Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Editing a resume

A couple quick thoughts on resume editing:

Don't include your salary history.
It's nobody else's business what you made. Even if you were government-employed, and your pay is a matter of public record, make people ask you for that information. Think of it this way - if you don't include it, and they ask, and they already know the answer (maybe they had that same job at that same pay grade, for example), and you tell them what they already know, then you've proven once again how honest and upstanding you are!

Don't include your references.
This is putting the cart before the horse, and exposes your friends and contact list to potentially needless phone calls, *especially* if you put your resume on a publically searchable website.

Employers care about the five W's , yes, but only after they've either skimmed your information or had it electronically scored, or both. I do suggest you address these things in your resume, sure, but do it as story telling, not as facts and figures.

  • who
  • when
  • why
  • where
  • how much

So, what's the point? Why do any of this at all? Why not just keyword up a version? Well, yes, and I recommend a keyword heavy version from a text-only resume point of view where you know your information is going to get scanned by searches (e.g. Monster, etc.).

But in general, think about it from a hiring manager's point of view. He wants to know within seconds whether or not you can

  • stop his pain
  • stop his groups pain
  • solve a problem
  • save the business money above what it costs him to hire you

If you're going to craft a traditional resume, in any of its forms, then consider how you can tell a 2-3 sentence story for each position you've held, that answers one of these things.

That said, the most important resume I have is my satisfied customers and my testimonials on my LinkedIn profile.

The social network portion of your job hunt can't be overlooked - you know you're getting Googled before the interview, so make that work for you !