As the economy continues to decline and the resultant race to cut costs through layoffs seems to be accelerating, I find myself to be among the lucky. I started my new job a week before the meltdown began in earnest and have since (hopefully) solidified my place as a cost-worthy resource, albeit by giving up on any hope of decreased stress and responsibility I might have previously had. In any case, the free flow of other employees out the door has had me thinking about how I might present myself to potential employers in this particularly tough time should the need arise.
Having performed in various managerial roles in Information Technology, a field notable for job-hopping and high turnover, for just over a decade, I’ve seen my fair share of resumes. It’s a field for which postings seem to attract an unusually wide variety of resumes as far as style, quality, and applicability of experience are concerned. My department recently lost a uniquely-skilled person from a key position, thus here I sit again looking at a flood of resumes. Given the state of the market, I thought it might be a good time to share some thoughts about putting together a resume highlighting your skills without potentially shooting yourself in the foot. While my observations have a slant towards the IT industry, it’s my hope that many of them can be useful to anyone looking to get their foot in a door.
Preferences for resume formats differ from hiring manager to hiring manager and of course, in some companies, applicants get screened by Human Resources as well. Thus, when possible, it’s always worthwhile to find out whatever you can about the size of a given company and its hiring process beforehand. This allows you to tailor your resume in a way that helps to ensure it will have the maximum chance of reaching the right set of eyes. Once you’ve achieved that, hopefully some of what you read below will help you retain that person’s attention long enough to get serious consideration and perhaps an interview. So, in no particular order…
Proofread
It sounds obvious and I’m sure that almost everyone actually does so… at some point. As best I can tell, the problem is that resumes are fluid and go through changes daily if not even more frequently. The re-arranging of text, cutting and pasting, and other tweaking that happens as resumes are customized for specific opportunities leaves a lot of room for error. Though these mistakes are often simple to recognize, if I’m reading in a hurry, or just having an off day, they are easy to judge as poor grammar, or worse yet, a poor understanding of the job being applied for.
Good real life example: “I have experience in one of the following areas:”
Be concise
I’ve heard arguments on this one, but as someone who has on multiple occasions sat down to a stack of fifty resumes delivered all at once, I’m a big fan of the one page resume. Remember, your resume is not intended to get you hired. Its purpose is to get you an interview. There’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to get across everything needed to do that on a single page. If you really have so much to say that you think it just can’t be squeezed onto a single page, go ahead and let yourself have two. But recognize that you are making your information harder to digest for the person on whom you want to make a quick, good impression.
Toot your horn
No one wants to hear an inflated ego, but chances are that you’ve accomplished tangible things at a previous job that are noteworthy. List these highlights in your employment history just below the summary of responsibilities for each job. Just make sure that the things you choose have meaning and show value in the context of the position at hand.
Example: “Implemented a network-based fax solution, resulting in significant savings through reduction of printing and the elimination of redundant equipment and telephone lines.”
Don’t exaggerate
Yes, do list every significant skill you can bring to the table, but don’t list every process, product, or technology you’ve had momentary contact with. Though the latter might get you through HR screening, you still have to gain the interest of a hiring manager. This person, who is actually familiar with the position, will see through through this instantly as it’s tough to convincingly integrate a skill you know nothing about into your summary of responsibilities or your accomplishment highlights.
Stick with relevant history
This goes hand in hand with being concise and goes a long way towards achieving the one page resume. Essentially, try to stick with your last three positions as work experience. If your tenure is especially short at two of these, go ahead and add another. The point is, if you haven’t done something for ten years, it’s probably no longer relevant anyway. Similarly, a professional with a measurable work history needn’t list his or her high school job at McDonald’s.
Make a recent history
If you don’t have a contiguous work history leading up to the present, make one. Don’t lie, but chances are that if you’re in this situation you have in fact done something, even if it’s a job for which you are under-qualified or it isn’t a formal job at all. Anything that you’ve done to stay busy and better yourself goes here. School, internships, volunteer work, etc. Also, don’t forget that, in the IT field, repairing a few PCs, removing
spyware, or installing hardware for a small fee, even if not done regularly, can be thought of as freelance work. Gaps on resumes always cause a little suspicion, gaps leading into the present especially so.
Keep it simple
Let’s face it, for most positions, the paper resume is dead. There’s something special about holding a piece of quality heavy-weight textured paper in your hand, but the positions for which this is still expected are few and far in between. Besides, if you choose to go this route, you may even run the risk of missing out on the opportunity altogether because of the additional time it takes your resume to be routed and land on the appropriate desk. That said, don’t try to carry that fanciness over into the digital world. It just doesn’t translate well. For electronic resumes, stick with minimal formatting, no colors, backgrounds, or embedded graphics. A clean look that’s easy to follow works best. Most importantly, be sure that the person getting your electronic resume can open the file. For instance, not everyone is guaranteed to have Microsoft Office and those who do may have a different version than you. At the very least, save your file in the lowest common denominator format. For instance, if you use Office 2007, be sure to save in the 97/2000/2003 format. Better yet, if your resume formatting is simple enough, RTF is a good cross-platform option that anyone should be able to read.
This is far from a complete list but it summarizes just a few of the thoughts that have occurred to me over the last couple of days. Hopefully they provide something of a jumping off point for anyone just getting ready to put his or her name out there. In the next few days, I may add some additional thoughts more targeted for the IT industry. In the mean time, for those of you already looking, good luck. And to everyone else, it’s a good time to have your resume pre-polished and ready to send at a moment’s notice. It’s tough to deny these are uncertain times.