Executive Search - The Candidate - Resources

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YES! You Can Land A Job (Even) In A Crummy Economy (Paperback) By Therese Marie Boldt               Order This Book

RESUME RESOURCES  
Check out our BEFORE & AFTER resume sample.

What does your resume say about you?
We see a lot of resumes….and some of them are pretty scary. It is remarkable (and frightening) how many people can write a resume in an hour…and it shows. We’d like to think your career deserves better. (Candidates will often respond, “No big deal”, I’ll sell myself in person – and we say, “Good luck getting an interview!”) This is your calling card. If your resume isn’t sharp, you are letting the employer know you aren’t sharp – just an average player…and they aren’t looking for average.

On the other extreme, there are candidates who have invested in a professionally written resume. Typically half to two-thirds of the first page – the executive summary, objective, executive statement, career summary, etc. is blah, blah, blah. We rarely read these sections. Instead, since we are looking for a particular skill set, we go right to the “relevant experience” section. If there is at least a 50% match on paper, we “meet” the candidate in-person or via phone to go to the next step (see Executive Search Process).

Review the real-life (of course the names have been changed) BEFORE and AFTER sample resumes we have provided. You will see our comments in the margins.

If we had to summarize the main resume mistakes, we would say:

1.) Too wordy and too long
2.) Responsibility-oriented vs. achievement-oriented, and
3.) Poorly organized and visually not appealing.

1.) Go through your resume with the “Who cares? Highlighter”. We once had a candidate who had a 5 page resume (and we couldn’t figure out if he was any good or not) and after spending one hour with him (because we had a hunch he was good …but nothing on paper told us that) and FINALLY getting him to dial into his achievements, he spent the rest of the week applying the “who cares” question to every statement on his resume (for instance, does it matter that you “cold called” 20 years ago when you are in Business Development?). He returned with a 2 page resume that sang, “Achiever”. Originally he had sent out 200 resumes with 0 responses. His results with his new-and-improved resume? 20 resumes sent out with 4 call-backs for interviews within a week (without our help!). Writing a resume is a process that requires introspection. You need to clearly understand who you are, your offering, and the benefit to a potential employer.

2.) We see many resumes that describe the company or the job, not the person! Restating your job description will not get you an interview, you need to tell the potential employer about YOU. They want to know what you are capable of and how you perform. Candidates will say “Our company didn’t give out awards, so I have nothing to list”…and our answer is “really?” Ask yourself some qualitative questions (that might require some digging):

a. Did you ever save the organization money? By how much? Did you come in under budget? By how much?

b. Did your department accomplish a major strategic project? What was the financial impact?

c. Have you trained or mentored anyone? (we will see a statement like: “Managed the ABC team” when it could be “Led ABC team of 12 – hired and trained 11/12 – ranked #1 in 2008)

d. Where do you rank amongst your peers? What was your revenue trend? Was there anything unique about your performance? Anything quantifiable?

e. Did you have an impact on revenue? $$$?

3.) It is surprising how often we see resumes that are backwards. Resumes should be present to past. The bullets within each job should also be present to past. Use bullets – no “paragraphs”. DO NOT speak in the 1st person. Use an easy-to-read font; make sure you have enough white space; black print (no funky colors); quality paper; and proofread!! When you are done with everything, proofread again!! (we have even seen names misspelled!) and then, when you are done proofreading, get a friend to proofread it again…seriously.

On-line resume tips:

• When applying on-line, phrase your response exactly as it has been posted. For example, if the posting says “8+ years experience’, phrase your response (provided it is truthful!) exactly the same way. This will ensure the hiring company’s software, used to sift through the resumes, will choose yours!

• When applying on-line, spell out acronyms – this way the software will pick up on your relevant experience instead of tossing your resume because it doesn’t match.

• If you have the option to upload your resume or fill in a resume template, choose uploading your own – you will avoid spelling errors and/or poor grammar.