Resume Writing Archives - Page 8 of 16 - Palladian Career Resources

Resume Tip #2

Resume Tip: Include the continuing education you have completed on your resume.

Resume Tip: Include the continuing education you have completed on your resume.

It is important to update your skills and continue to improve throughout your career. List major continuing education events: classes, workshops, conferences and certifications. Don’t go overboard with this. Many companies provide annual training of basic procedures, safety practices and government compliance topics. Usually, listing all of these is a mistake. Focus on significant training events that will separate you from your competition.

Resume Tip #1

Resume writing tip for job seekers. Palladian provides expert resume writing services to help job seekers stand out and land interviews.

Resume Tip: Your resume should be clear and easy to understand.

A good way to simplify your message is to include a positioning statement that clearly shows who you are and what you offer in one or two short sentences. This statement needs to be focused and tailored to the job to be most effective.

Resume of a Generalist

Many job seekers highlight the breadth of experiences and skills they possess. A diverse background offers multiple perspectives on problems and strategies, and can be valuable to an employer. Despite the benefits of wide range of skills, focusing your sales pitch on your diverse background can be a mistake.

Many job seekers highlight the breadth of experiences and skills they possess. A diverse background offers multiple perspectives on problems and strategies, and can be valuable to an employer.

Despite the benefits of wide range of skills, focusing your sales pitch on your diverse background can be a mistake.

The problem with this approach lies in how different experiences are presented. You should emphasize the elements of your background that directly related to the position, showing your strongest skills and abilities prominently.

When a person highlights a wide range of skills and experiences, it becomes very difficult to assess which elements are strongest. When a large number of skills are put on equal footing, a hiring manager will often conclude the job seeker is average at each skill. Average will not get someone excited to hire you.

You need to show how you are exceptional. The initial focus of your resume should be on the aspects of the job you are seeking. You need to demonstrate how you will be success in the core functions of the job. This targeted approach will make a strong impression and give you the opportunity interview. Early in the hiring process, companies typically have dozens if not hundreds of candidates to consider and need to screen a large percentage. Focusing on the core skills of a position and screening out candidates without exceptional experience with these skills is a common approach.

As you progress through the hiring process, the diversity of your experiences can then help you get hired. A breadth of experiences is a benefit to an employer. This background can be the deciding factor when a company is comparing to equally qualified candidates. The additional experiences you possess can be the selling point that gives you an edge to get hired.

Let’s look at an example – this candidate is Vice President of Supply Chain for a manufacturing firm. The company is looking for someone that can lead their supply chain function and is most concerned with reducing costs through better vendor management with Asian suppliers.

The candidate has five years of experience sourcing in Asia, ten years of supply chain management, 5 years as a manufacturing manager and 3 years as a quality engineer.

General Presentation: Successful supply chain executive with experience managing purchasing, logistics and scheduling. Excellent manufacturing management track record, with significant quality engineering experience.

Focused Approached: Successful supply chain executive, specializing in purchasing and vendor management of off-shore suppliers, with extensive experience sourcing in Asia. Experienced with logistics, scheduling, manufacturing management and quality engineering, allowing effective anticipation of problems from vendors that will affect downstream customers.

The difference between these two presentations is small. Most resumes I read are similar to the general presentation. All of the skills and experiences are put on equal footing and none standout as a result. This presentation requires the hiring manager to connect the dots and recognize the value of the different experiences.

The second presentation positions the candidate much clearer. It is targeted to show the supply chain experience, and more specifically, the experience sourcing in Asia. The addition experiences are still presented, but are placed in a secondary, supporting context to the supply chain and sourcing experience.

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10 Job Search Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Making these 10 mistakes in your job search will limit your success and hold you back.

In good economic times, a job search can be difficult. In tough times, the challenge is even greater. To be successful in a search, you need to market your potential effectively. Unfortunately, many job seekers make mistakes that hold them back. Below are ten of the biggest mistakes you can make in your search:

1. WIIFM – The biggest mistake job seekers make is focusing on “What’s In It For Me” and not what is important to the employer. When you look for a job, you are trying to persuade a company to spend tens of thousands of dollars on you. They need a good reason to do that and helping your career or satisfying your needs isn’t a priority for them.

Focus on the goals of the company and hiring manager – not your goals.

2. No Cover Letter – Sending a resume to a company introduces you to the employer. Without a cover letter, the impression you make will be less personal and less effective. The main goal of the cover letter is to motivate the hiring manager to want to read your resume. Just sending a resume usually won’t create this motivation. You need something to get them excited.

Always send a cover letter that highlights your skills and accomplishments.

3. No Objective – To many job seekers submit resumes without indicating the type of position they want. A hiring manager is not going to spend time trying to determine what the best job for you is. You need to point them in the right direction. Either in your cover letter or in your resume, indicate the type of position you are seeking.

Clearly show what type of position you should be considered for.

4. No Accomplishments – To make a good impression, you need to show what you have done. Most job seekers focus on detailing their responsibilities. Being responsible for something doesn’t make a person any good at it. You need to show your performance.

Demonstrate your potential by including specific accomplishments.

5. Missing Information – Your resume needs to convey certain information. Failing to include details that are commonly expected will make a poor impression. Employment dates, names of employers and job titles need to be included.

Ensure your resume clearly shows your employment history.

6. Overly General Applications – With the ease of sending resumes to hundreds of employers with only a few clicks, some job seekers generalize their resume. The goal is to make it as broad as possible. The result is the resume ends up looking like everyone else’s and they get passed over.

Customize your resume for each position, emphasizing your skills, abilities and accomplishments related to the job.

7. Not Networking – The most effective way to find a job is through networking, and yet, many job seekers do very little networking. Getting a contact in a company to refer you to a hiring manager will greatly improve your chances of getting hired. This is a job search strategy that you need to use.

Find someone in each target company that can help you.

8. Not Preparing for an Interview – It is essential that you research the company and position before going to an interview. This is expected by hiring managers. If you don’t do this, you will make a poor impression.

Prepare thoroughly for each interview and complete at least two or three mock interviews before your first real interview.

9. Not Proofreading – Spelling mistakes and grammatical errors need to be minimized in your resume. Your resume is the primary sales document for you. Hiring managers review resumes with the expectation that it is the highest quality work you can produce. If it is poorly written, with spelling errors, grammatical errors, inconsistent sentence structure and awkward writing, it will hurt your chances.

Read your resume slowly out loud to catch mistakes, and find a good writer to proofread your resume.

10. Not Getting Help – Most job seekers avoid getting help from experts. Some fear the negative feedback and others just think they can do it all themselves. Your resume and interviewing are too important to try a DIY approach. Get an expert to help. Their advice and assistance can be invaluable.

Get help from friends and hire expert coaches improve your resume and interview skills.

What Value Does Your Cover Letter Add?

Cover letters introduce your resume and influence how closely your resume will be read. An effective cover letter will get the reader excited to learn more. To do this, the cover letter needs to provide value beyond the resume.

One cover letter I received was simply a shortened version of the resume. The content was good, and I thought it was a good cover letter after reading it. My opinion changed after reading the resume.

The cover letter was close to a full page – over 200 words. It followed a typical format – it started with an introduction statement explaining the background of the job seeker, listed a number of accomplishments and concluded with statement that the candidate is looking forward to discussing opportunities with the company.

The resume was a little long, around 700 words, and followed a standard structure. It had a summary statement at the top, followed by the employment history and concluded with an education section. Like the cover letter, it wasn’t bad. Looking at the resume by itself, I thought it was ok. Not perfect, but it made a good impression.

The problem was putting the two documents together. The introduction statement of the cover letter was word for word identical to the summary statement on the resume. The accomplishments in the cover letter were also word for word identical to bullets in the work experience section.

My feeling after reading the two documents was the job seeker had wasted my time. Duplicating the information annoyed me. I would have preferred if the cover letter added something unique. This job seeker had a great progression, but had worked for their most recent employer for less than a year and just lost their job. An explanation of why would have helped.

Another effective way to structure the cover letter would have been to take only one or two of the accomplishments (instead of the seven listed in the cover letter) and tell the story behind them. A paragraph giving a lot of detail of why the accomplishment is significant could make it impressive. Listing the shorter bullet of the accomplishment in the resume would then be ok, since it shows when in the person’s career the accomplishment occurred and it would only be one item being repeated.

There may be a good reason to duplicate a limited amount of information from your resume in your cover letter. Just make sure that your cover letter is adding value and does not repeat everything word for work.

Resume Verbs

The verbs you use set the tone for your resume. Strong action verbs convey a track record of accomplishment. Weak passive verbs convey mediocrity and a lack of success. If you want to make a good impression, use verbs that present your experience in a strong positive way.

The range of verbs varies greatly from resume to resume. I picked six resume at random and listed the start of each line under the most recent job:

Resume 1:

Established…
Led…
Proficient in…
Repositioned clients/issues…
Provided procurement services…
Responsible for…
Negotiated…
Edited and produced…

Resume 2:

Provider of…
Responsible for…

Resume 3:

Member, Executive Management…
Manage and mentor…
Reorganized…
Developed…
Solidified…
Recruitment of…
Budgeting/Cost…
Clients…

Resume 4:

Promoted and grew…
Customers included…
Increased portfolio…
Grew market share…
Grew market share…
Identified and promoted…
Called on…

Resume 5:

Manage and direct..
Location audits…
Profit Loss responsibilities…
Create effective…
Ensure compliance…

Resume 6:

Management of…
Management of…
Familiarity with…
Responsibility for…
Achieved…
Achieved…
Personally secured…
Went from….
Developed…

Many of the verbs listed are weak. In fact, some aren't even verbs. With only the few words from each resume, which resumes do you want to read? Which bullets are the most significant?

It may be impossible to eliminate all passive verbs. Phrases like “Management of” and “Responsible for” may be unavoidable. The important thing to do is review the sentence structure and make sure you create the strongest presentation.

The Importance of Job Titles

I have written a number of times about the importance of providing a minimum amount of information in a resume. There are certain elements that need to be included for the document to be a resume. I read another resume recently that omitted a key piece of information. This is so important, I’m revisiting the topic.

Job Seeker’s Name and Contact Info
Employer Names
Job Titles
Dates of Employment
Education

If your resume is limited to just this information, it will be a weak resum, but if you don’t have all of these elements you don’t have a resume. For most job seekers, this is basic stuff. Despite this, I continue to receive resumes from job seekers that omit some of the critical information. The resume I read today is an example of this.

The job seeker held a series of sales management positions. The most recent position failed to include a job title. The job titles in order are:

No title
Branch Manager
Sales Manager
District Sales Manager
Field Engineer

The position without a title provided a description that implied the job seeker had been in a sales management position. I can’t be certain the role was a sales manager. I can think of three reasons why the job seeker omitted the title. First, he didn’t know that including all the job titles is important. I think this highly unlikely for an individual with twenty years of management experience. Second, the job seeker was careless and just forgot it. This is possible but doesn’t make a good impression of his attention to detail. Third, the job seeker is trying to hide something about his current position. This is also possible and makes a very bad impression if true.

When you are writing your resume, make sure you check it closely and look at every criteria a hiring manager will assess. After that, get a second opinion. Show your resume to a professional that is experienced assessing resumes. This will help ensure you make the impression you intend.

Resume Writing Lessons from Airplane Designs

In college, I majored in Mechanical Engineering and my senior design project was to design and build a remote controlled airplane for a competition. Our project team had six students and a number of advisors, some were professors and others were designers at Bell Helicopter. Early in the process, we meeting at the Bell Helicopter facility with the designers. Discussion was about airplane design, but the basic premise is applicable to resume writing too.

In college, I majored in Mechanical Engineering, and my senior design project was to design and build a remote controlled airplane for a competition. Our project team had six students and a number of advisors, some were professors and others were designers at Bell Helicopter. Early in the process, the team met at the Bell Helicopter facility to plan the project. Discussion was about airplane design.

We reached a point in the discussion where were we trying to decide what type of plane to build. We considered a traditional design, swept-wings, T-tails, Delta wings, canards and other variations. The more unusual the design, the more excited and interested “we” were… the we being the students and some of the professors. We wanted a winning design for the competition, but also wanted the plane to be cool.

After a lengthy discussion, the senior engineer from Bell Helicopter, who had been quiet during the debate, spoke up. This guy had been designing airplanes and helicopters for more than forty years and had seen it all. He broke into the conversation and said, “What you need to do is ride over to Philadelphia International Airport. Take a look at the planes. They all look alike. Build one that looks like what you see there.”

The discussion was over. We didn’t need to visit the airport. All of us knew what we would see. The designer was right. The basic design of an airplane has been refined over decades and works well for almost all applications, even our senior design project. The key to a successful design was not being radically different from every other design. The key was to optimize every detail and get the little things right.

When you write your resume, keep this lesson in mind. There are conventions and design elements to resumes that are very common and recur. These conventions continue to be repeated because they work. You are not going to discover some new resume writing design completely different from has been tried in the past.

You also need to satisfy the expectations of the reader. Our design project didn’t have to persuade customers to buy a ticket and get on our plane, but commercial aircraft manufacturers need to consider how a plan looks. A great airplane design that doesn’t look “right” will not inspire confidence, and ticket sales. If you resume doesn’t meet the expectations of the reader, you may be rejected before the content of your resume is adequately considered.

It may be boring building a design that is standard and ordinary. What is important is not how innovative your resume is. The important thing is to get results. This requires a design that can be easily understood and read quickly. A standard design will do this. Your focus needs to be on optimizing each element of your resume to create a consistent, easy to read message selling your potential.

So, go to your local resume database. Look at the resumes sitting on the runway and build one like those. Then focus on the little details throughout your resume and build a winner.

Sales Accomplishments on a Resume Part 2

Continuing from yesterday, I have four more sales accomplishments from resumes showing how some job seekers attempt to demonstrate their success.

Opening Accounts

Successfully expanded account base from 75 to over 90 accounts.

This bullet is ok. It’s better than nothing but doesn’t make a strong impression. The job seekers fails to provide sufficient context. I can’t tell if adding 15 accounts was good or terrible. Knowing the goals for the position would help. Providing an indication of the change in total sales would give the scope. I would also like to know how this sales performance compared with the performance of others at the company. For example, in a booming industry, where most sales people are doubling their sales, an increase of 20% would be a dismal failure. Finally, I would want to know what the margin of the new sales compared to the old sales. Anyone can win new business by cutting margins or selling at a loss – this would not be an accomplishment.

New Division

Established a customer base of 25+ accounts for newly created division.

This is bullet is similar to the preceding bullet – the scope of the performance is omitted. To improve this, the job seeker should include the budget goals, in customers and dollars and how the performance compared to the goals.

Turnaround

Spearheading a remarkable “worst-to-first” transformation, leading an extremely low-performing sales team to become the only one in the region to exceed 1st quarter objectives, and leading this same team to grow revenue from $3.7M to $8M in 3 years.

I like this accomplishment. It starts with some hype… “remarkable worst-to-first transformation.” Hype is usually a mistake in a resume. The pitfall you need to avoid is making very general, broad boasts that can’t be assessed. Additionally, if you don’t back up your claims, boasting will hurt more than help.

In this case, the job seeker makes a very specific claim about turning around a team, and follows up the hype with a clear demonstration of why they made the claim. They define the starting point – bottom performing with revenues of $3.7m. The job seeker then shows the results… 1^st in the region with $8m in sales. Further emphasizing the success, the job seeker adds that their team was the only one to beat expectations.

I would want to know what the job seeker did to achieve the results. Often, explaining the “how” is difficult in a resume. If the approach could be summarized in a sentence or two, it would make a good addition. If the approach was more complicated, it probably is better to leave it out and explain the situation in an interview.

Strategic Planning

Defined and implemented 5 year strategy to triple sales within 3 years to more $20 million.

This bullet sounds good but doesn’t really say anything. The job seeker planned to triple sales. Planning sales growth is easy… achieving the plan is what counts. Compare this to the NFL. Your now the owner of a team and have to select a coach. You receive two resumes. One lists a bullet that says the coach developed a plan to win the Superbowl within 3 years in their last job. The other one has a bullet like the previous Turnaround example, “Spearheaded a remarkable worst-to-first transformation, leading a team with the worst record in the league to the Super Bowl in three years.” Who do you want to interview? It’s no contest… every coach has a plan to win. It’s what you do with your plan, and what you achieve that will make a difference in an interview.

Sales Accomplishments on a Resume Part 1

Your accomplishments provide the sizzle that will get a hiring manager excited about your resume. They demonstrate your performance and your potential. The stories of your successes often are the most remembered details in an interview. This makes it essential to present strong accomplishments in your resume and talk about them in an interview.

I selected accomplishments from the resumes of sales professionals to show some good and bad examples.

Turnaround

Went from “underdog” to winning bidder for a multi-million dollar automation project involving two Target Accounts. Sale required last-minute business trips to Europe and western U.S. and overcoming several commercial and political issues.

This accomplishment is very good. It gives enough context to peak the reader’s interest. The job seeker frames his position as the underdog. He gives some scope to the situation by describing it as multi-million dollar, with multiple accounts and international. He also gives a glimpse of how he succeeded: repeated trips to the customer to resolve complicated issues.

There are a number of questions about this that are left unanswered. I would want to know why the job seeker’s firm was the underdog. I would like to know how the size of this project fit with the typical sales at this firm. I would like to understand the issues that were overcome and how the job seeker did this. Answering these questions in a resume could be difficult. I expect that the text would be long… too long to be effective. Leaving this information out was a good call. The accomplishment peaks the interest to learn more. This is the goal of a resume: get the reader to want to talk to the job seeker.

New Concept

Presented and sold this new concept technology to gain substantial acceptance with <list of six customers>. I worked intimately with nearly 100 <end-users of the product> throughout <metro area>.

This bullet was a stand-alone accomplishment. The presentation did not make it clear what the “new concept” was. The confusion resulted from the order of the information. There wasn’t a specific line defining the “new concept technology” and the descriptions of technologies were not immediate preceding the bullet.

The second problem with the bullet results from the lack of scope. I don’t know what the job seeker considers substantial acceptance. The bullet doesn’t show the sales volume, the performance relative to goals or if the rollout was considered successful. Without more detail, this accomplishment is unlikely to make much of an impression.

Got Hired

One of five consultants hired from over 500 applicants for the marketing team.

This is a waste of space on a resume. It is very common that a company will screen in excess of 100 people for each hire. Even worse, this bullet says nothing about the success of the job seeker. The only thing it indicates is that the job seeker was hired in the past… not exactly earth shattering information. Focus on specific performance results, not getting hired.

Ranking

Currently ranked 12 out of 90 representatives in the Western region

I like rankings on a resume. They give a context for the job seeker’s performance. To rank 12^th out of 90, it is likely the job seeker performed well. It isn’t guaranteed, though. There may be variations between territories or other factors that cause comparisons to be unreliable. Despite this, a bullet with your rank relative to peers is good to have on a resume.

Make sure you include other accomplishments in addition to rankings. A resume that just lists sales rankings, with no details of how the rankings were achieved is very forgettable. A good tactic is to provide ranking bullets with a couple bullets that show specific examples of your success. Including both types of accomplishments can make an impressive presentation.