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June 2008 - Does My Resume Stink?
And now, on to this month’s before and after...
At first glance, this member’s old resume is visually well–organized. The contact information is easy to read, the font is clean, and the balance of text to white space is good. However, once you get past that, the strategy of the resume falls short.
Keywords
First of all, the summary was quite weak. There were no strong keywords and the wording was too mid–level. The focus of the client’s job search was not clear. In the new resume, we brought in a strong branding line at the beginning that established his target level and his particular areas of expertise. The summary itself was written to immediately engage the reader and encapsulate the key aspects this candidate has to offer his next employer.
Core Competencies
The old resume was missing key content areas including a core competencies section. We created a keyword section here to improve his resume’s performance in the databases and capture more hits in searches done by recruiters. We were sure to provide a broad range of wording such as “Business Development” and “Sales” in order to catch related search terms.
Training & Professional Development
Another section missing from the old resume was the training and professional development. We listed not only his degrees in the new resume, which were important, but also his Six Sigma training and certifications which would be important for someone targeting consulting and executive operations management. They show he has the specific knowledge needed for understanding all aspects of a business operation ranging from sales to supply chain management.
Date–Driven
The old resume was very date–driven with the dates of employment being prominently featured on the left side. In western culture, we read information from left to right so anything coming at the left side has more prominence of place. Dates of employment are not what the client should be emphasizing so we relocated those to the right side of the job titles so they are more supportive in nature rather than primary items of importance.
Achievements
A critical strategy problem was the lack of strong content and achievements in the old resume. We brought forth a significant amount of information that had been left out in the old version. The old resume relied on bullets to simply mark beginnings of statements rather than being used to draw the eye to accomplishments. We created strong role descriptions in paragraph form and then used bullets to highlight key accomplishments. We also highlighted the awards and accolades he had which did not appear in the old resume until the very end. The change in location and increased emphasis provides a stronger, more aggressive marketing approach to his value.
Cross–Functional Experience
The old resume did not show the progression of his career through the ranks and across business functions. We pulled those positions out to show his value as a “go to” person for key operational needs and to show the breadth of his expertise. At the same time, we truncated the older experience that stretched all the way back to the mid–eighties and his first job out of college. He is well past that now and the details of that work are not needed to market him as an executive.
Education & Skills
We updated his education section to reflect his MBA. He also has some unusual experience in software simulations and complex languages, and because his background is in a very technical industry, those skills are intrinsic to his brand. Because he was open to consulting, these skills may well be a “make or break” point for his candidacy so we included a short technical skills section at the very end of the resume.
The new resume is a much stronger representation of his skills and value in executive management and consulting. The strategy is clear and the reader is able to quickly grasp the key parts of his candidacy. Now he can submit his resume in confidence and start preparing for those interviews!
