Using the Microsoft Word Resume Assistance Tools
If you have a recent version of Microsoft Word, you may have noticed a pop-up window with an offer of help. Perhaps you’ve closed it and decided to investigate later when you have more time. Recently I was asked for my review of the tool, so today I dug a bit deeper today to assess the potential merits. I found a few great take-aways that you can use when you are writing your resume.
Target Job Postings
Using the Tool: The tool will display example job postings from LinkedIn on the right side of your screen, alongside your document. This information is presented based on your zip code and your job target based on the content in your working document. This is a certainly a time-saver.
On Your Own:
Use the same concept to identify your career goal before you write your resume. Comb through LinkedIn’s job postings by using keywords. Also try sites such as Indeed.com. Reviewing multiple target job postings helps you to identify major requirements, how you meet those requirements, and potential skill gaps.
Identifying Major Skills
Using the Tool:
The tool also finds key skill from LinkedIn based on content it has derived from your working document. This can spur you to recall skills that support your candidacy for your target job. However, the tool is limited by the content that you have shared. If you are a career changer or your resume document is not complete the tool could miss the top skills that would promote you as a candidate.
On Your Own:
The tool is right on track about identifying skills. You can do better when you identify top skills based on your personal research and analysis of job postings. Use the tool as a starting point and from there conduct personal research.
Uncovering Your Work History
Using the Tool:
Perhaps you can’t remember what you did eight years ago. This tool works in conjunction with LinkedIn. When you click to activate the tool, example job postings will appear. In concept this is great. You can use these descriptions as inspiration. However, when conducting my experiment, I found the job descriptions to be mediocre. In other words, I think you can do much better.
On Your Own:
You can find better information by investigating your personal achievements. If you don’t have an old resume or LinkedIn profile page, look for prior performance reviews or review a former colleague’s LinkedIn profile page. Remember to use these items as inspirations. Always strive to go beyond your basic functions to share your top accomplishments and whenever possible show measured results. When brainstorming for accomplishments, keep your target job in mind.
Overall, the tool is on track with some of the major steps in resume writing. However, you can make your resume stronger through your personal research and brainstorming.
