The first block to an awesome career is also the foundation for that career you are striving for. If you don’t have a well-set foundation you might not be able to build the career you want.   This foundation is your story that you have written or are starting to write. The story has to tell your history, specifically your involvement, lessons learned, & accomplishments.

There are several ways to tell your story. The most common and preferred way is through a resume. Another way that is becoming more popular is Linkedin. Independent of how you want to tell your story, it has to be relevant and support your goals. An interesting fact is that this story has to be told backward.

So you might be asking how do I start. Forget formatting, sectioning, or any conception or idea you might have of what you have to build. Start by listing chronological reverse order  (current experience first) the places you worked, volunteered; projects you started, lead, participated in. This activity has to be a brainstorm, you might have to dig through email, ask friends, or maybe even look through your taxes.

Now that you have a 10,000 feet view of your history, it is time to get grounded and start paying attention to the details that make the picture. I am willing to bet that you are starting to worry. You might have questions like: what can I really do with this? Do I have the right experience for my dream job? Am I capturing the right information? Relax, breath, and let yourself be a bit creative. Consider as a different chapter each job, each project, volunteer activity, professional affiliation, etc.

Now that you have the footing of the foundation, it is time to start pouring in the concrete (cement, gravel, water, etc). Start writing (or typing) underneath each chapter small sentences or simple bullets (a couple of words) regarding your experience and activities. You want to make sure you hit or fill 3 buckets:

  • Background
    • What was the job?
    • What was the problem?
    • What was the campaign or organization about?
  • Involvement
    • What did you do?
    • What was your role in the project?
  • Results (revenue, % gain, efficiency gains, profits, customer satisfaction, etc)
    • What were the outcomes?
    • What were the results?

By now, you might have one page if you are a young individual or several for someone more seasoned. This is the hardest part, but this list also accounts for  ~90-95% of the effort. What you should do next, is leave it to an expert. Go to Fiverr.com and look for an individual to build you are resume in the right format and with the right buzzwords. You could be looking to spend as little as $5 dollars or over $60 dollars that may include also building your Linkedin profile. Why spend hours looking for the right template? Why second guessing if you worded right or used the right format? Go to Fiverr.com and sit back and relax.

If you are still interested in learning how to build your resume and Linkedin profile, I will be posting a part “b”. I’ll show you the process I used to go through every time I decided to update  (build) my resume. Now I use a freelancer from Fiverr.com, to save time. I use my time to research companies, look for jobs, answer emails, etc. I rather pay someone that is an expert on a subject, than having to spend my time trying to learn what others have mastered to perform it once or couple times.