Your resume should be doing a lot of work for you. The heavy lifting.
Many people have resumes that grow and grow over time.
Until they are two, three, four pages or more! That may seem okay, as we do add more capability and expertise to our list of skills that we are ’selling’ when we are looking for a new job or a new career. But over time, your resume can grow ineffective as you add in more and more content.
It’s natural, especially in these days of harder economic times, to want to include everything that may catch the eye of ’someone’ that may have a need - and hopefully will choose to call us in for an interview.
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But the ‘everything + the kitchen sink’ approach is not one that you should be using on your resume.
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Let’s revisit what we think a ‘Resume’ is. If we look in the dictionary, that may not help us. One listing that I saw simply said, “1. a curriculum vitae. 2. a summary.” Okay, but that’s not much of a help or a direction to follow.
A Resume:
What is it? It is, and should be, a simple ‘Sales Sheet’ on a hot product (you!) for which you want to help create ‘desire’.
The key word there is simple, it's desire. Now think about how to create that desire for you.
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It truly needs to be just a single page in every case. No matter the length of your career. Otherwise, it's an editing problem.
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Who's the Product? You are! That means big and bold on your name.
No modesty or humility here, this should scream off the page the same way any brand is noticeable on their own product packaging.
Just don't talk about yourself on your resume until you are blue in the face. You'll lose the audience before you can catch your breath. The information you do choose to include, needs to be valuable to the reader and be very easily ‘absorbed’ within just a few seconds (really, within just 3 to 5 seconds of ‘look time’).
So, be sure to do extra work on your formatting.
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Make it absorbable, because no one reads any more (very sad to write this).
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Things like your address, phone number and hobbies are not really that important. Place the hobbies at the bottom, on the right, because it add-on information about you (not the main story).
They don't hire you because you live at 123 Any Street.
Your contact info should be very small. I recommend 7 point (!), as they can pull the page closer when they'd like to call or email you. You can rest assured that they will find that information if they want to call you in for an interview.
I recommend eliminating sentence structure and learn how to communicate with concept communication instead.
Focus the value of your resume on the brands that you have worked for, as they determine 90%+ of your value. Showcase your contributions and accomplishments in a way that jump off the page.
Those are items that they may be looking at, and then imagining, how you can bring those type of accomplishments to their team, should they choose to hire you.
4, 5 or 6 iterations of your resume to get to the 'right' version that captures the essence and value of your career with just a quick look.
Now, let's go get their attention!
Need more help & Advice? Reach out today–
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John Crant
Author, Career Coach & Speaker on Job Search and Career Management
Featured Speaker for
The New York Public Library's JOB SEARCH CENTRAL
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In the Media: As Seen As Featured in
amNY, Time Out New York, The Wall Street Journal (and its FINS.com), CRAIN'S New York Business, Forbes, CNN, BBC, FOX News (on Social Media Marketing), AriseTV, New York Post, The Huffington Post, Essence magazine, CareerBuilder and The Ladders
On the Radio: As Guest: WHCR 90.3 FM "The Voice of Harlem"
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As an industry manager, executive recruiter, recruiting & sales trainer, event speaker, and as VP of a nationwide system of recruitment offices, I have seen most every aspect of the hiring process and this varied insight is what provides the clarity you will find in this book.
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