I reviewed a resume of a supply chain professional that failed to prioritize the content of their resume. The result was a confusing resume that didn’t create a solid picture of the job seeker.
The problem was not the content. The content was fine. It was the order and presentation of the information that hurt the effectiveness of the resume.
The basic structure looked like this:
Executive Summary: Supply Chain Executive with a strong track record of improving operations and providing leadership. Proven discipline for managing multiple departments and organizations with in excess of 150 employees.
Extensive professional skills and experience, including:
<listing of supply chain skills>
Work Experience
Most Recent Position – held for the last year
Operations Manager
Inventory Management Accomplishment
Sales Accomplishment
Sales Accomplishment
Inventory Management Accomplishment
Sales Accomplishment
Purchasing Accomplishment
Previous Position – held for 3 years
Sales Associate
- Listing of sales responsibilities and one sales accomplishment
Military Service – 20 year career
Logistics Specialist
- 7 accomplishments related to logistics and transportation
Education
After reading the executive summary, I expected a typical supply chain/logistics resume. The list of accomplishments under the most recent position started to confuse the issue. Sales and customer service activities were presented on equal footing with the logistics experience. The confusion built with the second position – a pure sales position. Looking at these two positions, the job seeker has split time between logistics and sales for one year out of the last four. It doesn’t present a strong logistics presentation. I could see some hiring managers hitting the delete key at that point.
Now, let’s look at the picture from a different perspective. The job seeker had 20 years of experience in logistics in the military. He tried a sales position for three years after leaving the military. He then moved back into logistics a year ago, managing operations for a wholesaler. In this capacity, due to his success in sales in the previous role, he managed some sales functions in addition to his primary responsibilities for operations and logistics. In this description, the emphasis is on the twenty-one years of logistics work out of the last twenty-four.
To revise the resume this way, I would change the order of the content to emphasize the logistics experience like this:
Executive Summary: Supply Chain Executive with a strong track record of improving operations and providing leadership. Proven discipline for managing multiple departments and organizations with in excess of 150 employees.
Inventory Management Accomplishment from most recent position
Logistics Accomplishment from military career
Logistics Accomplishment from military career
Work Experience
Most Recent Position – held for the last year
Operations Manager
Inventory Management Accomplishment
Inventory Management Accomplishment
Purchasing Accomplishment
Very brief summary of sales accomplishments
Previous Position – held for 3 years
Sales Associate
- Listing of sales responsibilities and one sales accomplishment
Military Service – 20 year career
Logistics Specialist
- 5 accomplishments related to logistics and transportation
Skills
<Listing of supply chain skills>
Education
The change in structure is small, but increases the emphasis on logistics and supply chain experience. The sales experience is still listed; it is just deemphasized so that it doesn’t detract from the primary message.