What Have You Done? Your Résumés & Business Cards

You have a work history. It has given you the experience to develop expertise. That expertise is specific to you, because of who you are. If you write a résumé that lists only your duties and responsibilities, you’re short-changing yourself. Yet that is exactly what most of us do when we sit down to write our résumés. I did, and I’ve seen dozens of other résumés that look a lot like my old résumé. The thing you’ve got to take hold of is that the duties and responsibilities do not define your work. Your expertise, your accomplishments, your style – for lack of a better word – define your work, and that is what differentiates you from all the other candidates who have similar education and similar work experience. The fact of the matter is, employers aren’t particularly interested in experience. If you have 20 years’ experience in something, for all your prospective employer knows, it was 20 years of bad experience. You’ve got to get the word “experience” out of your head, out of your conversation, and off the paper. You need to focus on your expertise, your accomplishments and your achievements, the things that made your work YOUR work. That’s the one thing you bring to the table that no one else has. In this installment, I’m going to talk about how to put this on paper, but you also need to be thinking about this with regard to your interviews.

This is where I insert the usual disclaimer: I am sharing with you my experiences and things I’ve learned on my journey of searching for a job. There are plenty of very qualified people with excellent credentials who can help you with this process. I’m going to point you toward a couple of them. Also, as with most things, if you ask 5 people, you’ll get 6 opinions, but there are some strategies that make more sense than some others in the current technological and economic environment. I submit that you should judge any advice, including mine, against what makes sense in this environment. I would also submit that a very large percentage of what was written on this topic pre-2008 is hopelessly out-dated. Be careful.

Your résumé is not a job description; it shouldn’t read like one. You very likely did not just take up space on an organizational chart. You had an impact because of who you are. You did specific things and accomplished specific goals on the job, goals that you set for yourself or that were set for you. You were confronted with situations, you took actions, and you produced results. This is what employers want to read about. This is the story of how you built the expertise, expertise for which your next employer is willing to pay.

So how do you tell that story? You will need to look back on your career, identify and select your proudest moments, your rock-star moments, if you will, then write them out in terms of Situation, Action, Result (SAR) or the result that was produced due to action you took, led or decided in order to address a situation. This should be written in the form of a concise sentence, and remember, results stated in the form of dollars or percentages have the most impact. Quantify wherever possible. Don’t despair if you can’t quantify the results, but try whenever possible to do so. The sentences you create in this process will form the bullet points of your new résumé. As my colleague, Andy Harvey (http://www.linkedin.com/pub/andy-harvey/1/818/415) says, “Each bullet point should be the first line of a compelling story that the employer wants to hear more about from you… in the interview.”

Unpacking this information may take a lot of time and energy… and paper. You may find it difficult to remember all of the things you did. Again, don’t despair. There are ways to do this. Dirk Spencer (http://www.linkedin.com/in/dirkindallas) creator of Résumé Psychology, uses the analogy of driving a car. When you first learned to drive, you were very conscious of every action you had to take to accomplish the task. Today, you hardly give it a thought. You just drive. Driving a car has become an unconscious competency for you. It is very likely that much of what you did in your previous jobs became unconscious competencies as well. Dirk has established some very useful methodologies for unpacking these unconscious competencies, using audio, visual and kinesthetic engagement. In other words, stimulating your thoughts and memories through your ears, eyes and fingers. Don’t underestimate the importance of this process, especially if you’re having trouble being specific about your proudest moments. One of the tools I used to help me activate these thoughts and memories was a roll of butcher paper. It was my wife’s idea. We rolled out the butcher paper on the dining room table, from right to left, and started on the right-hand end. I wrote down a duty from my most recent job, then beneath that listed all of the tasks that made up that particular duty. Then we pushed the paper to the right and wrote the next duty to the left of the first one, and listed all the tasks that made up that duty, and so on, working our way back over the 25-plus years of my career, unpacking everything we could think of. Having the interaction of conversation with my wife, who was aware of this history, was very helpful, so consider including a colleague or family member in this process to stimulate the audio portion of your memories. As we worked our way back in time, long-submerged memories bubbled to the surface. Before long, we were scrolling back and forth, literally scrolling, jotting additional line items beneath each broad duty. And that’s when it happened. We found those proudest moments, and there they were, the bare bones of the situation, action and result of each proud moment, waiting to be fleshed out in concise and compelling terms and transcribed onto the new, improved résumé. It was grueling, but well worth it. Give it a try.

Now that you’ve got the rock-star moments identified, here are some practical tips for the actual writing. Remember your audience. This document is not for you, it’s for your prospective employer. Make sure your résumé actually fits the job for which you are applying. Your résumé is very likely to be “read” first by a machine, an applicant tracking system (ATS) that dissects, categorizes and scores your résumé based on the number and context of keywords it finds that match up with the job description keywords for which it has been programmed to look. Once again let me direct you to the article, “Résumé, Meet Technology: How Your Story Gets Read by Machines,” by Lisa Vaas, http://www.lisavaas.com. Even if the prospective employer doesn’t use an ATS, this process is pretty similar to what recruiters and HR generalists do when they are told to source for a position and they are confronted with a stack of dozens, if not hundreds of résumés. The only way for them to get through the stack is to look for keywords that match the job description. You, as an applicant, cannot rely on the notion that, “If they just read my résumé, they’ll see that it’s in there.” They can’t see that it’s in there, because they don’t have time to read your résumé. It may not seem fair, but it is the way it is. Look for keywords in the job descriptions of the jobs for which you are applying and the keywords used in your field and industry, and incorporate those keywords into your descriptions of your proudest moments on your résumé. Ideally, you should customize your résumé for every application you submit. That means you need to have a “master résumé” that you trim and customize to fit each particular job application you submit. While this is easier said than done, it is much easier now that we have technology more advanced than typewriters. Next, make sure the verbs you use are action verbs that really convey the sense that you did something, not that you sat behind a desk and ticked off boxes on a checklist while others did all the work.

So, you’ve got your proudest moments, written out in terms of situation, action, result, described using keywords from your industry, your specific field and from job descriptions for the jobs for which you are applying, and using action verbs that convey your direct involvement in what was happening. How do you form this into a résumé? The vast majority of the recruiters and hiring managers to whom I’ve talked say they prefer the chronological résumé, technically a reverse chronological résumé, since it starts with your most recent position. In fact, most applicant tracking systems are designed to process data only from this type of résumé. If you use a functional or a hybrid résumé, the ATS will choke, and if a human is actually looking at such a document, he or she is very likely to look across the desk, smile and say, “Have you got a chronological résumé?”

So how should this document look? Your name and contact information should be clearly visible at the top of the page, followed by what you call yourself when people ask, “What do you do?” Network Engineer, Project Manager, School Superintendent, Nuclear Physicist. This can be followed by some over-arching accomplishments, what you are known for in your business. Three or four bullet points or a brief paragraph loaded with keywords, action verbs and indicative of your passion work well here. Next you may want to list your particular areas of expertise, especially if you have proficiency in particularly technical areas within your field. Next, your professional accomplishments. Start with your most recent position and work your way back. Use only three to five of those rock-star moments you’ve worked so hard to craft as bullet points under each position, put your education and certifications beneath that, and your professional affiliations beneath that. That’s your résumé. Another good source to help you craft your résumé is Bonnie Dangel, Résumé Writing Coach. Contact Bonnie at bonniejdangel@tx.rr.com.

Another tip: You need at least two résumés. One that is straight text: no tabs, no centering, no special characters, no bold face, underlines or italics, no hyperlinks, no text-boxes, no pictures, no charts, no logos, no fancy graphics. Instead of bullets, use a dash followed by a space, and that’s only to make it easier for humans to read when they print it out from the applicant tracking system. This is the version of your résumé that you post on the job boards (Monster, Career Builder, HotJobs, etc.) and that you upload when you apply for jobs online. Why? Because all that fancy stuff is wasted on the applicant tracking systems, recruiters and HR generalists that are just trying to get through the stack. They’re looking for keywords in context that match the job description they’re trying to fill. Remember your audience. In addition, if you use all that fancy formatting, your résumé will very likely get gummed up in the ATS, and if it’s gummed up, it won’t be on the top of the stack. Save your beautifully formatted, visually pleasing résumé, printed on that nice, heavy, white or ecru stock for when you physically mail or hand it to a human being. That’s where the human touch is needed. This is your other résumé. The content is the same as the first one, it just looks and feels better.

And another tip: I mentioned earlier creating a “master résumé”. This is a file that has all the tasks, duties, responsibilities, accomplishment and achievements listed from your whole career. Basically, it’s the digital version of my roll of butcher paper. Put asterisks beside your rock-star moments, so you can find them easily and use them on customized résumés, and when you need a specific example of an accomplishment for a specific job application, you can pull it from your master file. If you wore a lot of hats in your past, and if you are applying for several different types of jobs in your search, this will be particularly helpful to you as you craft customized résumés for each job application.

Now you’ve got the basic ingredients for creating other documents. As mentioned above, you have a digital-friendly, text-only résumé to post on the big boards. You have a master résumé from which you can build your online profile on sites like LinkedIn and facebook. From your beautifully formatted résumé you can create a one-page marketing synopsis that you can use at job fairs or hand out at the end of an interview. And perhaps most important, all this work has brought those proudest moments back to mind, and you’ve developed a vocabulary of keywords and action verbs that will be invaluable to you when you are interviewing.

The final tip: Never lie or exaggerate, not on your résumé, and especially not on a signed application. The difference between a résumé and an application is “the whole truth”. As in court, your application should include “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth”. For your résumé, they want the truth, they don’t have time for the whole truth, but they want nothing but the truth.

Finally, I want to spend a few lines on your business card. If you don’t have business cards, get some. There are some good resources around for inexpensive but professional looking business cards. VistaPrint.com offers 250 free business cards; all you pay is for shipping. Some office supply stores are making similar offers, so check around. My friend Doug Williamson (www.WilliamsonHome.us) has used a Microsoft Word template and Avery #8877 clean-edge business cards. They look very nice as well. His advice, stick with the name brand here, because the others aren’t as clean-edged as Avery. Your business card is your résumé in miniature, your 10-second commercial on card-stock. Don’t ignore it, don’t scrimp on it. It’s part of your professional image. More about that in a future installment. Extending the metaphor of your business card being your 10-second commercial on paper, my friend Kim Kozak (http://www.linkedin.com/in/kozak) says that your one-page marketing synopsis is your 30-second commercial on paper, your résumé is your 2-minute commercial on paper, and your LinkedIn profile is your 30-minute infomercial. More about LinkedIn later.

Unpacking your unconscious competencies and creating a rich and interesting résumé is the key to a lot of your job search activities. It helps you hone and own what you have done in your career. That’s pretty important if you want to approach prospective employers with confidence.

Ret Martin
SPHR certified Human Resources Generalist & Administrative Management Professional
martin3820@charter.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/retmartin

To read my Endorsement Disclosure, go to the About Ret Martin page of this blog.