What does your resume say about you?

If you still view your resume as a summary of your background, a list of jobs you’ve held, duties you’ve been responsible for, or even a bullet point list of skills – it may be time to rethink how you view it.

Your resume is your sales sheet, it’s your marketing collateral – and the product is you! Unless you’re in sales, you most likely have little experience creating marketing materials and may not know the sales strategies around selling a product. But that’s exactly what you need to know.

Think about all the ads you get in the mail, online in your Facebook feed, on TV, YouTube – they’re everywhere. Hiring managers experience the same thing with resumes. Lots of noise – some coming directly into their email box, some through job ads, some from recruiters, some from referrals like bankers, CPAs, and others. We’ll discuss what mediums may give you higher success rates later, but for now, you need to understand that breaking through the noise is essential. 

If you think the resume you used last year is going to remain effective with the rapidly changing economy, you’re going to miss the train. Last year’s resumes just aren’t up to the task. As Richard Bolles says in his book, What color is your parachute, “Yesterday’s resumes are like a dull knife trying to cut food. Need sharpening. Badly.”

The keyword to remember while crafting your new age resume is thoughtfulness. When one of our Career Advisors crafts a resume for someone, it takes hours of thought before even putting the pen to the paper. You need to think about what's on the mind of employers right now - the biggest one being risk. You also need to think about what your resume says when someone reads it between the lines.

We all have imaginations, you’re no exception. Anyone reading your resume is going to project all kinds of things onto it. Are you a team player, are you going to fit into this environment, are you adaptable, do you have integrity, can you handle stress? And yes, whoever is reading your resume is going to make all these assumptions before even speaking with you. We can't help it, it's just human nature.

When you look at your resume ask yourself these questions:

Would I buy this product? (The product is you) Why?

If someone sent this as a postcard in the mail to me, would I feel compelled to respond?

Do I show value beyond a mere list of duties that I can perform?

What does my resume say to recruiters and hiring managers when they read between the lines? Does it say I’m tall, short, old, young? (Yes those things shouldn’t be relevant and some even illegal, but you have to assume that people are people and they will imagine.)

For more information or help writing a resume that will land you job interviews, schedule some time with a Career Advisor!