Tag: Resume Writing

Worst Resume of the Week

I received a resume today that was so bad, I need write about it.  The resume is from a federal employee with more than 30 years in various supervisory and management positions within government.  The resume is almost a guide for what not to do.  Here are the basics:

  • 6 Pages – the resume is six pages long, written in paragraph form.  There’s no way I’m going to read all of this. 
  • 808 words – the first job listed has a description that covers one and half pages – a full 808 words.  This is longer than most resumes – I had to check this and pulled 10 other resumes at random and found they had an average of 668 words, with only four of them having more than 808 words. 
  • No accomplishments – I read the first page of the resume doesn’t have a single accomplishment on it (I stopped reading there). 
  • Acronyms – There are so many government acronyms in the resume, I honestly have no idea what this person did.
  • Hours per week – The job seeker listed for each job that it was a 40 hr/wk job and that the role was as a permanent employee.  This isn’t important information. 
  • Nine Digit Zip – The job seeker provided the full address for each position they held, along the nine digit zip code.  This is overkill.
  • Continuing Education – The job seeker lists EVERY class, seminar and lecture they have been to in their 30+ year career. Continuing education should be included on your resume.   But listing everything is overkill.  I really don’t need to know that this job seeker received one hour of EEO training in 1985, or two hours of safety training in 1976. 

Although I could continue giving examples of problems with this resume, the bottom line is that it fails.  Despite the overwhelming amount of detail, I don’t understand what this individual has done or what they are qualified for.  There is also nothing that indicates to me what this job seeker is seeking.  Without the answer to these questions, it’s impossible to make a connection to an opportunity.  I’m left with two options:  click delete or take a lot of time interviewing the job seeker to answer these questions.

Professional Development on Your Resume

Developmental Roles

One of the resumes I looked at today was from a very successful sales rep. This individual had a good track record over the last 10 years. They listed a number of examples of growing sales and exceeding expectations. Their background is impressive.

When I got to the bottom of their resume, it just stopped. The end of their resume (with names masked for confidentiality):

<Retail Sales Company> City, ST Mo/Year to Mo/Year
Management Trainee

Performed and managed operational functions with a high degree of autonomy and initiative.
Developed and executed innovative strategies to enhance service levels.

Education:

<School Name> University, City, ST Mo/Year
Bachelor of Arts

This resume misses two opportunities. First, during this individual’s career, they list no continuing education or professional development. According to their resume, their education stopped when they graduated.

Second, the two bullets for the Management Trainee position highlight autonomy and innovation, instead of successfully mastering the skills and techniques of the training program. I’m sure this firm taught a good regime of management, leadership and sales skills. Based on the career progression after this position, I’m confident that the job seeker got some benefit out of the position. And yet, the most noteworthy thing that they have to talk about is that they were “autonomous” in a training program.

A much better approach would be to detail the skills learned and the experience mastered during the training. This could go in the work experience section or in the education section. It really depends on which area needs to be strengthened.

Military Resumes: Assets Managed

One piece of information that I see on a lot of transitioning military officer resumes is the value of the assets that were managed. The numbers are usually very large but not necessarily impressive. Here’s an example from a JMO’s resume:

Coordinated unit readiness efforts including the maintenance of 22 vehicles and equipment valued in excess of $150 million.

While $150 million is a lot of money, the fact that the military spends a ton of money on high tech vehicles doesn’t mean a whole lot. If you were hiring this person, would it make a difference if they what equipment they were commanding? A vehicle replacing the Humvee, the MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle), costs $528,000. An M1A1 Tank have a replacement cost of $4.3 million. Back in 1996, we were spending $18 million on each Apache Helicopter.

The dollars do reflect the complexity of the equipment, but what’s important is the scope of responsibility.  That is dictated more by the number of vehicles and the number of people commanded. If you were assessing experience, who would be more impressive, someone that had command over one Apache, four M1A1 tanks or 34 MRAPs? The dollars are the same, but the responsibility isn’t.

Another reason that equipment value shouldn’t be on a resume is that it is very rare on civilian resumes. Having it on your resume if you are transitioning from the military just sets you apart – but not in a good way.

Bottom Line: The dollar value of military equipment is a minor detail. There are a lot of other details of your experience and accomplishments that are more important and should be on your resume instead of the dollars.

Company Address

One of the resumes I read today listed the full address of each employer. This isn’t common, but I have seen it a number of times. Job seekers going overboard in the level of detail they are providing. Here’s the format the job seeker used:

Company Name: 123 Main Street, City, ST 12345-6789 Telephone: (123) 456-7890
Start Date to End Date Job Title

Not only did the job seeker provide the address and phone, they listed the full nine digit zip code. I couldn’t tell you my four digit zip code extension and am not interested in knowing yours from every job you have held.

It is important to include the location of each position you have held. This helps tell the story of your career. The detail, though, can be limited to the city and state (or just the country for some overseas positions).

There are two main problems from providing too much detail. First, it takes up space that you could use for more important information. Second, it obscures what’s important. The job title is the last thing listed. This made it more difficult to find. Now, it wasn’t a terrible chore to find – it may have taken an extra second or two on each position. Unfortunately, your resume might only get a 15-30 second look from a hiring manager before they decide to keep it or toss it. With five positions, do you want to waste 5-10 seconds of that time having the reader look for you job titles? That could be as much as a third of the time your resume gets.

Bottom line: Make sure you provide the important information and leave out unimportant details, and make sure the important stuff is easy to find.

The Laundry List

At the top of a resume I received recently was a laundry list of “Areas of Expertise”:

Areas of Expertise

  • Operations / Manufacturing
  • P&L Responsibility
  • Business Plans / Operating Budgets
  • Business Development
  • Bid Estimates / Contract Negotiation
  • Continuous Improvement
  • Six Sigma Methodologies
  • Consolidation / Organization Development
  • Supply Chain / Purchasing
  • Market Research
  • Product Development
  • Outsourcing / Reverse Sourcing

This is something I see a lot. Job seekers listing keywords that they think will get attention. The problem is that it doesn’t set you apart. There is nothing here that says that the job seeker is good at at any of these.

Now, I’m a proponent of having a skills section that is a laundry list of keywords – so why is this bad?

The target audience for the skills section is a computer – specifically the database system your resume may have to get through with a lot of large companies. These databases look for keywords, so you better have them.

The problem with this resume is that they keyword list was at the top. The top of the first page of your resume is the most valuable real estate – far too important to waste on a keyword list.

Chronological or Functional

The structure of your resume can play a big role in determining how effective it is. In our 2008 Benchmarking Survey, we found that approximately one third of all job seekers make the wrong choice.

There are four main questions you need to answer to select the right structure:

  1. Are you new to the workforce?

  2. Are you changing careers or staying in the same career field?

  3. How many different jobs have you had?

  4. Are you in a highly technical field?

If you are just entering the workforce, a chronological resume isn’t an option. You don’t have a history to detail chronologically. What you can do is provide information on you education and experience. This could include school activities, volunteer work and internships. Organizing this experience around key skills (or functions) will highlight your potential.

If you are staying in the same career field, a chronological resume is usually the best bet. Your background should show a natural progression towards the position you are seeking. You want to highlight this progression.

If you are changing career fields, your progression will not as strong a selling point. Instead, your skills and potential will make you stand out. This is where a functional resume can really help.

The number of jobs you have held can play a role in your choice. Individuals with long careers, independent consultants, and individuals that move from project to project may find that there are too many positions to do each justice. In this case, a functional resume can highlight your career achievements.

Finally, individuals, in highly technical fields where technical proficiency is more important than anything else, may find a functional resume highlights their experience best.

Accomplishment Examples

I pulled four accomplishments from resumes I’ve received recently.

Example 1:  Director of Real Estate Acquisitions

Research and negotiate real estate acquisitions totaling approximately $#M per year.

This accomplishment clear, concise and specific. The role of the job seeker is also clear. What’s missing is something that quantifies whether this is figure is good. Did the job seeker meet expectations? Including the number of deals completed would help. It would also be good

Example 2:  Facilities/Engineering Manager

Champion use of Six Sigma/Lean tools to develop and implement strategic initiatives relative to managing facility construction and maintenance, capacity utilization.

Six Sigma and Lean are two skills that receive a lot of attention and are in demand. Implemented properly, they can have a huge impact on a company. A lot of job seekers try to work them into their resume, whether they are skilled are not.

In this accomplishment, the job seeker is saying they are a champion for using six sigma and lean tools. They do not say anything about whether they were successful in driving change or if the results of the change were significant.

Remember that many hiring mangers are going to be skeptical of anything you claim. Is this job seeker a six sigma expert? The education section of the resume lists training in six sigma, but no details of what the training was, and no listing of certifications. Did the job seeker sit through a 60 minute class on the basics of six sigma or spend weeks in classes? There were no specific projects listed that were completed, so the a hiring manager will probably assume the job seeker does not have much skill is this area.

Example 3:  Director Supply Chain

Exceeded all objectives for the fiscal year, including average AP days and freight as a percent of sales.

This accomplishment is clear and concise. The role is assumed from the title and the benefit to the company is also assumed. It isn’t very specific and it doesn’t say anything about how the job seeker achieved these results. Despite this, it actually a pretty good accomplishment. It shows the job seeker was successful in each area they were accountable for. A little more detail would improve it. The main thing this accomplishment will do is to prompt questions in an interview. In particular, what were the objectives and metrics that the job seeker was measured on and how did they achieve the results.

Example 4:  Division President

Increased company revenues from $#.# million in 200# to $##.# million in 200# by opening new locations, rebuilding sales teams, and improving operations; grew from ## locations to ## locations.

This is a good example of an accomplishment. The accomplishment is clear and concise. The result is specific, along with the time frame to achieve it. The method to achieve the result is also clear. As an added clarification, the job seeker included the number of locations at the start and end. Although I left out the figures, they clearly showed a significant increase in the number of locations and a growth in revenues per location (locations doubled and revenues quadrupled). This is the type of accomplishment that make me want to learn more about how this individual accomplished this.

 

Six Elements of a Strong Accomplishment

On Monday, I said that an accomplishment is an activity that demonstrates your skill, performance, aptitude or potential. The key is showing a hiring manager what you can accomplish for them.

A strong accomplishment has six elements that need to be present:

  • Clear – The reader needs to be able to understand what the accomplishment is

  • Concise – As we everything else in a resume, don’t expect the reader to read lengthy text

  • Specific – The more specific the accomplishment, the better

  • Your Role – What responsibility and authority did you have

  • How – What were the activities you did

  • Benefit – What was the benefit to your employer

The key to presenting an impressive accomplishment is meeting all six of these requirements. To do this, you need to include a little more information than is usually provided.

Most people provide accomplishments that are clear and concise. Although still common, being specific is an area of opportunity for some. Listing what the role of the person and the activities that they performed is usually missing. Finally, the benefit to the employer is often left since it is assumed to be clear. For some accomplishments, this is easy to see – saving a lot of money through process re-engineering implies you could save a lot of money for the company you are applying to. Other accomplishments may be less obvious and need more of an explanation.

Your Role and Activities

I see resumes all the time that make the mistake of not providing enough information with the accomplished. Delivering a dollar amount of cost savings, even if the amount is very large, doesn’t mean much in isolation. What did you do to achieve the results? Did commodity prices drop due to nothing you did and you’re taking credit? Expect the reader of your resume to be a little skeptical of any claims you make. Give enough detail that they want to learn the specifics.

Check back Friday for real examples of accomplishments with an assessment of each.

How to Recognize Accomplishment

The first step in recognizing your accomplishments. To do this, you need to know the expectations of your position. Meeting or Exceeding an expectation is an accomplishment, as is providing a contribution outside your area of responsibility.

Meeting Expectations

The first step in remembering your accomplishments is reviewing the expectations of your job. What were you expected to do on a daily basis? Did you meet these expectations on a consistent basis? Consistency is an accomplishment often overlooked. In sports, we see a lot of accomplishments that receive incredible respect that illustrate consistent performance, even if the performance in isolation isn’t impressive. For example, consecutive games started is a stat that is often highlighted. Starting a game isn’t unusual and only becomes impressive when it is done over time on a consistent basis. Have you met an expectation consistently over time?

Exceeding Expectations

Have you exceeded expectations? Review the times when you beat your goals. These could be budget goals, time to completion for projects or simply performing better than you peers on a metric. This is easier in organizations that track metrics closely.

Unusual Responsibilities

What have you done outside your normal responsibilities? It common for companies to develop special committees or project teams to address issues. Any results that come from your activities outside your normal responsibilities should be reviewed.

Check back tomorrow for the Six Elements of a Strong Accomplishment

Your Accomplishments

Have you ever struggled to think of accomplishments to put on a resume or on your annual self-review? It’s a terrible feeling not be able to recall anything that shows you were successful. Most, if not all of us, have run into this.

In our 2008 Resume Benchmarking Survey, we found that a quarter of job seekers do not list any accomplishments on their resume, and only 40% listed three or more accomplishments for each position they held. Of the resumes that have accomplishments, many were poorly written or incomplete. This offers you an opportunity to stand out from your competition by having strong, well written accomplishments on your resume.

The problem isn’t that there are tons of people that have never accomplished anything. It’s that they don’t track their accomplishments, they can’t remember them later and they don’t recognize accomplishments at the time they have them.

What is an Accomplishment

Accomplishments are activities that demonstrate your skill, performance, aptitude or potential. They can be isolated events or a pattern of activity over time. What they don’t need to be is something that is earth shattering.

Check back tomorrow for a look at how to Recognize Your Accomplishments.