The fundamentals of an awesome resume

- Let's get it right out there. Most resumes are pretty bad. Some of them are really bad. If you feel like yours might be one of these, don't beat yourself up over it for even a second. Resumes generally aren't bad because you lack talent or you're not a genuinely awesome human being. They're bad in large part because crafting a killer resume is hard for nearly everybody. We've worked with PhD's, MBA's, CEO's, PMP's, RN's, BS's, and just about every acronym in between. We've worked with Olympians, Full Bright Scholars, and for each of these people, when it comes to writing a resume, they get stuck. So why exactly are resumes so hard? Well first, many people don't understand the game that we talked about in module one and how important it is to factor that game into what you put down on paper. And second, because a lot of people cringe when it comes to writing about themselves in a way that truly showcases their talents and their strengths to a hiring manager or a recruiter. You know, in Western culture, we're raised not to boast or brag too much. We're encouraged to be humble unless of course you're a Kardashian, they were never, ever encouraged to be humble. So I'm going to tell you straight up, there's not a lot of room for humble when it comes to crafting a ridiculously awesome resume. You've got to shout it out from the rooftops in a way that's not obnoxious, mind you, that you're a performer, that you're a catch, that you're exactly what they want and need and oh by the way, they're going to love you. We're going to help you pull this off, and we're going to do it in a way that makes it entirely doable for you to pull it off in a weekend. So let's first cover a few key fundamentals of a ridiculously awesome resume. Fundamental number one. It's a marketing document, not your autobiography. When you sit down to make this new resume, swear to me that you're not going to hammer out a list of everything you've done since your first high school job, bagging french fries. You've got to approach this project with a top of mind that you're making a marketing document and that your intent here is to capture a certain audience's attention and then entice these decision makers in so that they will invite you in for an interview. It's an important difference. Most resumes that I've seen lean heavily into that list everything I've done camp than into that compelling marketing document category. They're much more like I did this, I oversaw that, I'm responsible for this, I manage that. (snores) Spelling out the stuff that you are or were in charge of in each job is certainly important, but if you fail to go on and tell that audience I did this, comma, and here's why that will be important or interesting or impressive to you, then you're missing out on a major opportunity here to sell yourself. You know, you're also making it harder for your audience to connect those dots between here's what we need and here's what Jessica Johnson could walk through our doors and deliver. Don't assume that someone is going to know that I managed a team of 10 through a corporate acquisition actually means that you were the glue that single handedly held together this group of incredibly stressed out people and kept them all marching through the fire through some crazy, complex, hostile takeover. Do you see the difference there? So you want to think like a marketer through this entire resume development process. What will this audience care about and how can you present your key assets in a way that compels them to make a purchase decision which in this case is a decision to bring you in for an interview. Alright, fundamental number two. It's about them, not about you. So at the beginning of this game, the hiring manager doesn't care what you want out of this deal. I know that might sound harsh, but it's the truth. When businesses hire new employees, they're doing so because they need someone to come in and help them. They need someone to help them make money or fix something that's broken or grow into new markets, build things for them, or just generally make their lives easier. They aren't hiring you because they want to fulfill your dreams or help you buy a nicer house or a car or a vacation in Cabo. They're hiring you with the intention that you're going to satisfy a specific business need. Before you get agitated, hear me out. They will care. They'll care a lot once they meet you, love you, bring you on board and realize that they need to make sure they don't ever lose you. But at that point of introduction, it's really all about them. So keep this in mind as you get started on your new resume. You want to showcase loud and clear how you can meet their specific needs. You want to hammer it home that you're the solution to the very things that they need solved. Leave off all that extra fluff that tells them what you want for now, including the dreaded objective statement. Fundamental number three. Your resume needs to be strategic, but not blatantly inaccurate. Almost no one gets through their entire career and then at the end of it all says to themselves well would you look at that, that was one perfect career I just had. I'm so glad I never made a bad move or got myself into a job I hated. Guys, that person is a unicorn. People with flawless career paths are almost non-existent. Most of us has flips and bloops along the way in our professional lives. Jobs that we wish we didn't take, gaps that we're not sure how to deal with, maybe degree that you didn't quite finish. This isn't just a you thing. It's an a lot of us thing. Plenty of us have smaller, even enormous issues that need to be considered and strategized on as we develop our new resumes. And in most cases, it's all completely doable. So please, don't sweat it right now. We will get you there. However, it's important that I emphasize something that might be totally obvious to you but I've seen it enough times that I got to say it anyway. Strategizing around a career mulligan or a gap isn't the same thing as flat out lying about what the real situation is. No matter your circumstance, you can't fabricate stuff on this new resume. If you do, you may lose out on a job that was almost yours or you might even get fired if it's discovered after the fact. And I've seen this happen more than a time or two. It's never, ever anything other than disastrous. So strategize, yes. Lie, mm hmm. No way. Fundamental number four. You can be professional without being stuffy. Somewhere along the line, life trains us that we have to write resumes in this entirely terse, dull, and overdone tone that in a lot of instances, says very little about our true talents or as I like to call it, about our so what. You may a very detail-oriented person who thinks outside of the box and has a proven track record of success, you might be, but turns out that's the exact same thing the last 10 resumes I just looked at said. So when you write like that my eyes just start glazing over. I might even dose off. So it's okay to find different compelling yet completely on point ways to spell out the stuff that you're best known for, most proud of, and can walk through the doors of your future employer and deliver. In fact, it's more than okay because that's the stuff that's going to catch their attention in a sea of blabbery, say nothing resumes. Also, you can really lose the big pretentious words and phrases in most instances. I'm not suggesting you construct this thing in Pig Latin here but if you've done this right, your resume is going to be reviewed by a human, and most humans are conversational by nature. We all get up in the morning with bedhead and bad breath just like you do, just like I do. Alright, I totally don't have bad breath. But the point is, my bottom line is it's okay to talk to people like a real person on your resume. Speaking of which, you don't every want to write about yourself in the third person. George is a true performer specializing in transforming vision into action. Susan leads groundbreaking teams to success. Okay, when you write a resume, your name and contact information is right at the top of that page. Given this, it is assumed that you are, in fact, the author of it, so it's really just weird and unnatural to talk about yourself in the third person on a resume. For heavens sakes, resist the urge. And finally, fundamental number five. Make the words earn their spot. Your challenge with this new resume is this. Say enough to get your resume through the ATS, and compel the human decision maker. Don't say so much that it becomes hard to get right to the meat of this thing. The magic of a ridiculously awesome resume is that it says what it needs to without being too brief and without being too wordy. When you err on the side of brevity in a resume because say you're trying to keep this sucker to a page yet you've got more than a page worth of experience, when you do that, the decision maker can't easily figure out what you're all about and why you make perfect sense for that role. If they can't figure this out, you're going right to the no pile. Likewise, when you babble on or stuff this resume with way too much information, you make it really hard for that person to see quickly how and why you're a solid match. So your goal with this new resume is this: make the words earn their spot. For sure, say what you need to say, but make every word earn its spot. So that's the fundamentals. In module three, we're going to start talking about resume formats and layouts, and I'm going to help you pick out one that will work for your specific style, situation, needs, your level of experience, or the industry that you're working in or trying to break into. So we'll see you all over there.