How do you choose your
leisure reading? When you read the
newspaper, visit a website, or pick up a magazine what grabs you
attention? Is it a compelling headline? An interesting picture, or some other
graphic? Do you scan the article or do a
deep-dive for total comprehension? How
do you decide which route to take? I
would imagine that time pressures hold sway.
Consider spending your day
wading through a mountain of resumes, hoping to find a handful of candidates
that match your specs? I recruit for a
living and I find that thought oppressive.
Would you like to sift through boring, poorly formatted resumes all day. Madness!
It could drive one to drink! No
one wants to read boring material. It is
no different for a recruiter. To be
productive we scan resumes and put them in piles. You want your resume to land in the right
pile, the “I have got to call this guy” pile. If you want your resume to stand
out, you must internalize that thought.
Rules for Crafting an
Interesting Resume:
- Provide a short Executive Summary at the beginning to set the stage.
- Executive Summary – Executive Level, Industry Segment, Functional Discipline
- Use paragraph format for Executive Summary, and Job Responsibilities.
- Italics for job responsibilities will make the resume more interesting to read.
- Use bullet-point format for Accomplishments and Skill Sets.
- Use bold and underline functions to make headers stand out.
- Give a brief description of each employer and the purpose of each position.
Your resume is your career
story. Like any good story, it needs a
plot, a theme and some drama. Use your
executive summary to set the stage by positioning your career experience. Are
you a turn-around expert, a business development guru, an M&A specialist or
maybe you are all about IPOs. You get
the point. The positioning statement is
your theme. Regardless of your functional discipline there are only a handful
of themes in business. As you think
about your career, I am confident you will find a common thread, a theme that defines
your experience. Now, reinforce your theme throughout the body
of your resume.
Think like a marketing professional. These folks are tasked with creating interest
by communicating the benefits of their brand.
After all, isn’t your resume about
communicating your message? Tell your
story with high impact language in an interesting format. The words you choose must stimulate an immediate
emotional response. They must be
powerful and precise, evoking a sense of energy and excitement. Eliminate trite buzz words! Buzz words are
buzz killers!
The purpose of a resume is to
present your job history, but the goal is to get an interview. Too many details too soon may well obscure
your message. First establish interest
on the part of the recruiter, then fill in the details. I am not recommending a one, or even a two
page resume. My message is to eliminate
space devoted to non-essential information. I advise my candidates to have a
very detailed resume available when a recruiter is ready to dig deeper into
their background. Even so, that document
is not appropriate for first contact. Build
your resume with points that matter.
When I consider the time I have
spent in meetings, presenting to my team and superiors, or sitting through another presentation; I often wonder if management just wants to be
entertained. Work can be enjoyable and
should be. Why subject a recruiter to a
boring resume? To stand out, make your
resume interesting and entertaining.
Thank you for visiting my blog.
Your feedback helps me continue to publish articles that you want to read. Your input is very important to me so please leave a comment.
Jim Weber, President
New Century Dynamics Executive Search
www.newcenturydynamics.com
Thank you for visiting my blog.
Your feedback helps me continue to publish articles that you want to read. Your input is very important to me so please leave a comment.
Jim Weber, President
New Century Dynamics Executive Search
www.newcenturydynamics.com
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