I have another interview answer from a transitioning military officer to share. The question I asked was:
Tell me about a time when your planning led to positive results.
Listen to the answer (Time 3:28)
Just as I did the last two weeks, I’m posting the recording today, and will post my assessment of the answer tomorrow. Please feel free to post your thoughts as a comment.
Note: I only record and post interviews when I have the permission of the job seeker prior to conducting the the interview.
Usually, when I talk about resume length, I focus on the number of pages. Keeping a resume under two pages is a good rule of thumb, but this is only part of the story. The other thing to consider is the number of words in a resume.
Reading Rate
The average adult reads approximately 250 words per minute. This estimate is based on easy to comprehend material. More difficult, technical material requires a slower rate, with some estimates as low as 50 words per minute for extremely technical material when the reader wants 100% comprehension.
How your resume is written will affect how a person reads it. If it is very technical in nature, with very long complex sentences, the reader will have to read slower. If your resume is very long, you put the reader in a bind. Slow down to comprehend everything, or save time by reading fast and only skim the material.
Let’s say your resume is written so that it can be read fairly easily – say at 200 words per minute. This means that a 400 word resume (a fairly typical length) will require two minutes of concentration to read thoroughly.
The problem with many resumes is that they are not easy, light reading. Additionally, most hiring managers can only afford 15, 30 or maybe 60 seconds per resume. In that time, they may only comprehend a few sentences before determining if they are going to discard the resume or continue reading.
Long Resumes
I’ve seen very long resumes. We looked at one recently that was five pages and 1,600 words. It was full of technical terms and acronyms. It was work to comprehend and understand each detail. If I wanted to truly understand this job seeker’s resume, it might take ten or fifteen minutes (possibly longer, I can’t be sure since I quit reading early on).
Recommendations
I received this resume from an Engineer recently. At the top of the resume, the job seeker starts with section titled "Qualifications" with two bullets:
Qualifications
More than three (3+) years of engineering experience; proposal and project execution of air pollution control systems. Additional experience in production pilot plant, and research and development.
Former self-employed authorized retailer of Dish Network satellite television service, connecting hundreds of customers in the area of <metro area>.
These are the only two bullets under the qualifications section. The candidate’s objective states that they are seeking a chemical engineering position.
The first bullet is ok. It shows 3 years of experience in the industry, with a few specifics that may help – air pollution control experience and pilot plant experience. These aren’t great, but they’re better than nothing.
The second bullet is a waste of space and distracting. When I first read it, I was surprised. It doesn’t have any relevance to chemical engineering. Worse, it made me wonder why this individual didn’t have a single accomplishment after three years in the engineering field to highlight. Do you think an engineering manager wants to hire someone that had no accomplishments after three years? Probably not.
The self-employed experience does have a place on this resume. It shows independence, good business experience and initiative. The problem is that these attributes aren’t the key to an engineering position. The self employed experience should be covered in the work experience section (where it was detailed more fully) but not in the qualifications sections.
A functional resume is a great format to use for some job seekers. Unfortunately, many people use it in the wrong situation, and others fail to use it when they should. If you are in one of these six situations, you should consider a functional resume:
Recent Graduates: If you are just graduating from school, you don’t have work experience to put in a chronological format. This makes a functional format a great choice.
Individuals Changing Careers: Moving into a new field presents several challenges. One of the most significant is showing that your prior experience is transferable to the new career. A functional resume can help demonstrate this.
Senior Executives: Many senior executives have extensive careers that can be difficult to summarize in two pages. Organizing information in a functional format can help in prioritizing the most important information without letting the resume get too long.
Project Specialists: Some careers, such as construction and consulting, are focused on completing projects. It can be difficult to write about each project in sufficient detail to highlight important accomplishments without having the resume get too long. A functional resume can make this much easier to do.
Stay at Home Mom’s Returning to the Workforce: Returning to the workforce after taking significant time off can be very challenging. A chronological resume focuses the readers attention on your career progression. With a large gap in your employment you want to focus on your skills and abilities, and a functional resume can help do this.
Transitioning Military Officers: Moving from a military to a civilian career is a very big change. Civilian employers rarely understand all the details of a military career. This makes highlighting your skills and abilities very important.
The important thing to remember when you select the format for your resume is to highlight why you will be successful. For some, this is their career progression and a chronological resume will work well. For others, their skills and accomplishments are a bigger selling point and a functional resume works better.
Yesterday’s post contained a recording an interview question and answer. The interview was with a transitioning military officer and the question asked was “Tell me about a time when you helped someone improve their performance.” Below is my assessment of the answer.
The interview answer was a pretty good answer. It directly related to the question and showed the success of the job seeker. The conclusion was strong, providing clear benefits to the organization.
Unfortunately, the answer provided too much detail of unimportant information and not enough detail of some key points.
The job seeker spent a lot time explaining the circumstances. A much shorter description of the responsibilities of the individual being mentored would have been better. For example, explaining why the Department of Agriculture needs to do their inspection doesn’t add value. What is important is that the subordinate needed to learn how to manage that process.
The other area that could be improved is related to the actions of the job seeker. He described some of the activities he performed to develop the individual, but his explanation was light. He emphasized that her primary need was to gain experience. With this goal, he had to take a more supportive approach, rather than just driving performance. To make a stronger impact, the job seeker should have clearly described the coaching he provided. Describing the expectations he set, the frequency of his reviews, and the topics he coached would have created a clearer picture of what he did.
The key is to make it absolutely clear to the interviewer how you achieved specific results. This allows the interviewer to picture you providing similar results in their organization. One technique with this answer that may have been successful would be to describe a single coaching session, or even just a portion of the conversation from a coaching session.
Try to keep your answers on topic, well organized and specific and you will make a better impression. Overall, this answer was good. It would probably be adequate in most interviews. Making a few improvements could change it into a real winner.
What any aspects of the answer that you think could have been improved? Please leave a comment with your thoughts.
Below is a recording of an interview answer given by a transitioning military officer. The question I asked is a typical behavioral based interview question:
“Tell me about a time when you helped someone improve their performance.”
Listen to the Answer (Time: 3:25)
Please post your comments on the answer this individual gave. In tomorrow’s post, I’m going to discuss my recommendations.
This is the second in a series of recorded interviews that I will be posting. My goal is to post at least one recorded interview question per week. Interviews were recorded and posted with the prior permission of the job seeker.
What if companies wrote ads the way most job seekers write cover letters? Here’s my version of a direct mail letter that you might receive from a car company:
Dear Car Buyer:
We are seeking an individual to buy a car we are selling. Our ideal customer will have good credit and be willing to pay top dollar. We strongly prefer customers that will provide repeat business to us. We are in need of boosting our revenues and are looking for an opportunity to grow our profits. I am certain you will find the car we are selling is ideal for fit for your needs.
This car is a true standout in market. It drives and provides an excellent means of transportation. In addition, it offers the ability to carry goods in various storage locations as wall as convey multiple individuals.
We are absolutely certain that, if you just give us a chance to prove our car in a test drive, you will agree this is the best car on the market for you. With it’s excellent track record, it is certain to make a substantial impact on your goals.
I look forward to setting up a test drive for you today!
Sincerely,
Mega Car Dealer
If you received this, would you rush out to buy this car? What make and model of car does the letter describe?
I receive cover letters like this all the time. They have no personalization. The benefits the job seeker might provide one of my clients are so general that they are meaningless. The letter focuses on the needs of the job seeker. Finally, too many cover letters make over exaggerated claims of being perfect for the company, but give no reason why they’re any good.
Below are three consecutive bullets from a sales executive’s resume, exactly as they appeared on the resume:
Relationships were developed through networking and cold calling as well as face to face meetings to discuss business needs and the potential impact of our services on each organization.
Reached over 95% of annual sales goal in my first year in 9 months.
I was able to penetrate 7 new accounts within the first 2 years as well as maintain current established clients.
Each bullet has a different structure. The first has an implied subject and is passive voice. The second also has an implied subject but is written in active voice. The third bullet includes the subject and is written in passive voice.
An inconsistent writing style can be very distracting to read. The solution for this is easy to implement. The implied subject is the typical style and active voice is usually preferred over passive voice. Here’s how I would reword these:
Developed new client relationships through networking, cold calling and face to face meetings.
Reached over 95% of annual sales goal in my first year in 9 months.
Penetrated 7 new accounts within the first 2 years while maintaining established clients.
In addition to reading more consistently, the reworded version has a third less words. Remember, shorter text is more likely to be read.
It is important to customize your resume for each position you pursue. Every application should be tailored to best present your background. Although most job seekers know this, few understand how to go about it. Fortunately, it’s not that tough once you know what to do.
Cover Letter
Write a new cover letter for each application. The basic form will be the same. The main thing that will change is your explanation why you are interested in the position. So few job seekers customize their cover letters, and almost none include information that clearly shows they did some research. Doing this will make you stand out.
Objective Statement
If you have an objective statement, make sure it matches the opportunity. If it doesn’t match, the odds are that you will be rejected based on this. A hiring manager doesn’t want to waste time on a job seeker that isn’t interested in the job.
Accomplishments
If you have a job description, pull out the three or four most important requirements. Then, make sure you have an accomplishment demonstrating each requirement somewhere in the last two or three jobs you have held.
Skills
Look at the key technical skills for the position and detail your experience with each. You don’t need a lot of information on each skill, a few words may be sufficient. The key is showing you possess the skills and creating the interest with the hiring manager to want to learn more in an interview.
A resume I reviewed today had the following description under the most recent job (a customer service manager):
"Responsible for increasing base business growth through coaching, mentoring, and training initiatives for front-line service providers, and establishing and maintaining relationships with customers. Specific duties include: …"
This listing goes on for another half dozen lines or so listing basic reponsibilities such as "resolving customer complaints" and "utilizing effective written and verbal communications skill." Needless to say, there was little if anything to get excited about.
The resume was devoid of any statement that this job seeker had ever been successful at anything. They had been responsible for a lot, but it’s just a guess how they performed.
What do you think a hiring manager will do with this resume? Most hiring managers will put this in the "discard pile," or at best, the "save for later in case I can’t find anything better pile."
Now, it wouldn’t take much to improve this – just a little information about whether they were successful. If you’re in a sales or customer service management role, how do you describe your experience? What accomplishments do you have on your resume?