Your Business Resume
Anil Mahajan
During the protectionist times of 45 years there was short supply syndrome ruling the market. I remember my father booked a bajaj scooter for me when I was 6 years old so that I get it after a waiting period of 18 years hopefully before my marriage. But, with capitalism spreading itself under the garb of liberalization, competition is taking strong roots. Every service, including political parties, has the tendency of becoming a Commodity.
And it is imperative for a commodity to move up the value added chain towards branding…
In the job market, the first brunt of liberalization was borne by candidates. To outwit the competition, companies suddenly realized they need the best professionals to remain on top or sufficiently away from the bottom. Kumbhakarana awakened.
The Biodata became dead. The Resume took over. Family background or royal lineage took a back seat. Skills suddenly were in demand.
For presentation style & effective copywriting, resume writers entered the market.
Brand building became important to job seekers too. Unfortunately, a plethora of obnoxious & purposeless websites on jobs started. 2-minute resumes (frying of a thorough professional in 2-minutes flat/ crash-course fad for definite death) entered the market & became passé’ in English & paasse’ in Punjabi. 2-minute resumes created more problems than they solved. Dude or baby CV writers or fresher / trainees started writing resumes of senior professionals from the backdrop & anonymity offered by big jobsites. This kind of wierdo performances or screwing of a professional’s profile & all essentially money making gimmicks/ fly-by-night initiatives taken by big jobsites created a bitter taste in the job market.
Capitalism is ruthless & spells death to those who are not able to promote themselves. The internet has made competition tough for everybody. If you are a placement consultant you have rest of the world to ward off or you will be in a soup. If you are a call center company, the candidate is the interviewer too & you have to be appealing & attractive enough to cajole him to send his resume to you. Before the candidate sends his resume to you, it is you, the company, who has to prepare a corporate Business Resume with power words & send it to candidates by actually publishing it in the “Ascent” pullout of “The Times of India” or host it in the form of a Flash or DHTML based beautiful company website. This website whether it belongs to a company, a placement consultant or a contractor is meticulously made & hosted as a Business Resume / online portfolio.
So, cheer up, dear candidate, you are not alone in making a resume. When the company is spending so much of its time in making a great resume to promote itself to all the prospective employees like you as the BEST EMPLOYER, it is natural that you should get your resume prepared by a equally good copywriter as a Great marketing tool.
Now why in hell this Business Resume Talk? (Hell! I am NOT a Placement Consultant…NOR a Housekeeping Contractor…NOR a BPO Company- I don’t need a business resume!)
But you do. A Business Resume can be aptly called a Portfolio. A portfolio lets you dazzle potential clients (prospective employers) with your capabilities and achievements by providing shining or glorious examples of your work. A portfolio’s contents depend on your industry, but may include examples of your work, references, testimonials, a client list, media or press clippings, awards and other evidence of your professional accomplishments. Like the portfolio for a model it should show a leg or a bit of flesh but the flesh should be sizzling enough to get an assignment for the model or called for discussion by the filmmaker. Only a great leg is shown.
The rules of the game are simple. If you have great assets, FLAUNT them. You have to be beautiful & bold too to show the entire world that you are beautiful. Localize the places where you are well endowed & showcase them. Tell the entire world in no uncertain words that you are a great head or a great leg or a headhunter or whatever.
It is relief that Job seekers need one & only one kind of resume targeted at companies, unlike companies. Placement consultants need 2 different types of Business Resume- one for the prospective client companies & the second one targeted at job seekers cajoling them to send their resume. Similarly, companies need more than 3 kinds of Business resume. One targeted at job seekers, another targeted at prospective consumers (marketing people call business resume as corporate marketing materials. These include brochures, business cards, letterhead, Web sites and demos etc.) & One targeted at prospective investors in Dalal street or elsewhere or banks.
We have much so much to discuss on this issue. Watch out for the next issue.
