Panning for gold in your resume.

Photo by Tony Oliver

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Professional resume writers are like gold miners. They sift through information from their clients looking for the nuggets of gold hidden but that will make the client jump out.

Sometimes that information is right at the surface and is easy to find. Other times, it takes digging, sifting, and diffusing to come up with the achievements and accomplishments to differentiate the client.

In the fall of 2008, the market was starting to slip in Wausau, in the state of Wisconsin, in the United States, and throughout the world. You could see signs even before that if you looked closely. National unemployment rate remains unchanged according to the Labor Department even now but there is hope as more companies start hiring.

Greenheck Fan Corporation in Schofield, WI, a manufacturer of industrial and commercial ventilation systems globally, went about 25 years without a layoff, until December 2008. Since then, Greenheck has laid off about 450 employees. Greenheck is not the only company in the Wausau area that is feeling the effects of a sluggish economy. Kolbe & Kolbe Millwork Co. laid off 334 people in November, while Wausau Homes cut about 79 jobs locally in March 2009 according to an article about the most recent Greenheck job losses by D.J. Slater, Wausau Daily Herald on Wisinfo.com.

It is a tough market out there right now and if you are writing your own resume, you need to do this sifting yourself. Once the information is found, you need to be able to get it in front of the hiring managers. Gold in your resume means nothing if no one sees it.

All of this doom and gloom you need to be a savvy job seeker and search for those nuggets of gold that differentiate you to the hiring manager. With many employers receiving up to 1,000 resumes a week, you need to find your nuggets and then let people know you found them. Gold miners celebrated their find by going to town and letting everyone know that they struck gold. You need to do that too! Network, letting everyone know that you have the nuggets of gold that can make the difference in their company.