What I look for in resumes

Of the 200 resumes I have looked at over the past two weeks, only one stands out. At the end of this resume, the applicant provided her personal mission/vision statement:

My mission is to be better than I was yesterday. My action is not to get through the day, but to gain from the day. My vision is to take the path less traveled and act on those opportunities others are not willing to see. My process will be to take risks and only ask others to do what I myself can and will do. My objective is to identify new challenges and learn from both success and failure. My focus is my family, my health and my professional development. My goal is to inspire positive change and champion every moment of life.

This statement told me a lot about the applicant. She is mission-driven. She is mature and self-aware. She has a plan for her career. I can visualize her as an accountable, committed, and organized member of the team.

 
Kathy Hansen, in her excellent new book Tell Me About Yourself, says I am constructing your story when I scan your resume. Indeed, I made a first draft of your story when I read your cover letter (see my post on what I look for in cover letters). Your resume fills in the blanks and fleshes out the story outline.

 
I will scan your resume, rather than read it. I will look to see the employers and job titles and the length of stay. If I see nothing but description of job duties, I won’t linger. I know what an editor does.

 
However, you will catch my interest if you describe specific accomplishments in that position. Consider tailoring your resume to the job for which you are applying. If it sounds like I’m looking for someone who is efficient and accurate, your resume may say, “edited two to four magazine articles a day. No published corrections were required for any article I edited. Chosen from among the publication’s 15 copyeditors for the Editor’s Award.” If I’m looking for a leader and problem-solver, you might say, “established a new work flow that raised the level of accuracy among the copyediting team.”

Tell me how I and my team will benefit by having you on it. A mere listing of skills does not set you apart from the crowd. Many resumes I saw have a littany of skill sets at the top. I skipped that part. However, some resumes had a few bullets at the top that gave a thumbnail sketch of the person’s unique combination of skills and experience and how they would bear on the position. I read those.

 
Some resumes were organized by skill set rather than chronologically. For example, a section would be “problem solver” and then go on to list accomplishments at various employers at various times in the career. I HATE THIS, and so did my colleagues on the search committee. One said that if she had to work to figure out the individual’s career chronology, she didn’t bother with that resume.

 
Don’t try to hide short stays. If I see a range “2004-2005,” I am suspicious that could mean “December 2004 to February 2005.” if you have lots of short stays, explain that in the cover. A single short stay in an otherwise steady career is not that unusual.

 
Hansen’s book suggests an option of a “resume addendum,” in which a narrative further fleshes out your story. I did not see any examples of this in my recent search. I doubt that I would have read one if I was not already intrigued by the applicant. My advice is to put energy into tailoring your resume and cover letter to each job posting. If you have energy left and you think your benefit to me can be further described in a narrative, go for it. This may be particularly helpful if you are making a career change and want to explain how you see your experience enhancing your value in the new field.

I highly recommend Hansen’s book for more resume ideas.