•A good resume can help you plan your career. It should be a living document that you keep updated. The details of your career path are important (as we will discuss in the work experience section) and it is very unlikely that you will be able to sit down and remember the details and accomplishments of a job you held 7 years ago. 

•A good resume will tell a hiring manager if you fit a job description.

•A good resume will tell a hiring manager when a job is not right for you.

•A good resume will not get you a job. It will get you in the door for an interview.

When writing a resume to apply for a job it is important to look at it as a sales tool not as a table of information. The information and the way it is structured is 95% of the resume.

 

INFORMATION AND STRUCTURE

 

So what to include? What should be left out?

Think about yourself making a mayor purchase like buying a house. There are four levels of information:

 

1)The basic information that will motivate you to spend time on exploring more details.
Examples:
•Location
•Number of rooms and bathrooms

 

2)The key information that will determine if you will buy or not.
Examples:
•Price range
•Square meters
•Yard space

 

3)The trivial information that will not determine your decision but can be an influence.
Examples:
•Stores that are near the house
•Color of the house
•Restroom hardware

 

4)Useless information. Information that while true and accurate you really don’t need when making a decision to buy:
Example:
•Diameter of the sewage pipe
•The serial number on the electricity meter
•The exact length of a window

 

What would you think if you called to ask about a house and the first thing you are told is:  “The serial number of the electricity meter is SN394035, The front window measures 3.257 meters, it has 2-1/2 inch sewer pipes, the walls are beige and it has a tile roof. Are you interested?”

 

Sounds crazy?  That’s the way many people present themselves through their resumes.

 

A resume will immediately convey your communication skills and your focus on what matters.

 

A badly structured resume with the wrong kind of information will keep you from getting an interview. It will most likely not be read and if it is read it will likely have a negative impact.

 

The structure and information on your resume can in fact reflect your leadership skills as well as the experience you include. How many managers have you met that in spite of having the manager title for many years simply can’t even manage themselves and show absolutely no leadership skills?  A good leader is focused, knows what is important and guarantees that everyone that surrounds them share that vision through good communication. That focus, understanding of what is important as well as the communication skills are immediately reflected in a good resume.

 

In your resume there are also four levels of information:

1)The basic information that will motivate a hiring manager to spend time on exploring more details. This should cover the first 10 lines of the resume and will determine if it is worth reading the details in your profile.
Examples:
•Location. Where do you live? Do I have to relocate you?
•Education. What is your level of education? What is your discipline?
•Years of relevant working experience.
•Products you have worked with. For how long?
•Industries you have been involved with. For how long?
•Key skill sets and certifications
•Key accomplishments
•Spoke Languages

 

2)The detailed information that will determine if you are qualified
Examples:
a.Detailed work experience
•Company and brief company description
•Position including start and end date
•Brief description of activities
•Accomplishments
b.Education details
•Degree and date it was obtained
•Institution
•Certifications

 

3)The trivial information that will not determine the decision but needs to be in a place that makes it easy to be read. In short, your contact information. While it is third in importance it should be at the top!
Example:
a.Your name
b.Address
c.Home phone, cell phone and work phone
d.Email

4)Information useless to the resume. Information that really should not be on the resume:
Example:
c.Your social security number
d.Your passport number
e.The name of your wife and kids

A well structured resume with the right information will convey your background skills and ability to successfully execute in the right job.

Your resume can kill your career!

 QUESTION:

I currently have a job but I’m looking for better opportunities. I have been sending my resume out and I have sent it to at least 15 companies without a single request for interview. What am I doing wrong?

 ANSWER:

First of all: STOP SENDING OUT YOUR RESUME. You might be doing yourself a lot of harm and not know it.

 A few things may be happening and there are three things you need to consider before your continue your search:

1) The information and the structure of your resume.

2) Where you are sending your resume and why.

3) The suicide potential by sending out your resume to 15 companies while you already have a job.

 

I’ll focus on the last one (number 3) because it is the most critical. Very negative things can happen from blasting your resume and posting it all over the internet.

 1) You might send the resume to a company for a position just to see what happens, you might do it twice or maybe three times in a few years and then you see a job opening that truly is a perfect fit for you and it matches your career goals. You send your resume again. The company looks at it and thinks “Oh! I know this guy, he sends his resume for EVERYTHING out there. Not focused. Go to the next one”.

 I’m not making this up. As a Plant Manger I had people send me their resume for an engineering position, an H.R. position and a sales position within two years…and their background was in purchasing! I would never hire someone that lacks that much focus because it is very likely that once I give them a job they will start blasting resumes again.

 2) On thing that many hiring managers with access to public job boards will do when they get a resume (I do it myself!) is search for the person in a public database.  It can signal if the candidate is an active job seeker which is not good.

 3) Once you blast resumes to many companies and you post them all over the internet you better know that they are out there and can come back to haunt you in a bad way.  I have received resumes that look pretty damn good and when I pull up my files or search the internet I find the person and SURPRISE! The resume is different. Titles have changed, in one case positions disappeared to cover-up being fired or spending very little time on a job. Assuming I’m still interested in the master of disguise, Can you guess which companies I call first for references?  

 4) Your current company can find out and not be happy. While they may not immediately fire you it will send the message that you will not be there long so you will likely be left out of promotions, training opportunities and salary increases.

Follow these rules if you don’t want to get burned:

1)      Be very selective to where you send your resume

2)      Work with private services that don’t provide public paid access to your resume

3)      Avoid resume job boards and public sites

4)      Keep track of your resume versions and be very careful on how you manipulate and change the information.