If youre a top sales producer or marketing genius, and youre thinking about making a job change, how do you start your career search and make sure that you stand out as a top candidate? Recruiters and executive search companies are always looking for the best. If you are interested in working with them, you need to understand their rules.

First, make sure that your rsum is clean, concise and to the point. Get rid of all of the percentage increases and replace them with absolute achievementsones that are clearly measurable in terms of actual dollar value, number of new customers gained or impact in hard numbers, as opposed to percentages.

Second, target your rsum to the ideal job that you seek. Highlight your most important skills as they relate to the specific position that youre looking for. If youre looking for a sales position, focus on sales, if youre looking for a marketing position, focus on marketing. Be as specific as you can, relative to the exact position that you want. Are you looking for a management position, or an individual contributor role? Each rsum that you build should be focused on exactly the type of position that youre looking for so that its easy for a sales and marketing recruiter to pull the information they need from your rsum, and measure you against their job requirements.

Third, make sure that you focus on bringing out exact information about the industries and types of customers that youve been involved in selling or marketing to. What key relationships have you developed? If youve sold to Fortune 500 companies, list examples of the names of the clients where you actually developed the client or the customer from scratch. In todays competitive job market, recruiters are looking for demonstrated domain expertise.

These are just a few thoughts about how to stand out as a candidate when it comes to building your rsum.

Andrew Rowe
http://www.cubemanagement.com/