they worked with 5 years prior exclaim in exasperation, “but, that’s so long ago!”

Keep the record of your career current, updating it annually after every performance evaluation. It’s also helpful to track and maintain a record of written kudos and compliments, recognitions and rewards from co-workers, colleagues, bosses, and teachers. Any time you receive a note, letter, email that indicates a job well done, a favor fulfilled, extra credit, recognition for going beyond the call, save it.

Such a collection of public recognition and acknowledgement will bring credibility and credence to your qualifications and accomplishments.  Assiduously acquire endorsements (testimonials) to attach to your profile on social networking sites such as Linkedin.com. What others say about you is more memorable than what you say about yourself. You can use these endorsements in other venues as well.

All of this is grist for the mill. Someday you might find that you are digging through years of job changes and career moves for specific details that will create the written agrument for your next job. Drawing upon the wealth of data collected about yourself in a Master Resume can ensure the likelihood of a job offer.

My Virtual Admin

I hired a virtual admin two weeks ago after posting a job on Craigslist and screening the resulting 200+ applicants from 5 states and 3 countries. Bringing a virtual admin on board has freed me up from constant daily admin tasks of the business allowing me to focus on business development.

The last 6 years has transformed the ability of small business people, professionals and job seekers to market and promote themselves, network and perform more productively.

Resources and tools such as Linksv, Craigslist, Linkedin, Gotomypc, Webx, Quindi, Skype, Vonage, Blackberry, IM, E-groups, Blogs, and Wikis together with email and broadband has taken the PC revolution from the desktop to the world.

These digital productivity tools have enabled global business on a scale never before imagined allowing affordable, efficient and timely access to customers and clients worldwide. My client base is now global.

I am now looking a moving all my client management processes on-line along with adding a content management system to my website. Could I have added some of these capabilities to my business in the previous decade? Hardly, the cost would have been prohibitive and the technology simply wasn't there in a lot of cases.