Resumes Are a lot Like Halloween Costumes

Every year on Halloween I always take note of the kids who have the most unique costumes. Usually they are home made and obviously required a lot of thought, time, and effort. They are memorable because they are creative, they make as laugh, they make us scream, or they even make us think.

Resumes are a lot like Halloween costumes. The best resumes, like the best costumes, are not what we expect. They challenge the senses and the mind. They make us think "Wow, this is someone I need to know" or "Maybe this person can help solve my company's problems." They invite conversation, inquiry, and perhaps even debate.

So who are you on your resume? Is your persona "off the shelf" and do you look like so many of your competitors, or are you different, exciting, and "custom made"?

Resume Renovations

As you've probably surmised by now, I look at a lot of resumes. While many resumes adequately explain a job seeker's job responsibilities, few elaborate on the accomplishments within those responsibilities. And let's face it. Many people perform similar jobs with similar competencies. What makes each person unique is the success he or she brought to those positions, not the day to day tasks that hundreds of others may be trained to do. Consider these typical resume statements from job seekers who probably have a great deal to offer employers, but are not getting that message across in their documents.

Answered questions that pertained to each customer's needs.

Undoubtedly customer service is critical for many positions. But this statement tells the reader little other than that a function of the job was answering questions. Hiring managers want to know what was the volume of the inquiries, how long did it take to resolve customer issues and how did that timeframe compare to the company's standards. Are there any powerful examples of how an irate client was satisfied, and were any processes put in place to address redundant questions so time could be freed up to work on more complex issues?

Develop and execute promotional opportunities.

Great! Tell me more! What types of campaigns and what were the results? Did the promotions drive revenues, capture a new niche, or take market share away from a competitor? What was going on in the company before these promotions were developed and what is happening now as a result of them?

Prepared weekly reporting on equipment performance.

Why were the reports prepared and who received them? Was the report used by senior management for forecasting or decisions on vendor contracts? Was any money or time saved as a result of these reports and if so, how much?

Develop business plans and strategies to build rapport and solicit new business accounts.

Sounds important. What were the results? Was new business secured, and if so, what was the percent increase in accounts from last year until now and what were the revenues associated with that new business? Were creative strategies or guerrilla marketing techniques leveraged to obtain the business?

Break away from the day to day of your work experience and strive to showcase the unique, memorable, creative, and "above and beyond" moments. You will quickly rise to the top of the resume pile and secure more interviews faster.

So What Does That Recruiter Really Think of Your Resume?

Jason Alba of Jibber Jobber is hosting a "resume critique extravaganza" over on the Jibber Jobber blog and the invited guests are recruiters and resume experts. Each "judge" is weighing in and offering opinions on one anonymous job seeker's resume content and design. OK, it's not exactly American Idol, but there are several "Simon Cowell-esque" comments to view and lots of great resume writing advice. The recruiters and resume writers are clearly on the same page as evidenced by the consistency in their comments. All agree that a strong resume needs to showcase accomplishments over tasks, clearly communicate the candidate's core brand and value add, and have a neat, clean, and eye-catching visual design. If you would like to have your own resume critiqued, without having the content on full view to everyone, email me for a free resume assessment (my style is much more like Paula Abdul and I will tell you what is working in your current resume as well as what can be improved).

Sudden Death From Too Many Resume Bullets

Bulleted lists are often used on resumes to highlight specific talking points and areas of achievement. But too frequently bullets are misused and they end up diminishing the impact of the talking points rather than enhancing them. Here are a few common mistakes candidates make when using bullet points on their resume.

Too Many Bullets
When job seekers create a list of more than five bullets in a row, nothing stands out and the text starts to look like one big paragraph. A better strategy is to create functional headings such as Business Development, Marketing, Financial Analysis, etc. This allows you to group your bullet points in sub-sections and quickly differentiate the types of value-add statements you are including in the resume.

Mixed Purpose Bullets
Frequently job seekers mix information about job tasks with information regarding accomplishments. This waters down the value of the accomplishment statement and makes it harder to spot amongst a sea of task-oriented statements. A better strategy is to report job tasks in a brief paragraph format and identify accomplishments in a bulleted list to differentiate the two and make it easier for the reader to quickly spot the accomplishments.

Unique Bullets
Sometimes candidates use unusual symbols for their bullets that can be quite distracting for the reader. It's better to stick with traditional circles and squares when creating bullet points. You want your resume to be memorable based on its accomplishments, rather than unusual formatting.