Resume Improvement Tips

THE RESUME – YOUR PROFESSIONAL BROCHURE

The Resume could very well be one of the most important documents you will ever write and this is a guide for new business makers trying to hire and for the ones looking for a job.  There are many differing Opinions and Philosophies regarding the content of the Resume, its length, and its appearance.  The Resume represents you.  For better or worse, your Resume tells a Hiring Manager a lot about you.  You must decide which of these Resume Philosophies works best for you.

There are several popular resume types.  The challenge is being sure to pick the right type for your resume.  Unfortunately some people feel that one format fits all.

Accomplishment Based Resume:  Typically used by Sales and Marketing folks to show how they performed in the past, showing their ability to achieve their goals, quota achievement, new clients, new markets, etc.

Functional Resume:  Often used by Senior Management.  For a CFO candidate, being an advocate of Cash Management is more important than whether he used Oracle Financials or Excel to do it.  This format is used to describe higher level functional abilities and achievements.

Academic Resume:  Also known as the one-page resume used by Professors and Teachers.  However, this is not their Curriculum Vitae which goes into great detail of past projects and accomplishments.  Their CV can be 15 pages or so.

Technical Resume:  For Engineers and Technical folks, it is important to provide technical details.  The hiring manager is typically in your own discipline.  Provide specific technical details on the products/projects you worked.

OUR EXPERIENCE AND CAPABILITIES

Having reviewed countless thousands of resumes, we have found most of them to be lacking in one way or another.  Many are ineffective in accomplishing the goals of the candidate.  Many are frustrating experiences to our clients.

However, we have found many to be highly effective for the candidate, and heard many fine comments from the clients who reviewed them.  We have conducted in-depth studies with the hiring managers of our clients, to ascertain what they wanted to see in a resume, and what they did not.  We have helped many candidates develop a resume that worked for everybody.

CHALLENGES OF THE HIRING MANAGER

We heard pretty much the same story from all of the hiring managers we work with.  It will benefit you to listen to what they had to say.

With an open position, the hiring manager is short on staff, and thus very short on “free” time.

With resumes from Human Resources as well as the Agencies they are working with, the hiring manager has a large pile of candidates to consider.

Many managers will take a fast first pass through the pile sorting resumes into 3 piles.  The first pile looks promising, the second pile might be viable, and the third pile is returned to HR as being inappropriate.  This first pass may give each resume only a 15 second scan to see if the right things stand out.

The hiring manager will then review the first pile more thoroughly.  The initial interviews and most of the job offers end up going to candidates from the first pile.

COMMENTS FROM THE HIRING MANAGER

The hiring managers said that they review the resume in a similar way as they wrote the position description.

They have in their minds, a sequence of questions they want answered.

1)     An Objective Statement, indicating that the candidate is interested in the type of position being offered.

2)     Education Section, showing the candidate has the specific education required for the position.  Also show any additional training.

3)     Summary of Qualifications or Capabilities indicating specific skills and experience of the candidate.  These should be brief bullet statements.

4)     Summary of Technologies indicating specific hardware, software, tools, techniques, etc.  Again using brief bullet statements.

5)     Job History showing the candidates employment chronology, providing the detail needed by the manager.

Remember that the hiring manager has a detailed list of requirements and needed skills in mind.

The hiring manager only has so much available time for interviewing, and will pick the candidates whose resumes seem to be the best match to their needs.  First pile resumes often follow the format listed above.

Another noteworthy point is the format.  Most clients have a preference for the Arial font, and 10pt size type.  They also prefer not to see a lot of different colors in the resume.

Also note that Items 1-4 are typically able to fit on the first page, creating something of an Executive Summary.

CHALLENGES AND COMMENTS FROM OUR CANDIDATES

Our candidates have heard many stories from people on how to write their resume, and when they put themselves in the shoes of the hiring manager, the format listed above makes most sense to them.

Our candidates tend to agree on 3 key Goals.

1)     Don’t be overlooked for a position I am qualified for.

2)     Don’t be brought in to interview for a position I am not qualified for.

3)     Help defend the compensation package I feel is appropriate.

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