Six Quick Tips to Revitalizing Your Résumé

by Sherri Morgan - May 7, 2010

What exactly is a résumé? Is it a marketing tool? Is it a brochure? Is it an advertisement? Is it a sales pitch? YES! Everyone knows it’s all of these things. What then are the tricks to making your résumé all of those things when it suspiciously looks very much like a two or three page Word document?

The résumé is a tricky little thing. It has multiple disguises and multiple purposes—from being YOUR first impression to a prospective company, to having the stamina to survive the trek from the human resources recruiter’s desk to the hiring manager’s desk and in some cases, straight up the corporate ladder to the CEO’s desk. And throughout it must ‘sell’, not ‘tell’ the best stories of your life, while being judged, evaluated and qualified by the thoughts, opinions and experiences of everyone’s hands it comes into.

Today we talk about branding ourselves. In the past only large corporations hired the best advertising agencies like Young and Rubicam and Ogilvy & Mather to design an image and a brand for them. When I was a kid I thought a sofa bed WAS a Castro. I would say “let’s open the Castro” or “pour in the Clorox” even though it was a no-name brand of bleach. By the time I was a teenager I realized I had been marketed brands so well, that I thought the brand name was the thing itself.

In your job search YOU are the product. In fact you are the company needing to focus on your product’s ‘features and benefits’, you will need to focus on which benefits the buyer is looking for, and which features will cause them to actually buy your product. Along with creating your own marketing and branding strategy, as with any small company setting out to market its product, you will also have concerns around revenue generation and profit and loss. And that’s only in the world you can see. In the unseen world you will need all you ‘stuff’: your faith; your personal power and confidence; and you must believe in your company and your product in such a way you become fearless in the face of any adversity including negativity, time and money.

There you are a new business start-up with lots of talent and experience to sell without a Y&R on your team (“oh, that’s right I am the team”), AND without the benefit of the high gloss 4-color paper, stunning color and graphics, bold lines, picture boxes and captions—you will craft the tricky résumé that suspiciously looks like a 2-two page Word doc, but is actually your key marketing tool, it’s your brochure it is YOUR initial sales pitch—by the way it’s all of these things without even the hint of sounding glib, cliché OR under- overstated.

Because you are challenged to do this on your own you become committed to writing the best résumé you can. You know for sure you can not launch your most expensive product without the proper tools for the best launch campaign your marketing budget can afford. You know your expertise is in making widgets, and you’ve learned some things about writing résumés, but you don’t know it all. What do you do? The very 1st tip in the six quick tips is to learn the competition.

I. If you write your résumé yourself learn the competition.

Résumé’s don’t look like they used to—and they have looked the way they look now for more than a decade. The résumé business is now 20 years old, and there are many books with samples in them and more than a million people who have had them professionally written. The trend of how they look AND how they read has changed and it has penetrated the market becoming the new ‘norm’. This means if you haven’t written your own résumé in the last ten years, or never did any research around them, you don’t have a clue.

• The first thing I recommend is you spend a few afternoons in Barnes & Noble. I don’t recommend you buy these books, and I don’t believe libraries are as comprehensive or will give you as broad an insight as B&N will. It would even be a good idea to do a search on Amazon.com first to see the many titles, then pick more selectively at B&N.
  
  Focus on the introduction pages, get a clear understanding of the new vocabulary: achievements based; competency based; sell it not tell it; and other tips these books (especially the early editions) offered around the organization of your résumé and the tone.
  
  Next take a good look at the résumé samples and follow the trend. Go graphic if you are in an appropriate industry to do so, otherwise stay traditional. In the newer books pay close attention on the quality, flow and spirit of the content itself. Even in these professional books, some will be better than others. Remember this is your business and your product—don’t just ‘buy-in’ use this material and their guidelines to give you structure and to trigger your own creativity and creative license.

At the end of the day, if you've done your research, and you believe the résumé you wrote lives up to the expectation of these books, you believe you've exceeded all the criteria—call your mentor and call your spouse. That’s it! Too many opinions will confuse the issue. At this point you’re the one who’s done the research, planned the strategy and did the writing. Have both of them read your newly written résumé and tell them what you were trying to achieve and ask them if that’s what they got. Listen carefully, use the knowledge you acquired and edit.

After the first (or third edit) ask yourself again, do I like it; have I done the best I can do, does it match up to the competition? At that point if you can say YES to all the above, save, BACKUP, and send! A final point:

Assuming you wrote your résumé in the beginning of your job search—or earlier before you even NEEDED it and you do not feel what you did meets/beats the competition—still use it. Don’t let this STOP your job search from beginning. As a professional résumé writer, I am not an advocate of sending out résumés that don’t meet/beat the competition. But I am a strong advocate of an individual’s faith and belief systems. Move forward with what you’ve got. You’ve done your best and you’ve probably already done better than most. From this point, if you still want it done professionally set a target date you will have your marketing budget in place. Then re-launch your product at the time. With intentional effort you will be able to hire a professional writer in three to four weeks.

II. Location! Location! The Banner and the Tag Line

In the good old days we used to write the word ‘Objective’ in that first line under your name and address. And I’ve noticed even recently that some people still write the word ‘Summary’, ‘Executive Profile’, ‘Career History’ etc. This first line is the most value piece of real estate on your résumé and the beginning of your ‘15 seconds’ and I recommend you use this space wisely. Start right here telling the reader who you are. If you are a Senior Financial Analyst say so right up front.

• It does not have to be a title you could be a Senior Financial Executive. If you're a global human resources executive, part of the executive team and strategic table, be specific. Say Global Compensation Executive and your tag line might list two of the Fortune 500 companies you’ve worked for. AND your opening paragraph under that heading will immediately talk about the size of your current company ($$ or geographical scope) the countries you design compensation strategy for and the numbers of employees this impacts.
   
• What’s happening in ’15 seconds’ anyway?: We glance at the banner, names, dates and titles of the companies; then off to page two continuing to glance at the companies, dates and titles, and down for a quick look at  your education. And truthfully, it doesn’t actually take 15 seconds.

III. Mid-Section: The Highlights and Ways to Use Them

To start, your résumé needs a strategy. What are your greatest strengths and what is your weakest link? What are you selling and how can you make the difference for the new company that no one else can make?

There is a lot to be said about strategy, it’s the most tricky part of all—but once you’ve got it, stick with it all the way through in the layout and the content from beginning to end. Recently I saw a résumé of someone who wrote their own résumé.

In speaking with him I discovered he had no strategy—and what I saw was this:

• He listed the name of a well-known company as his most recent position and shortened the overall dates starting from 1990-2009 when he had actually been with this company since 1980. This was a good thing—he only used his positions from ’90-09 giving the résumé 19 years instead of 29 years. Then at the of the professional experience section he listed another heading ‘Early Career’. Without job summaries or dates he added a list of 4-5 positions using only company name and position. The problem is 4-5 positions prior to 1990? Even without the dates here, he dated himself back into the 80s or worst the 70s. Four to five positions even over a ten year period in those days would considered a job hopper, thereby opening a new can of worms.
   
• The point on strategy is this. If you intentionally wanted to shorten the dates because you did not want to date yourself that is fine. Then the strategy was lost and contradicted at the end with the early career and additional 4-5 positions.

Final notes on this particular case: shortening dates is acceptable just find the right place to break it off so that it works for you. For example, if there are enough, just use your executive positions, and leave off the lower level management positions; or just use your management positions and leave off you started as a file clerk in the mail room. Don’t get attached to the mail room and your accomplishment of working your way up from the bottom. This is not the relevant piece that you are selling here. You are selling the 19 years and 5 promotions.

Also if you cut off dates of the current employer, use a disclaimer at the bottom (in a smaller font, with no space, just under the final line of text that says “Earlier promotions with this company provided upon request”. 

If you are younger then in this example, and had multiple promotions in your current company, you can use the exact strategy noted above including the waiver line. Then you can add one to two earlier positions if they don’t overly date you or contradict something you’ve already layout. Some say the résumé need only be 10 years. However twenty years are acceptable for executives whether is one job or several.

The mid-section is a place to use if you have had a long or short career that is chock full of great functional areas of expertise. A mid-section on the résumé can help you bring quality information from page two into page one—it can also help you summarize all of those areas you have experience. For example one person can have public relations, marketing, communications and event planning; or another can have operations management, operations budget, P&L, recruiting and staffing, and training and development. Someone with 20+ years in a small to mid-size corporation could actually have all of these areas. And with many résumés that I’ve seen, they have enough of any one of those areas they could get a position in that one area alone, and may sometimes require a 2nd version of your master résumé.

The point of this strategy is: which one or which grouping of functional strengths are you selling with this résumé? Once that is decided, start with it in the banner, put at least one of the best achievements that support it in the summary paragraph under the banner, drop into the mid-section and elaborate on each then stick with that theme through out the content.

IV. Professional Experience: Company / Titles / Date / Content

• It’s a good idea to add a company description under the company name particularly if it is not a name we would recognize. Size in terms of dollars, people or global scope could be what you’re selling in this section. Each section has a strategy. The tricky thing here is the overall résumé and objective of the résumé has a strategy, AND each section as you move through it has a sub-strategy, if you will, that supports and aligns with your overall goals. With each section, you are ‘intentionally’, ‘strategically’ placing/highlighting something relevant.
   
• If you have been with a company for a long time, and have had numerous promotions, list the full company dates at the far right margin (so they are immediately clear how long you’ve really been with this company). If you start with the dates of your most recent promotion, and your last two promotions fall on page one, they WILL have the impression you had two short jobs, and your 15 seconds could end right there. The trick here: if there have been promotions, list at least two, three if possible all together, one under the other and bring their respective dates in parenthesis right next to it. So the only date in the right margin is the full term of employment, while in the same glance they see the promotions.

Content will be your biggest challenge because it’s not about your vocabulary or your being articulate. It’s more about keeping your bullets organized; and writing in a marketing style that is not a job description. We know your job description. Maybe not exactly how your company states it in the HR file, but for the most part we understand what a VP of HR, or Director of Operations does. What we want to know now is how you did it, and what results you have gotten.

Use the résumé books we discussed above to write achievements based summaries; steer away from one-liner bullets, tell the whole story while keeping to 3-5 line bullets. The trick here: just be concise, copy the writing style you learned, and when possible lead your paragraph with the result. For example “Reduced operational cost 35% by…….”; another trick after the “….35% by", use a specific example, don’t be general here. 

V. One, Two or Three Pages

• Every mid- to senior level manager will have at least a 2-page résumé, and most mid- to senior level executive will have a 2- to 3-page résumé.
   
• The trick with a two or three pager is to keep it fresh and relevant all the way through. Using the example above, say a COO started in the mail room, but he’s cutting off his dates from nearly 30 years to just under 20 years. His page two and three will ideally be director and VP level positions with some of his best achievements leading the way to COO. Look for this opportunity in any scenario not just executives.

VI. Education / Professional Affiliations and Beyond 

• Use the dates in these areas according to how they serve you. The key to anything in your résumé that you are trying to decide if it stays or goes is ‘does it add value’.  In these days most people do not use dates with their education except younger new grads. However if I’ve got the ‘fast-track’, top performer with a stock pile of achievements in Fortune 200 companies around the world—I’m talking about a real exception to the rule kind of candidate—I will use the dates of education because this guy will read like a 20-25 year guy. I will use his college grad dates because I want one more spark when the reader gets to the bottom has discovers this guy in not mid- to late 40s he’s mid- to late 30s. He only graduated twelve to fifteen years ago.
   
• The same applies to professional training and affiliations. If you were on the board of directors of a prominent organization for a long time, but have now moved on. You’ve got a about a 2-3 year window (give or take) to continue to use this. For example Red Cross, Board of Directors (1999-2007); Society for Human Resource Management (2000-Present), Advisory Board (2007-2009) etc.
   
• Professional (trade), philanthropic and community organization are usually what goes into this section last. Be careful with community if it’s just little league baseball. Except if you came in as a coach and used your knowledge and influence to raise a large sum of money, then used that money for some great thing this could be a keeper. It shows consistency, on and off the court.
   
• With personal achievements they are ALL exceptions to the rule. For the most part they don’t belong. However in choosing remember to stick to the ‘does it add value’ rule. Personal achievements could be some sort of competitive sport like golf, swimming or triathlons—and personal licenses could be impressive such as a pilot’s license, a skilled sky diver (with substantial jumps and maybe trainer status), deep sea diver and any other unique things that stands out, requires boldness, strength, commitment, gives the impression of youth and creates conversation.

At the end of the day, these are just a few of the tricks to turn your résumé into a savvy marketing tool for yourself. There a very few rules etched in stone so own your résumé if you are the writer—and be protective from too many opinions. Here are the rules I write by:

Four Rules to Guide Your Way

• Be clear you are the product and know your market niche well enough to identify the benefits and features you are selling to this market.
   
• Be clear about your options around where you want to go from here. Every section of your résumé is representing where you’ve been, as well as pushing toward where you want to go.
   
• Take your time, practice with draft paragraphs until you find the way to write in the sell not tell fashion. Keep thinking does this add value.
   
• Keep your content organized and your layout attractive.

Good fortune to all of you. May you all live the life of your dreams and love the life you live.