In general, your resume had two initial people that it needs to “speak” to – a recruiter, and a hiring manager. Contrary to a lot of the scuttlebutt out on the interwebz, it is a person evaluating your resume, not an algorithm, not AI or any other electronic program. A person is comparing your qualifications – work history, industry tools/processes, and education/training against the qualifications the hiring manager has determined are needed to fill a role open on their team.
Think of your resume as the MSRP sticker on a new car with you being the car. The hiring manager has determined what type of vehicle they need; compact, SUV, truck, etc. They know what features they must have, and then some nice to haves. Electric/hybrid/gas; cloth vs. leather interior; safety rating; speed; manual vs. automatic. Once they define the basics, they go shopping. Nice to haves may include satellite stereo, self-parking, removable seats, sun/moon roof or convertible. They are going to compare each of those “extras” against their budget and narrow down their choices.
A job description is a problem a hiring manager needs solved. Your resume is the response that you believe you can solve that problem. So how do you create a resume that specifically showcases your abilities to solve that problem?
Your employment history is the most basic information you need to concentrate on. This is where you showcase similar problems you have encountered in the past and how you solved them. Each entry in this area should clearly indicate a few basics.
Your actual employer (or client/s for contract/freelance work.): This should be the company name/s, where the role is located (and if remote you should indicate where they are headquartered/registered). If the employer is NOT either a global brand (ie Disney, Amazon, the FBI etc.) or self-explanatory (ie “Law Offices of John Q. Public”, “Tuscon Power”, or “Bangor Audiology Clinic”) you should include a short overview of the employer’s niche.
Example: “Givebutter- Thousands of nonprofits trust Givebutter to streamline their fundraising, donor engagement, and CRM in one smooth, powerful platform.” You can find the information in the “about” section on their website, their company page on LinkedIn, check Wikipedia or even just Google them. If it is a very large employer (ie Disney), indicate what business unit/org you were with.
Your title: this should be industry standard. Some employers have internal titles that make no sense externally.
For example a friend of mine’s internal title is “HR Specialist 3”; in reality they are a Sr. Talent Acquisition Partner. You can solve this dilemma with parentheses: “Sr. Talent Acquisition Partner (HR Specialist 3). Or you can just use the industry standard title – but remember to include the internal title when you are filling out applications, as that is generally what employment verification services use.
Now comes the part most people have questions about: how to describe and quantify your role. I recommend a general format similar to the STAR method:
Completed X (problem you were hired to solve) with Y (industry tools/methodology) resulting in Z (how your efforts positively impacted the project/role.)
Here are a few examples of what this put together looks like!
Example: Director of Infrastructure. Led a team of 15 Node.js developers during a 5-month web portal overhaul with over 250K customers and 350 retail products. Decreased transaction times by 28% and lowered customer service complaints by 67%.
Some people think they aren’t able to quantify their roles based on type. But I’ve got you covered. You may need to use your employer’s stats and show how you contributed to their success.
Example: High school English teacher, including AP courses using Growth and Cultural Heritage models. Average class size is annually between 28-32 students in the third largest school district in the state. Our school has a 97% graduation rate, with 89% of graduates going to college. AP students have a 96% college acceptance rate.
Example: Sole short order cook on the lunch/day shift one of a local chain of 23 casual dining restaurants. Our location consistently was one of the top two revenue-generating stores with 17%-26% profit margins YoY. During the lunch shift, I filled 85-120 individual orders over a 2-hr time frame.
If you are a consultant or freelancer, you may not have access to the final results in terms metrics. In this case, use the scope of the project:
Freelance Marketing Manager for a 3-month contract to rebrand rival cycling stores that merged in the greater Ypsilanti region. Developed new logo and sales collateral; created and executed a social media campaign on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok with average views of 56K viewers in the first two weeks. Managed grand re-opening event onsite resulting in 354 orders of new bicycles over a 7-day period.
Tracking your metrics does take some time. A good place to start is your annual reviews with your manager. If you are not sure, you can look on LinkedIn at former colleagues in the same role to see what they have used. Or take a cross section of several different job descriptions in your discipline/field and look at what they generally share in terms of output. If you are relatively close to those numbers, you can estimate it.
The more information you can give your resume writer, the better your end product will be, and the more employers you will appeal to.
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