Tag: resume example

Living in the Past

I assessed a resume today of a job seeker focused on the past and not the present. The candidate came from a very good school and had an excellent track record. Below is an outline the information in the resume, with identifying information omitted:

I assessed a resume today of a job seeker focused on the past and not the present. The candidate came from a very good school and had an excellent track record. Below is an outline the information in the resume, with identifying information omitted:

Professional Profile

  • 10+ years of leadership experience

  • Graduate of <a really good school> and 4 year NCAA Div. 1 varsity football athlete

  • Proven track record of delivering successful results

  • Broad experience conducting presentations to individuals at all levels of organizations

  • Extensive knowledge of <list of industries>

  • Practical experience with <list of skills>

Work Experience

2001-Present
Sales Representative
<Company Name>
<details of position omitted>

1997 to 2001
Progression of positions with increasing leadership responsibility
<Company Name>
<details of position omitted>

Education

University
City, State
Degree
1996

Activities

<list of hobbies and volunteer work>

The problem with this resume is in the Professional Profile. After twelve years in his career, playing football in college is the second most important element of the resume. I'm a big football fan and have incredible respect for the athleticism and work ethic required to balance the workload a Division 1 football team and the academics of a top tier school. This is impressive, but presenting it at the top of the resume may do more harm than good.

By listing the football career at the top, the job seeker raises the question of whether he has been successful in his career. If he was successful over the last twelve years, why isn't his success in his career at the top of the resume? Hiring managers look for a track record of success building throughout the career.

After reading the the Professional Profile section, the job seeker appears to have some good experience, graduated from a good school but emphasizes football over his career. This isn't enough to reject the candidate at this point, but does raise some doubts. 

The work experience section is good. The experiences and skills of the candidate make a good impression, but there is nothing overwhelming. The candidate lists a few accomplishments and awards, but fails to qualify these. It is difficult to assess how impressive the accomplishments are. This leaves the interpretation of the resume to the feeling of the reader.

After the work experience, the candidate presents his education. As I mentioned above, the candidate graduated from a top tier school with an impressive degree.

The resume concludes with an Activities section. In this section, the job seeker lists some volunteer work and several positions coaching football. Ending with football reinforces the emphasis on football at the top of the resume and detracts from presentation of the candidate's career.  No matter what the job seeker did in his career, by bracketing his resume with his participation in football at the top and bottom, the candidate leads the reader to focus their attention on football and not the professional qualifications. 

To improve the resume, I would change three things. First, I would move the information on playing division 1 football to the education section. Playing Division 1 football demonstrates several good qualities.  Including this on the resume is beneficial, but is much better placed at the bottom and not the top.  Second, I would drop the listing of the activities. The volunteer work and football coaching do little to reinforce the capability of the job seeker. Third, I would provide more detail to a few of the accomplishments within the work experience section. An accomplishment is most impressive when the role of the job seeker, the scope of the situation, the actions taken and the results achieved are clearly presented. The examples given in the resume only show vague results, with nothing about how they were achieved.

Making these three changes will provide a much more compelling presentation. On your resume, make sure you are emphasizing the information that will be most impressive to a hiring manager. Many job seekers emphasize the details they are most proud of. Unfortunately, these details may not provide the best sales pitch for the candidate. Focus on the elements of your background that are most closely related to the requirements of the job you are seeking.

Planning Isn’t an Accomplishment

I read a resume today that reminded me of something I see from time to time on resumes from sales and marketing people.

The resume had some very good accomplishments and was pretty good overall.  What caught my eye was one bullet that I don’t think served any purpose other than to take up space.

Spearheaded the development of a strategic sales plan, which projected sales in excess of $## million over a #-year time frame.

I see bullets like this on resumes a fair bit – a statement of developing a sales plan with high projected sales.

Developing plans in any business is important and sales plans are some of the most important.  The problem with the bullet is that it doesn’t really say anything.  It doesn’t say if the sales plan was approved and acted upon.  It doesn’t say if the target was achieved.  It doesn’t even say if it was a realistic projection.

I’m a big fan of specific accomplishments, but a bullet saying someone planned on succeeding doesn’t tell me anything – just that the job seeker arrived at a sales figure that they planned to achieve in a few years.

With something like this on your resume, you have two choices – expand or delete.

Expand: You can write a little more to change this from a waste of space to a really impactful bullet.  You might have to combine other bullets to tell the full story.  Here’s an example.

Spearheaded the development of a strategic sales plan projecting sales in excess of $## million over a # year time frame.  Enacted this plan and led a team of ## sales associates.  After # years, the team was $# million ahead of the projections.

Now, that’s someone on my team.  They built a good plan.  Managed the execution of the plan and exceeded their objectives.

Delete: The other option is to delete the bullet entirely.  The resume that I got the bullet from had some good accomplishments.  It didn’t need anything extra.  Deleting this bullet would have improved the overall resume by making it more concise and easier to read.

It’s important to prioritize what’s important.  If something isn’t helping you on your resume, change it or get rid of it.  Keep the information you absolutely need and add the accomplishments that make a strong case for hiring you.

Skip the B.S.

When you are looking for a job, you need to market your background.  You need to highlight your accomplishments and sell your strengths.  Your resume and cover letter together are a sales brochure for you. 

The problem comes in when the boasting and hype go too far. 

I received a resume from a job seeker that was over the top.  From the start of the cover letter to the end of the resume, a long stream of hype and exaggeration followed. 

All you need to read is the beginning of the cover letter to get an impression:

WARNING: This is not your typical Cover Letter!

I know, I know, it is a bit taboo to venture too far from the norm when it comes to the traditional cover letter, but I am not the average or the norm when it comes to my desire to excel and succeed beyond the status quo expectations of an executive leader. I prefer to push the envelope and charter into under developed territories and raise the bar to new heights, previously thought to be unattainable.

This cover letter immediately put me on guard.  My first reaction was to think "Warning, this resume needs to be thrown away immediately."  Worse than this, I knew I was in store for a ton of B.S.  This made me very skeptical of every claim and forced me to doubt most of what I read.

The job seeker doesn’t have a bad background.  In fact, they seem to have a good track record with a good company.  It’s tough to tell how good the track record really was because the cover letter and resume had a lot hype but not much substance. 

Bottom line:  Keep your text professional.  Make yourself sound good, but don’t mimic an infomercial with a screaming host…  “and if you hire me today, I’ll be the greatest employee you’ve ever seen.  CALL RIGHT NOW AND I’LL DOUBLE THE OFFER!  I’ll give you not 40, but 80 hours of highly productive work per week.  Hire me now – I’m not going to be available for very long!”