August 2008 - Does My Resume Stink?

Alesia Benedict

Would you like resume advice from the experts? TheLadders.com Resume Service is here to help. Contact our experts directly or, if you’re feeling lucky, send us your resume for entry in our Does My Resume Stink contest. Each month, one winner will receive a full resume rewrite for free!

And now, on to this month’s before and after...

This month’s contest winner was facing quite a challenge in her job search. She was targeting IT positions that encompassed project management and business analysis, but her old resume was failing miserably at showcasing her experience in these functions. The reader could not get a clear picture of her core skills or see how her roles in operations and business development transferred to her desired position. The new resume needed to make her more flexible and immediately brand her as someone with excellent skills and experience in the technical arena.

Tag Line
To accomplish this rebranding, we started the new resume with a tag line that outlined the different related directions she was targeting. It began with her most desired outcome and concluded with her current role, operations management. Following the tag line, we gave the reader a strong summary of the skills that qualified her for the role. Phrasing such as “hands-on technical leader” and “expertise in analysis” were designed to engage the reader and get them thinking along the lines of project management and business analysis.

Objective Language
We followed the summary with a strong core competencies section that outlined her relevant skills, avoiding subjective phrasing such as “effective communicator.” Core competencies are just that - objective keywords that are demonstrable and searchable. Recruiters will not be searching on subjective phrases such as “results-oriented” or “strong work ethic” so it is a wasted effort to include those in the core competencies section.

Accomplishment-Oriented Bullets
In the old resume, the design and content were working together against the effectiveness of the resume. First of all, the content was essentially just a listing of bulleted statements. To make it worse, the statements were bland and did not communicate a sense of initiative or drive, but more that she was a worker-bee. Not only were her accomplishments thin but they did not jump out at a reader who would be skimming the information.

The new resume is more palatable to recruiters, with role descriptions leading off and then accomplishments placed in bullets to catch the eye. Because much of what she has done is not directly quantifiable, we were sure to bring in accomplishments that highlighted outcomes.

We boosted the language to be more powerful, paying particular attention to selecting words that are stronger than the average resume on the market. A boost in language contributes significantly to the image a reader conceives of a job seeker.

Minimal Margins
Another problem with the design of the old resume was the use of the old-fashioned large-left-margin design that consumed too much space and gave the impression she was not current with modern trends. A further problem was in the organization of the chronology. At first glance, it was not clear that she was consulting in her two current roles. In the new resume, the organization placed both positions under one “umbrella” heading to make it clearer that she was consulting and not working two totally different full-time jobs.

Irrelevant Information
Her old resume contained irrelevant information such as her MVP for the Varsity Sailing Team and interests. If she had been an entry-level, new graduate this may have held some weight, however, at her level of experience, these tidbits of information have no relevance on whether she is the best candidate for the position. We removed that information and other irrelevant information from the resume to keep it more focused.

Work Address
A large mistake on the old resume was the listing of her “business address” along with her personal address in the header. Using your work contact information is a huge faux pas in the job search. We corrected that rapidly, providing only her home contact information in the new version.

Altogether, the client has a lot to bring to the table. The old resume simply was not presenting it well. This project was an excellent example that sometimes it’s what’s NOT on the resume that can make the difference. So much of the strategy of resume construction is knowing what to include and what to exclude. We not only streamlined the design but also overhauled the content to bring her image up to six-figure recruiters’ expectations for project management and business analysis candidates.