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

I had been working for a pre-IPO startup when the bottom fell out of the NASDAQ; I found myself unemployed, along with a whole rash of other like-minded individuals. Of course, what's the second thing you do after you've been laid off (first is drink beer, that's a given, right?)?

You update your resume at all the online job sites (HotJobs, Monster, CareerBuilder, Dice, etc. – add LinkedIn and several others today).

I noticed that my search results didn't have much to show for them except when I updated my resume. It was as if updating my resume put my resume at the top of the virtual stack. Now, I won't kid anybody and expect you to believe that my resume was better than anybody else's.

However, I will tell you that I was experiencing more hits to my resume immediately after I updated it compared to when I had let it sit stagnant for a few days or weeks.

So, that' the tip.

UPDATE YOUR RESUME AT LEAST ONCE A WEEK

All you have to do is change one character save it, then change it back and re-save. I suggest that you actually update your resume every day. After all, if you're unemployed, what else are you doing? It takes less than 5 minutes to change your resume at all of the top job sites.

You really have nothing to lose.