Building An Effective Resume
The last 5 years have been tumultuous to say the least. Regardless of your profession, you have more than likely seen changes to your day to day responsibilities as well as shifts in how your company does business. From an explosion of home offices and an increased reliance on Zoom/Teams calls to a complete restructuring of supply chains and go to market strategies, we have all had to adjust. One positive change is that I have been able to work with more professionals one on one in a coaching relationship. I greatly enjoy this component of being a Talent Consultant, however, I am typically too busy helping my clients fill their positions with great individuals to dedicate much of my time. After speaking with hundreds of job seekers and dozens of hiring managers, I’ve compiled a great deal of feedback and data on common mistakes as well as what really makes a resume shine. This is the first of several articles that will focus on how to build a great resume, we start by looking at an introduction to applying for a job in our current age.
Almost every Hiring Manager (HM) that I’ve spoken with said they don’t want a resume that looks overly cluttered or overwhelming. They don’t want to spend all day reading it. At the same time, almost every candidate I work with mentions that they become frustrated when putting their resume together because it’s so hard to get everything in there. Both sides report that they feel most resumes do not accurately reflect the candidate or contain what the HM is looking for.
In addition, we now have AI-powered applicant tracking systems (ATS) that are making things more difficult. According to this Forbes article, over 75% of resumes do not make it past the ATS. Meaning, not only is the HM not seeing your resume, but not a single set of human eyes will even have the opportunity to see all the work that you have put in. To avoid this issue, it is important to first put together a rough draft that is much longer than the finished product. Get all your thoughts down, all the examples or achievements that will stand out, and then go back to the job description. What are the keywords that are repeated or emphasized? Share your job responsibilities that match the job description but also examples of how you impacted the business. For every responsibility, there should be a result. If you are an account manager, how many accounts do you manage and has their sales volume increased? If you are a mechanical engineer, have you reduced downtime or cost related to repairs?
I shared in another article a story from when I was giving a presentation at the University of Michigan to a bunch of IT majors who were close to graduating. One student raised his hand and explained how he was told to leave last page blank, maybe a short paragraph at the top, and to copy and paste the job description in white, 1pt font so that the ATS picked up all the keywords. Don’t do this, if you don’t have the right keywords in your resume then you either just need some help putting a resume together or you aren’t qualified for the job. This kind of lying will not build any bridges in your chosen profession.
A resume is a great exercise to get ready for interviewing and almost always the first introduction to a HM. This should not be a document that is thrown together at the last moment. Even if you are not searching for a job now, take the time to contribute to your resume. Think of it as a running document that you add to every quarter or twice a year. This can also help you to track progress towards career goals. If you’d like help putting your resume together, reach out and we can set up a time to chat.
