Résumé Makeover
Client Background
Susan came to me without an existing résumé, seeking to target a new position in account/relationship management. As Susan was not certain of her career accomplishments, she found it difficult to complete my Client Questionnaire. This was evident in the fact that she provided less than 100 words or 1 paragraph to detail the past 8 years of her career. It was therefore imperative, as with any project, to conduct additional research to help Susan identify and market her value to prospective employers. Susan also provided information on her 6-year absence from the workforce, and her tenure with two retailers in the 70’s and 80’s.
Résumé Strategies
After conducting research to ensure I knew more about Susan’s line of work and employer, I used our consultation to probe deeper into Susan’s background and achievements. As with most clients, once Susan started talking about her experiences, more and more information was revealed about her career and accomplishments. She felt more comfortable exploring what she had accomplished while talking to someone, telling me that she found it nearly impossible to capture her career on paper – particularly when she was writing about herself. With her objective defined and more than 3 pages of additional details gathered through research and our consultation, I began creating her résumé.
I opened Susan’s résumé with a qualifications summary communicating her value to prospective employers. In this paragraph, I highlighted both experiences and soft skills, in order to showcase her related background. Additionally, opening the summary with the professional title of “Account / Relationship Manager” serves to frame her candidacy for the hiring manager. Within the professional experience section, I placed focus on Susan’s achievements, being sure to quantify wherever possible to show actual results. Statements were presented in bullet points to facilitate ease of readability, and certain phrases were selected to ensure notable keywords appeared within her résumé. I chose to omit earlier retail experiences from the 70’s and 80’s, as these would have only unnecessarily aged her candidacy. Additionally by including those experiences, I would have highlighted her absence from the workforce, something that was easily avoided when highlighting the desired 8-10 years’ experience.
Lastly, as Susan did not have a degree, I omitted the education section, and instead replaced it with a list of her recent professional development. By omitting the education section when you feel the lack of a degree is going to detract from your candidacy, you actually focus the hiring manager’s attention elsewhere, thereby minimizing the appearance of a potentially disqualifying factor. The professional development section ended Susan’s résumé on a strong point, reinforcing her up-to-date training and continued development in her field.
Client Comments / Results
Two weeks after receiving her new résumé, Susan wrote:
“You did a remarkable job! I was struggling with the best way to communicate the skills and knowledge I had amassed from my past experiences and present them in such a way that they would appear very transferable. I highly recommend your services. By the way, I’d only sent out two hard copies less then two weeks ago, interviewed with one of the companies just yesterday, and they just called me an hour ago to schedule the second interview. It was the way you pulled my work history together and presented that is making the difference. Thanks so much!”
Two weeks later Susan wrote:
“I just wanted to let you know the work you did on my résumé did more for me than I ever expected. Having been focused for the last 10 years on performing my “job” duties, I wasn't able to see how accomplished I'd actually become. The way you presented my skills and accomplishments allowed me to see how much I had to offer potential employers. Feeling more confident about my career future I sent hard copies only to two companies I wanted to work for. The résumé not only helped me get the initial interviews, but also provided me with the confidence necessary to impress the prospective employer, and I am happy to say I accepted a position this morning. Thanks so much for everything!”
Success Factors
Susan started with a clearly defined objective, which helped tailor her résumé to meet the needs of the intended audience. She was also willing to spend the time to think about her past experiences and achievements, and explore those in further detail during our phone consultation. While not all job searches can be so targeted, this makeover illustrates how effective a résumé can be when not written with a one-size-fits-all objective – something Susan understood and capitalized upon to achieve success.
Susan came to me without an existing résumé, seeking to target a new position in account/relationship management. As Susan was not certain of her career accomplishments, she found it difficult to complete my Client Questionnaire. This was evident in the fact that she provided less than 100 words or 1 paragraph to detail the past 8 years of her career. It was therefore imperative, as with any project, to conduct additional research to help Susan identify and market her value to prospective employers. Susan also provided information on her 6-year absence from the workforce, and her tenure with two retailers in the 70’s and 80’s.
Résumé Strategies
After conducting research to ensure I knew more about Susan’s line of work and employer, I used our consultation to probe deeper into Susan’s background and achievements. As with most clients, once Susan started talking about her experiences, more and more information was revealed about her career and accomplishments. She felt more comfortable exploring what she had accomplished while talking to someone, telling me that she found it nearly impossible to capture her career on paper – particularly when she was writing about herself. With her objective defined and more than 3 pages of additional details gathered through research and our consultation, I began creating her résumé.
I opened Susan’s résumé with a qualifications summary communicating her value to prospective employers. In this paragraph, I highlighted both experiences and soft skills, in order to showcase her related background. Additionally, opening the summary with the professional title of “Account / Relationship Manager” serves to frame her candidacy for the hiring manager. Within the professional experience section, I placed focus on Susan’s achievements, being sure to quantify wherever possible to show actual results. Statements were presented in bullet points to facilitate ease of readability, and certain phrases were selected to ensure notable keywords appeared within her résumé. I chose to omit earlier retail experiences from the 70’s and 80’s, as these would have only unnecessarily aged her candidacy. Additionally by including those experiences, I would have highlighted her absence from the workforce, something that was easily avoided when highlighting the desired 8-10 years’ experience.
Lastly, as Susan did not have a degree, I omitted the education section, and instead replaced it with a list of her recent professional development. By omitting the education section when you feel the lack of a degree is going to detract from your candidacy, you actually focus the hiring manager’s attention elsewhere, thereby minimizing the appearance of a potentially disqualifying factor. The professional development section ended Susan’s résumé on a strong point, reinforcing her up-to-date training and continued development in her field.
Client Comments / Results
Two weeks after receiving her new résumé, Susan wrote:
“You did a remarkable job! I was struggling with the best way to communicate the skills and knowledge I had amassed from my past experiences and present them in such a way that they would appear very transferable. I highly recommend your services. By the way, I’d only sent out two hard copies less then two weeks ago, interviewed with one of the companies just yesterday, and they just called me an hour ago to schedule the second interview. It was the way you pulled my work history together and presented that is making the difference. Thanks so much!”
Two weeks later Susan wrote:
“I just wanted to let you know the work you did on my résumé did more for me than I ever expected. Having been focused for the last 10 years on performing my “job” duties, I wasn't able to see how accomplished I'd actually become. The way you presented my skills and accomplishments allowed me to see how much I had to offer potential employers. Feeling more confident about my career future I sent hard copies only to two companies I wanted to work for. The résumé not only helped me get the initial interviews, but also provided me with the confidence necessary to impress the prospective employer, and I am happy to say I accepted a position this morning. Thanks so much for everything!”
Success Factors
Susan started with a clearly defined objective, which helped tailor her résumé to meet the needs of the intended audience. She was also willing to spend the time to think about her past experiences and achievements, and explore those in further detail during our phone consultation. While not all job searches can be so targeted, this makeover illustrates how effective a résumé can be when not written with a one-size-fits-all objective – something Susan understood and capitalized upon to achieve success.
posted by Dear Sam at Sunday, February 19, 2006
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