4 tips to creating your job winning resume
Oftentimes when starting to build our resume we’re overwhelmed by where to even start which leads us to over communicate. Below is what I consider to be the four key elements to a good great resume to win you the job.
1.Your resume tells a story - your story
This may be a simple and obvious concept to most of you, but your resume is a story of your professional career thus far. And while this is a no brainer, oftentimes the story is missed when you begin to put pen to paper (or computer). When a job is posted, many times hiring managers will receive hundreds of resumes within the first couple of days. When you think about how easy LinkedIn, Monster, Indeed and other job posting engines make it to apply, this number isn’t outrageous and is often quite common. When you are putting together your story, you want to make sure its impactful and to the point. What have you done to date that is going to put you in the best light? Imagine being in the position of having to review hundreds of resumes for a single job post while maintaining your other job responsibilities.
Your resume simply gets you in the door for the first interview. Do not over communicate and over complicate it. It will get lost in the pile. You want to spark enough interest to get you for that first conversation.
2. Your resume should show impact
Well yeah, duh? No. Often when you think about the projects that you have worked on or the sales you have made throughout your career, you are leaving out key components. Remember, your resume tells your story but you need to keep it short. What metrics did you hit? What sales ($$, clients, partnerships, etc) did you bring in? What projects have you worked on and how did that impact the business or the market? What was the adoption rate of that product? When you put together your resume to tell your story of the impact you’ve made throughout your career, you need to think about it in the best way to keep it concise. As mentioned in #1, you’re going up against hundreds of applicants and long winded answers will be lost in the shuffle. Think about your impact in terms of numbers. Numbers show well, numbers catch the eye. When it comes to business, you look at the numbers. Highlighting your impact with numbers sparks interest, it’s clear, and shows your success.
3. Your resume should show collaboration
While number two shows the impact that you have made from a number standpoint, this third point is just as important. You're joining a new company. Do you think they want to bring in someone that can’t work well with others? How many times have you heard over the last several years from companies that they are all about culture? Culture is driven by collaboration, communication, and transparency. When you’re telling your story and highlighting the impact you have made from a metrics standpoint, do not forget to talk about the collaboration that you have had with others. Were you part of a large project that included sales, marketing, ops, and your leadership team? Did another project include working directly with partners? Did you put together a case study or participate in a webinar? Who was involved with you? Collaboration is at the root of every company's success and if your story doesn’t show that you collaborate well with others, I am sorry but you’re going to get left in the dust.
4. Your resume should show progression
Again, another obvious statement, right? Right. However, we’re going to have times in our careers where a change in job was lateral or possibly even a step back. That is life. That is expected. Maybe there was a manager that came in that didn’t allow us to thrive. Maybe a product we were working on failed miserably and never made it to market. Maybe you have a 6 or 12 month gap in your resume because you decided to take some personal time. How we communicate the progress that we made during those challenging times is what is important. This is easier said than done when it comes to putting it on your resume, but there are ways to think about this, to spin your regression or failure into progression.
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People tend to over complicate their resume. It’s the truth - it doesn’t need to be 3 pages. You don’t need a bullet point that takes up several lines. Remember, you’re competing against hundreds of other applicants for a single position. The Hiring Manager has other job duties and is probably reviewing resumes at the end of the day when they really just want to get home, or maybe they’re already at home because this is the only time they have available in the day to actually sit down and review them. Tell your story, show your impact, show teamwork and collaboration, and show progression to spark just enough interest to get that email from the recruiter asking for your availability.
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Franklyhired.com is a resume building and interview prep consulting company. Please visit our website to schedule a consultation to see if we’re the right fit to help you land that next role to continue to build your story.
David Frank
