by Kevin Donlin from Guerrilla Resume

Following 7 months of struggle, one Minnesota man recently made a simple change in his job search and was hired for a new position only 30 days later.

Here's the story …

Scott Bornstein, from suburban St. Paul, had what he thought was a well written resume. But "every time I sent it out, people would suggest changes to make. When I handed it out at a job fair, they'd say, 'Thank you' and file it away immediately." He wasn't getting called by employers.

Sound familiar?

Bornstein found a way to improve his resume, which boosted his self-confidence, which, in turn, led to more interviews, in a virtuous circle that got him hired in 30 days.

What did he do?

"I went to using a Guerrilla Resume. It was easy to write and it gave me confidence, with a resume that I felt positive to hand out to anybody," says Bornstein.

The Guerrilla Resume, a new style of resume, is normally one page long and has two essential components:

1. logos from past employers, colleges, or organizations;
2. quotes from people familiar with your work, such as managers or clients.

Let's look at them in detail …

1. Logos

Fact: The brain would rather look at pictures than read. (What's worth a thousand words?)

That's why 2-3 logos can improve your resume. They catch the reader's eye, allowing you to make an emotional connection with the employer and piggyback on any positive feelings associated with those logos.

All before they've read one word of your resume.

Can you get in trouble for using logos? Not in my experience since 1996.

Reason: You're not using these graphics to sell anything. Of course, I'm not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. If in doubt, ask permission before using a logo or other graphic.

2. Quotes from past managers or clients.

Bornstein used 3 quotes in his Guerrilla Resume. Quotes get attention because they are third-party endorsements of you, like testimonials in a TV infomercial.

Where to get them? From recommendations on your Linkedin profile! They're already in the public domain — why not use those quotes in your resume?

Here's what happened after Bornstein revamped his resume.

"The next day I went to a job fair in Minneapolis. I walked up to a recruiter and handed my resume to her. She actually grabbed my hand, leaned in, and said, 'This is an amazing resume.' I knew at that moment that I had something," says Bornstein.

What he had was confidence, which improved every part of his job search.

Think about how easy it is to do something when you *know* you can, versus when you're unsure. It's the difference that can make all the difference.

"With the new resume, I had complete confidence in what I was doing. As soon as I started handing it to other people — hiring managers, recruiters, whoever — nobody wanted to change it. I felt they all wanted to give me a chance, and that was different," says Bornstein.

The job Bornstein eventually took came from a contact he made at the Wooddale Transition Group. (If you're not a member of a high-quality job club, consider joining one. In addition to producing employment leads, it gets you out of the house to meet and help other people.)

"An email went to the group members on a Wednesday and I applied, along with 32 other people. The new resume immediately popped up for the hiring manager," says Bornstein, who was called on Friday and interviewed on Monday. A second interview followed on Thursday and he was offered a job the next day — 9 days after applying.

An eye-grabbing resume can provide the same kind of ego boost you might enjoy after getting a new suit or tie. If clothes make the man, can a Guerrilla Resume make the job search?

Apparently, yes.

Now. You've just been given the key to creating a Guerrilla Resume: include logos and quotes. You can do it yourself, today.

If you'd like help, however, you can go here -> Guerrilla Resume

Resume cliches like "self-motivated individual" and "results-oriented professional" are out of date in 2010. You can do a better job of letting hiring managers know how you solve problems on-the-fly or leap over tall buildings in a single bound.

Here are ten of the deadliest resume phrases in use ("massive overuse" would be more accurate) and replacements for each one. You'll rewrite the replacement phrases to reflect your own accomplishments–and that's the key! We can't expect a timeworn piece of resume boilerplate to stand in for our own pithy, personal examples.

Kill this: Results-oriented professional

Replace with your own version of this: I love to solve thorny supply-chain problems

Kill this: Excellent team player

Replace with your own version of this: At Acme Dynamite, I partnered with Engineering to cut our product cost in half

Kill this: Bottom-line orientation

Replace with your own version of this: My accounting-process overhaul saved the company $10M in its first year

Kill this: Superior communication skills

Replace with your own version of this: I led a two-day offsite that yielded our 2010 product lineup and a $40K cost savings

Kill this: Possess organizational skills

Replace with your own version of this: Reduced customer-complaint resolution time from three weeks to one by revamping the process

Kill this: Savvy business professional

Replace with your own version of this: I'm a PR manager who's gotten his employers covered by Yahoo! and Time magazine

Kill this: Strong work ethic

Replace with your own version of this: I taught myself HTML over a weekend in order to grab a marketing opportunity

Kill this: Meets or exceeds expectations

Replace with your own version of this: Invited to join our executive staff at a strategy summit during my first year at the company

Kill this: Strong presentation skills

Replace with your own version of this: Was recruited to join Acme Dynamite after my boss heard me speak at a conference

Kill this: Seeking a challenging opportunity

Replace with your own version of this: I'm looking for a midsize manufacturer primed to grow its business in the Pacific Rim

Get the boilerplate lead out of your resume today, and replace it with concrete, visual stories that bring your power to life. Watch employers respond! You can't afford to send out another lifeless, sounds-like-everyone-else resume. Employers want the real you on the page. Try it!

–
Liz Ryan is a 25-year HR veteran, a former Fortune 500 VP, and an internationally recognized expert on careers and the new-millennium workplace. Connect with her at www.asklizryan.com.

Here's the transcript from a phone interview that Kevin Donlin, from Guerrilla Job Search International, recently did with one happy Guerrilla Job Hunter, Scott Melrose, from Mokena, Illinois.

He was hired for an executive position by an employer who found him on Linkedin, after he re-did his online profile to match his Guerrilla Resume.

What can you learn from Scott's remarkable success story?

Read on …

Kevin Donlin: Let me set the stage. Scott, you are a very busy executive and you had been looking for three to four months for a job using traditional methods. How many interviews did you get doing that?

Scott: None.

Kevin: Zero. Then you started using Guerrilla Job Search Tactics, including a Guerrilla Resume. What happened after that?

Scott: When I started using the Guerrilla Resume and also building it into my LinkedIn profile, people started finding me. They started coming out of the woodwork. I actually ended up with a position that is a better fit for me than anything I was able to find through research.

Kevin: Using Guerrilla tactics, how many different companies did you interview with?

Scott: Four.

Kevin: Four, and you just got a job offer now, in early April. You were offered a new job about April 2?

Scott: Correct.

Kevin: Congratulations! Now, what other Guerrilla tactics worked in your job search? Which ones were most helpful for you?

Scott: The main thing was highlighting my strengths and having that online. Taking care of the LinkedIn; getting a lot of connections so I would show up with a lot of other people; taking control of my ZoomInfo profile.

Kevin: How did you actually find out about the job that you accepted?

Scott: I got contacted via one of the people who will be my counterpart saying, "Hey, you look like someone we would like to have on our team."

Kevin: So they found you on Linkedin?

Scott: Yes.

Kevin: If I recall your LinkedIn profile, it's largely based on what we preach and teach in creating a Guerrilla Resume. You're using pretty much the same information?

Scott: I was cutting and pasting the Guerrilla Resume right into LinkedIn.

Kevin: Good. Are there any other tactics that got good results for you that we haven't talked about?

Scott: The resume format, which I don't believe we spent time on, is really powerful, and they were very helpful in getting me set up with that with the templates and the advice on where to get the logos.

Having the logos and then the quotes from previous managers and customers really paved the way for me. The evidence was there for the quality of work that I do, not just from me but from the people who have paid me in the past.

Kevin: Good. The evidence had been hiding in your work history until the Guerrilla Resume prompted you to go back and examine it differently, is that not true?

Scott: Correct.

Kevin: You would never have thought of putting logos and quotes in your resume. You've never heard of that before, have you?

Scott: I would have never dreamed of it.

Kevin: What was the reaction employers had to your resume?

Scott: It was killer. It was really killer, Kevin. Everybody that I showed it to was really impressed with it.

Kevin: Do you think that helped you interview more confidently?

Scott: Absolutely!

Kevin: Thanks, Scott. You've just shown that the best way to find a job is for the job to find you.

Your Takeaway Lessons:

1) Make sure your Linkedin profile has recommendations AND specific achievements for each job you've held. This can attract potential employers, as Scott's profile did for him.

2) Consider using a Guerrilla Resume, which emphasizes graphics and quotes from past employers, clients, and schools you attended. Done correctly, a Guerrilla Resume can be very effective. More information is available here –

Guerrilla Resume

1. Start smart
 
The Coffee Cup Caper — a paper Starbucks cup, full-color Guerrilla Resume, and a Guerrilla Cover Letter (asking to meet for coffee), shipped in a box — gets extraordinary results. By contrast, ordinary resumes and cover letters, sent by email, get ordinary results.
 

2. Follow up with style
 
Delivering a Halloween treat with her thank-you note was correct seasonally, if not politically. Use good judgment before sending items that might be perceived as bribes by employers sensitive to such things. In Berman's case, however, it worked like a (chocolate-covered) charm.
 
And, leaving out the gift, could you arrange to have your thank-you note delivered by a courier, or a friend posing as one? Of course.
 

3. Give employers another reason to hire you
 
Mary did this in spades after her second interview, when she sent a written plan of action for her first 3 months on the job.
 
A 30-60-90 day plan is a way of proving you can do the work — before you're even on the payroll — by describing how you would learn the job, build rapport with employees/customers, and contribute to the bottom line.
 
Mary's plan was 8 pages long and took the better part of a Friday night to prepare. (Before you balk at spending an entire evening at home researching and writing a 30-60-90 day plan, ask yourself if you wouldn't trade a night out for getting a steady paycheck again.)
 

4. Score style points with your delivery
 
Mary's first follow-up, the chocolate-apple-thank-you note, was delivered by a courier, not by email. Her 30-60-90 day plan was delivered by FedEx, not by email.
 
Do you NOT see a pattern? Email should NOT be the sole delivery method for your career documents.
 
Bottom line: This smart Guerrilla had failed to get even one job interview in 20 weeks of conventional job hunting with conventional tactics.
 
After adopting unconventional Guerrilla tactics, she found work in only 7 weeks.
 
If Guerrilla job search methods can work in Michigan, where the unemployment rate tops 15%, they can work where you live. The only thing stopping you from thinking and acting like a Guerrilla is you.
 
Resource: The same Guerrilla Resumes and Cover Letters Mary used are here.