Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Your Resume is Not Getting Traction: Not Enough Focus on Accomplishments



“Just the facts, ma’am.”  For those of us old enough to remember the television series “Dragnet,” that phrase was made famous by Detective Joe Friday.   Detective Friday stayed at peak productivity by focusing his interviews on the facts.  The facts speak for themselves, or at least they should.  Irrelevant, or superfluous information is a waste of precious time.   Detective Friday maximized his productivity and effectiveness by sticking to the facts.

During my corporate career, I learned many principles of effective communications.  Two of those points stand out above the rest, at least to me.  The first principle is:  Tell them what you are going to tell them; tell them, and then tell them what you told them.  Every presentation has a beginning, a middle, and an ending.  The beginning states the objective of the presentation;  “tell them what you are going to tell them.”  The middle presents your case; “tell them.”  The ending, or summary, “tells them what you told them.”  Your resume format follows the same principle to a point.  Your Career  Summary sets the stage.  It reveals what you plan to tell them in the body of your resume.  Your job history is the meat of your resume.  It speaks to the relevant details of your career, which are the key accomplishments.  Your Career Summary is your personal positioning statement.  Your job history is supporting evidence.  One must support the other.

Focus On Your Accomplishments:

  • Career Summary positions your general contributions.
  • Skill Sets provide definition to your strengths
  • Employment Summary: bullet-point significant accomplishments, “the facts.”


The second principle is to know your audience.  Who are they?  What is their background?  What are they looking for?  What do they want to hear?  What code words are they looking to hear?  How much time do you have to make your point?  Knowing your audience is fundamental to delivering a successful speech.  This principle is equally important to crafting an effective resume.  When you consider the audience for your resume, understand that they are looking to maximize their productivity as well.  “Just the facts, ma’am.”


As with any communications vehicle your resume must make an impact on the reader.  When the reader puts your resume down, she should be able to recall your top three attributes; your unique selling proposition. Yeah, I get it!   So, your resume must be highly focused and to some extent repetitive.  Repetitive in the sense that key themes are reinforced throughout the document.  All too often I see resumes where facts have been obscured by superfluous adjectives which render the message trite and meaningless.  “Just the facts, ma’am.”

Think back to successful networking events you have attended.  Who did you meet that stood out from the pack, someone you remembered?  You can probably still tick off two or three key points about that person.  He must have impressed you enough to remember him.  His message was likely to have been clear, concise, and to the point.  Your resume should be no different, except that it lacks the full dimension of a face-to-face meeting.  A resume is consumed by only one of the reader’s senses, her vision.  Coupled with the fact that resumes are briefly scanned for content, the burden is on you to get your message across, understood, and remembered.  The content must necessarily leap off the page to be absorbed by the reader.  The best way to make an impact to be remembered is to present key information in short bursts.  To be remembered, focus on the facts of your accomplishments and reinforce your theme throughout your resume.

  

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




Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Your Resume is Not Getting Traction: You Don't Seem to be a Savvy Professional:







I have long been fascinated by Corporate Cultures, especially those of successful organizations.  What is it that sets those cultures apart?   All companies have a culture.  In fact, all groups have a culture even though it may not be recognized.  Formal groups have a shared history, code of conduct, set of values, and language which defines the group.  Some cultures are more obvious as with the uniformed services.  Or, as with Fraternities and Sororities, who have a secret handshake.  Many religions are identifiable by their manner of dress.  Other cultures may be more difficult to discern, but, insiders will recognize other members.  Small details taken together can be very revealing.


Cultures even have sub-cultures.  Elite military units have a culture that is different from the Army as a whole.  C-level corporate executives can be distinguished from middle management.  Marketing, Finance, and Operational personnel have their own sub-cultures with their own nuanced code.
Your resume presents your cultural affiliation.   You must actively manage your resume to ensure that you are sending the right signals.  Are you the real deal, or a poser.  If you are the real deal, but, using the wrong code words, you may not be recognized as a part of the group.


A Resume for a Savvy Professional:
  • Leave off Personal interests and “references available upon request.”
  • Use industry/position specific terminology.
  • Significant accomplishments should be predominant
  • Executive/Career summary must address your functional discipline, level of accomplishment; and industry/segment expertise.
  • Give a short, one line explanation for employer changes.
  • Label your resume file: “last name _ first name_ position_ date.”
  • Your email address should incorporate your last name to be professional
  • Use File/Properties menu option to list key words and other data.
  • Use appropriate key words in the body of the resume.
  • Avoid trite phrases and meaningless buzz-words.


You will be judged from the moment your email arrives in the recruiter’s mailbox.  Your email address and your resume file name speak volumes.   Your executive summary will reveal your cultural orientation by the language you use, or don’t use.  Do you use concise plain-speak, or buzzword-riddled gobbledygook?    Is your language familiar to other professionals at your level and from your professional discipline?  If not, you will not be taken seriously.

All too often I see resume attachments with “resume” as the file name.  A very common mistake for a rookie, and a cost to my productivity as it requires extra time to catalog and file.  Even worse is a highly personal, even ironic email address.  Not a professional introduction by any standard.  The ideal email address will consist of your last name and first name or initial.  Better still is to have a personalized email with your surname as the domain name.   Likewise, your resume attachment file name should be formatted as:  lastname_first name_position_year; or something very similar.   Violating these two syntax basics will cast doubt as to your authenticity.

The ability to present your credentials and capabilities in a clear and concise manner is crucial.  The greater your rank the greater the expectation of your ability to communicate.  Avoid run-on sentences ripe with meaningless buzz words and phrases that would only impress a junior level manager.  Don’t waste my time, get to the point.  Pay attention to these details and the economic value of your verbiage to be viewed as a savvy professional.

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