The Good, The Bad, The Ugly vs. The Great

Resumes

When it comes to putting together a resume most people would rather get a root canal. It feels like torture and even if they have the money and the inclination to hire someone to do it for them, a professional resume writer, they are still not off the hook. Without all the details of what they did, when they did it and what happened as a result of their actions even a great resume writer will only come up with a good resume. But in the job getting game, good is not good enough. Times are tough out there – the world of work is changing at the speed of light and the unemployment rate is rising. In order to get in the door, that is, face to face with the powers that be, your resume has to stand out – it has to be a great resume, not just a good one. But before we talk about what makes for a great resume let’s talk about what constitutes the good, the bad and the ugly.

The Good Resume – The Boy Scout Resume

The good resume has all the information in it that is required by employers. It has your contact information, a list of the jobs you’ve had in the last ten or so years and the names of all your employers. All the words are spell correctly and it has some nice key words such as excellent and outstanding and makes a case for you being a decent employee. It may or may not be focused on a particular job but may instead be a shot-gun resume. In other words, you can send it out to lots of companies hoping for a hit. I call this the Boy Scout resume because it makes you come off like a good boy or girl. This resume may get put in the HR departments slush file of potential employees. This file is rarely ever looked at and banking on this is like banking on VCR’s making a comeback over DVR’s.

The Bad Resume – The Life History Resume

The bad resume is too long, too detailed, is not focused on anything in particular and tells everything you have ever done since your first paper route or babysitting job back when you were fourteen. It’s usually two to three pages long and is chronological and explains everything you have ever done in great detail. It is not only boring but it’s egotistical as well. Who cares if you won first place in the 5th grade science fair if you are now in mid career and are going for a job in marketing. You may be proud, your mama may be proud, but the hiring manager thinks you are full of yourself. Prima Donna’s he/she can live without.

The Ugly Resume – The I Can't be Bothered Resume

The ugly resume is just that – it’s filled with misspelled words, it lacks coherency, the dates are jumbled up and there is missing information. It could also be filled with misrepresentations and outright lies. It may start with the first job you have ever had, the one back in 1973, and then end with one you had three jobs ago. It says at the top that you are seeking a job in sales, but nowhere on the resume does it mention a sales job or even attempt to make a case for why you think your experience in customer service is transferable to sales. This is a resume written by someone who believes that they can do anything and they just need a chance, but they are not interested in doing the work to create a good, much less a great, resume and the idea of selling themselves and their skills is distasteful to them. The hiring manager looks at it for about a nanosecond and knows that what you see is what you get and tosses it into the wastebasket. He/She wonders why the person bothered.

The Great Resume – The Marketing/Sales Resume

A great resume is like a great marketing piece – it sells you to a potential employer and it’s targeted to the job you are seeking. It focuses on what you have accomplished in pervious jobs and proves this with examples of what you did that went beyond the job description. It uses numbers and statistics where possible and it paints a picture of you as an outstanding individual, someone they can’t wait to interview. The great resume packages you as a product much like a car, a computer or a restaurant. It highlights what’s great about you and leaves out what isn’t. It’s only one page long and it has five parts to it:

Position Statement – Accounting Supervisor – Trucking
Paragraph about you as a worker with your years of experience and personality and work ethic
Highlights of what you have done and accomplished in other jobs with most impressive first even if not your last job
List of jobs and company information
Education and training

The great resume also uses adjectives that describe what you did, not what you were suppose to do – it never uses the word responsible. It uses clear concise language, short sentences and is focused on what you are seeking with that particular employer. It is job specific and not general. The great resume is targeted to a particular company and a specific job within that company. If you are seeking more than one kind of job, then you have a great resume for each job title. Great resumes are unique to the specific job and sometimes the company or industry.

Cover Letters – Never send a form cover letter

All cover letters are specific to the job, the company and the individual doing the hiring if it is at all possible to find this out. Watch the spelling of their names. Never send a form cover letter - make it interesting and vibrant.

When a hiring manager gets a great resume and your targeted cover letter he/she picks up the phone and calls you – he knows from the resume that you are the kind of employee who takes the time to do a job right and the resume is his/her first indication that you will do it for him/her as well.

Next week, I’ll talk about interviewing because even those with great resumes and cover letters sometimes shoot themselves in the foot during the interview. Stayed tuned.

Blessings, Lorraine