Resumes

Over the years I’ve reviewed many hundreds of resumes.  I’ve done so as a mentor helping people improve their resumes and as a hiring manager or interviewer using their resume to assess their skillsets.

There are a small subset that tend to be really bad. Often it’s in a weird layout.  The grid lines might be showing.  Unimportant text is big.  It’s hard to tell where to focus.  And then the text is confusion. There’s a good chance it’s far longer than necessary.

Occasionally there’s a resume that’s a delight to read.  It’s visually appealing, easy to read, and most of all filled with interesting points that both paint a picture of this person and leaves me needing to know more. Some are crisp, clean, and simple.  Other’s are creative and different from any other.

Most often, I see resumes that are just typical.  A generic blurb at the top. Maybe some skills called out. Lists of chronological jobs. Each with a chunk of bullets listing all of the tasks which were done. If the person has had multiple of a similar job many of those tasks are duplicated.  There might be an addition of interests thinking that makes the resume show the full them.

Just this week I’ve mentored 2 people on their resumes and reviewed a couple more as part of interviewing people. All of the resumes fit this mold and didn’t make it as easy for the reader to really see who they are. 

Your resume is likely in this last bucket. Don’t feel bad, you have lot’s of great company. But, I hate to break it to you, most resumes are boring. When you have a stack of 100 resumes.  If 95 of them blur together it’s hard to separate out which person who “designed and delivered” whatever is any different. It’s nearly impossible to tell if this person’s work had huge impact generating or saving millions or it was a task that didn’t matter.

1. If you aren’t good at visual layout and design, keep it simple.  Visual elements done poorly are way worse than having it simple.  You don’t need crazy eye catchers.  If one of your skills is about visual design or visual communication, then don’t waste the opportunity to demonstrate it with the look of your resume. Visual layout and design can often move a resume from the middle to great, or horrible.
2. If you are changing disciplines and trying to land a very different job, you have to make it extra clear why you.  This may include very succinctly including that you’ve done the types of task required in that role. Mostly it will mean that you figure out what from your past experience is really valuable to the role that you are moving to.  You want to make it clear that you understand the new role and are qualified AND you bring valuable other skills that most won’t have.
3. Managers are not there to give you a chance.  They also aren’t going to give your resume the benefit of the doubt.  They are looking for the person who can best do the job.  If you want them to assume you have the skills, that means they’ll do the same for every resume. You’re back at square one.
4. Everything you include must be accurate.  Beyond that, you get to decide what you include and in what way. You may also need to include the chronological information through an application. I like to keep LinkedIn as my chronological format so I don’t forget.
5. Before you pick a layout, refine what you want to include.  Shoving a much of boring standard verbiage into a pretty template won’t make it easier to read.
6. The rule of thumb I like on length is 1 page if you have less than 10 years of experience.  After that a second page is fine.  If your resume is 2 pages, you must win the reader on page 1. Some people are still sticklers and think it should always be 1 page. No one wants a stack to sift through. Getting a 4 page resume doesn’t make me think the person has more experience, it makes me think they don’t know how to communicate clearly. If you have project work or more depth you’d like to provide, do so in a link to a personal site or some equivalent.  That way they get to decide if they want more without giving the initial turnoff.
7. The best way I know to get from boring task to impact is with a series of “why does this matter?”  If the task was “created a tool to do x”.  Ask your self why does it matter that this tool was created?  The first round answer is usually a bit closer to impact.  Then ask yourself again why the new statement matters. And repeat. You’ll start getting to the real value to the business or the customer.  Did you optimize a process that saved hundreds of manual hours of work while increasing the quality?  Did you increase revenue by some impressive number?  Did you decrease customer escalations by 80%? Was what you built used by 2 people or 2 million people? The impact you’ve made is far more interesting than the tasks.
8. Your resume is the trailer, not the entire full length feature of your life.  You don’t have to list every single detail and thing you did.  In fact, when I’m reading through a laundry list of seemingly trivial tasks, it makes me assume they haven’t done much that’s important. Sometimes I’ll be reading a long and come across a buried line that makes me think “wow!” Then I wonder why on earth is it hidden next to   More details doesn’t make it seem like you’ve done more.
9. Most job descriptions are boring and generic.  And that’s okay.  We’ll have I have a lot of rants on that too.  As the applicant, just accept the fact that most of them are generic, but don’t make it mean you need to fit that boring mold.
10. Find someone to give you feedback from the perspective of the hiring manager.  Often friends already know your strengths or want to be supportive.  Find someone you don’t know well or a friend who can be objective.

Making your resume just a little easier for a manager to read and extract who you are can go a long way. You don’t have to go crazy and make every line a perfect impact statement.  Aim for 10% improvement and go from there.

Do you have other tips? Has one of these helped you update your resume and land the interview you wanted?