Some fans believe a coach can cost a team the game or even the championship ring. Instead of firing the team, owners fire the coach. Amateur and professional sports coaches can and do contribute to wins as well as losses. Decisions they make do impact the outcome of games.

As almost all agree, coaches can impact the efforts of teams and individual players, maximizing performance potential and desired outcomes. Resume-writing coaches can do the same.

The job seeker uses both his heart and head while writing a resume. These two different approaches yield different resume-writing and job-search strategies. You've learned how emotional perspectives and hopes must blend with intellectual and strategic thoughts to yield success. Step-by-step strategies inspired you to unite attitudes and actions in order to conduct comprehensive job-search campaigns. Resume-writing and job-search coaches possess and share contradictory yet complementary views as well.

The Heart of the Resume Coach

While appearing optimistic to some, relying too much on heart-driven advice can be detrimental to your career. It is characterized by statements, queries, and often unrealistic hopes that include the following:

• Keep your options open. Do not limit yourself by placing goals on resumes.

• Send out as many multipurpose resumes as possible; respond to almost every posting.

• Even if you don't have any experience, just send out multipurpose resumes and let employers judge your potential to succeed.

• The broader the entries on your resume, the better. You want to appear well rounded.

The Head of the Resume Coach

The head of the resume coach has had to adapt to the philosophies unique to targeted resumes. These views guide you to take active and proactive steps in logical sequence. The related advice and strategies are realistic and logistically sound, yet they are also inspirational. This view is characterized by statements, queries, and realistic hopes that include the following:

• Focus proactive efforts on three fields and two functional areas within each, but respond reactively and creatively to as many postings as you wish, using targeted resumes.

• Complete goal identification, qualifications inventorying, and analyses needed to create targeted qualifications summaries for all of your resumes and many letters.

• Be prepared to clearly articulate realistic goals, maintain awareness of qualifications criteria associated with related jobs, and always use field-focused phrasing in documentation, conversations, and interviews.

• Take responsibility for projecting goals as well as qualifications through effective resumes and job-search communication.

• Complete the assessment and research needed to set and share realistic goals and to mirror qualifications via targeted resumes and very focused supplemental documentation.

Both the heads and hearts of resume coaches agree that you should, if possible, create your own resume. While some professional resume writers do create effective documents, especially for very experienced candidates, it is always best to go through the resume-writing steps personally.

If you are still dissatisfied, you can bring your resume to a professional for review and critique, but you will benefit from the writing and thought process.