With the economic meltdown forcing companies across the country to rethink their future hiring plans, your current resume and the way you use it may no longer be serving your needs。
随着经济形势的下滑，全国的公司都被迫重新考虑他们未来的招聘计划，你现在的简历和你投简历的方法可能不再管用了。
If you’re making any of these four mistakes, it might be time to sharpen your resume or your approach。
下面这四个错误不管你犯了哪些，都应该再打磨你的简历改变你的方法了。
1. Lack of Focus缺少焦点
The first step in a successful job search begins with identifying your goals. Clarify specifically what you want in your next job or career including your next job title. I’ve heard countless job seekers say, "I’ll take anything" or "I’m open," when asked what kind of job they’re seeking. The candidate who’ll take anything, ends up with nothing。
成功找到工作的第一步是认清你的目标。特别要明确你在下一份工作中想要得到什么，或者你下一份工作的职位。我听过无数找工作的人在被问到想找什么样的工作的时候说，“什么事情我都能做”，或者“做什么都行”。什么事情都愿意做的人，最后什么都得不到。
Look at your resume. What is your objective? Avoid either failing to state your objective or listing several objectives. Either extreme can work against you as you’ll appear unfocused, uncommitted or unqualified. While many of us wear many hats throughout our careers, it’s best to focus on only one hat, or specific job title, for the resume. Employers today tend to look more for talented players who understand and specialize in a niche rather than those who are more general in nature。
看看你的简历。你的目标是什么?要避免没有目标以及列出好几个目标。这两种极端都对你不利，会让显得你很不专注、没有责任感、不够格。在我们的职业生涯中，很多人戴过各种各样的帽子，最好可以把注意力放在其中一顶，或者说一个明确的职位。就简历来说，比起那些什么都能做的人，现在的雇主更倾向于寻找那些理解力强有专长有发展的人。
So ask the questions, "What’s my niche, specialty?" "What special problem do I solve?" This might be one specific job title. If so, then highlight that and drop the laundry list of "qualifications."
所以问自己这个问题：“我到底适合什么职务?”“我能解决什么特殊的问题?”这可能是一个明确的职位，如果是这样，特别关注这个职位，然后在清单上划下“资格”。
2. Ignoring the Most Important Question忽视最重要的问题
Most resumes fail to answer the employer’s question, "What’s in it for me?" Employers have a problem, not a job. That problem almost always revolves around money in some way. So, look for ways that you can show them a return on their investment. Since most resumes only receive about 20 seconds of actual read time, you have to answer this question quickly. A good way to accomplish this is by including a concise Unique Selling Proposition (USP) that distinguishes you from your competitors. This USP is a single sentence that describes three important things:
大部分的简历都不能回答雇主的问题，“简历有什么对我有好处的?”雇主们有个问题，而不是一份工作。这个问题通常和钱有关。所以，寻找那些你能让他们得到回报的方法吧。通常一份简历被阅读的时间只有20秒，你不得不快速的回答这个问题。一个做好这件事的方法是使用简洁“独特的销售主张”(USP)，这能把你在竞争者中脱颖而出。这份USP是一个简单的句子，它包括下面三个重要问题：
Who you are你是谁
Your biggest strength你最强的地方
Your primary benefit, which should be measurable你为公司带来什么可量化的初步效益
Your USP describes what you bring to the employer. Every employee either makes money or saves money for an employer. Determine how you bring value in either or both of these ways. The best branding statements usually incorporate figures in dollars or percentages of money, or time that was gained or saved over a certain period。
你的USP描述了你能为雇主带来什么。员工对雇主来说要么能赚钱要么会省钱。你要决定你为公司带来的价值属于哪一类。最好的陈述通常混合了美元数目或者是个百分比，再或者是在一个确定的时期能能够节省多少时间。
3. Selling Skills, Length of Service销售技巧、服务年限
Skills are just a commodity. Leave behind that old mindset that your job-related skills or length of service are selling factors. The new mindset is to view yourself as a mini profit-and-loss center rather than just an employee. Employers today buy results and are less impressed when a candidate promotes a laundry list of skills. Instead, define the many ways your past and present job performances are assets to your next employer。
技巧只是一种有用的东西。赶快扔掉工作相关技巧或者服务年限都属于销售因素这种老掉牙的心态。最新的观念是把你自己当作一个迷你的利润和消耗中心而不是当作一名员工。今天的雇主都认同结果，他们很少会被员工列出的一串技巧打动。取而代之的是，从各种方法证明你过去和现在的工作表现适合下一个雇主。
How are you an asset to a company’s balance sheet? Once again, focus on how your work either helps a company make or save money. Think beyond your skill sets and job duties and list every possible example of how you accomplish this。
怎么能把自己变成公司决算表中的资产呢?还是那句话，把注意力放在你能为公司赚钱还是省钱的方面。考虑问题要超出你的技巧和工作职责，列出每一个你完成这件事情的可能的情况。
For example, you’re a video photographer recording and editing weddings and special events. You take the extra step of performing all of your post-production work before submitting your final results. Your extra effort has saved your employer several hundred hours of additional work。
比如说，你是一名视频拍摄师做婚礼或者其他事情的剪辑。在交出你最后的作品之前多做一步，展示出你所有的后期制作成果。你这多做的一步可能为你的老板节省好几百的小时的额外工作。
This translates into potentially thousands of dollars that you saved the employer. This is just the sort of achievement that must be on your resume. When you can, try to monetize, or put a dollar value on your achievements。
这就会转化为你潜在的为老板节省了上千美元。这只是那种你应该写在简历上的事情。如果可能的话，尽量把你的成就货币化，或者说在成就方面给出具体的价值。
By including several specific achievements where you’ve helped your employer make or save money (or time), you separate yourself from your competitors and quickly gain the attention of your reader。
通过列举几种你能帮老板赚钱或者省钱(或者省时间)的具体办法，你就能在竞争者中脱颖而出迅速的引起读者的注意。
4. Sending Resumes Indiscriminately无差别的投递简历
Once you have a great resume, it’s just as important how you use it. Most job seekers blast their resume to job boards and websites’ posted openings. In fact, there are some services that exist to do just that for a fee. But is this the best way to approach it?
一旦你有了一份好简历，如何投简历同样是件重要的事情。大部分找工作的人都把简历狂轰乱炸在求职板或者网站的的帖子里。事实上，有些地方还是要收钱的，但是这真是最好的办法吗?
Referencing the current economic crisis, Neil McNulty, principal recruiter of McNulty Management Group, states, "Now, more than ever, job seekers need to change their mindset from looking for ’openings’ to looking for ’opportunities’ ... and opportunities are borne out of crisis and chaos, and exist even in the worst economy."
谈到现在的金融危机，招聘高管Neil McNulty说，“现在比以往任何时期都需要求职者转变观点，从满天撒网转变到寻找‘机会’，危机和混乱不会影响机会，即使是经济最坏的时候机会也依然存在。”
This means that you, as a job seeker, must look beyond job postings and move into marketing yourself to the managers of the companies and organizations who are experiencing problems that you can solve. This can be tough at first because it means doing extra research and actually calling people who you don’t know and developing conversations with them. It’s those conversations, though, that will win the referrals, the interviews, and the next job for you, especially when you have a great resume to back that conversation up。
这就意味着，作为求职者的你，必须超出求职板的界限，向那些公司和企业里正面对一些你能解决的问题的经理们毛遂自荐。开始可能难了点，因为这意味着你要做额外的调查而且要给那些你不认识的人打电话和他们做进一步的沟通。但正是这些谈话，会为你赢得介绍、面试以及下一份工作，尤其在你有一份好简历做后盾的时候。
