Tips for crafting a resume that accurately reflects your abilities, experience, interests, and personality.
Right now, the job market is highly competitive and seems to benefit employers more than job seekers. The number of job seekers exceeds the amount of available jobs. In order to be successful in this market, it is essential to have a well-crafted resume that reflects the current reality of technical jobs. Employers are not just looking to fill positions. They are seeking to recruit "the entire individual" - someone who is compatible organizationally and culturally, and can successfully execute various job positions. The conclusion is clear: to become more competitive in today's job market, you must have a resume that demonstrates all of your qualifications and experiences.
The Resume Challenge is here!
Virtually nobody enjoys working on their resume. On the list of unpleasant things in life, it ranks somewhere close to filing taxes or having cavities filled. Doing it right is one of those undesirable activities that simply must be done. Nobody fills their own cavities, but many hire tax professionals to complete their returns. All too often, however, we find ourselves struggling alone to produce resumes. I suggest getting some help! You should try to get assistance from your peers, as well as from a resume expert, if possible. Even when you employ the expertise of a professional resume writer, you must take responsibility to ensure that your resume reflects your personality and humanity, enabling the "whole person" to be seen. Only with your participation and the participation of those who know you well can you create a resume that accurately portrays your skills, experience, interests, and personality. Reflecting on who you are and what you want to do is an essential part of participation that cannot be hired, contracted, or delegated.
Despite often having good intentions, professional resume writers can produce resumes that make interviews awkward, uneasy, and even defensive. If the necessary personal participation is not provided to create a resume, the hired writer will have to resort to using superlatives and exaggerations. It would be disheartening to be interviewed on the basis of a resume that contains inaccuracies and misrepresents who you are. What is your response to interview questions that arise from these statements? It is much preferable to have confidence in the terminology used to portray yourself, and be prepared to answer any queries related to your resume.
"Utilized system tools such as scandisk and defrag to optimize the performance of machines." How would you respond to interview questions about this statement? Would you feel comfortable glorifying such a simple task? Does the prospective employee's profile offer a clear picture, or is it blurred?
Be brief and to the point.
Be succinct.
Taking care of my glasses is not something I'm particularly good at. Due to my carelessness with where I leave them, they often become scratched quickly. As I try to make out details, I find myself gradually squinting more and more. If my squinting becomes too severe, I become aware of the issue and replace my glasses. I'm always taken aback by the clarity and sharpness of vision I get with every new pair of glasses. The difference between before and after is striking. If your resume doesn't accurately portray the real you and isn't clean and crisp, then prospective employers will have to "squint" at it like a person with "scratchy glasses".
By telling you Stephen's story, this article will illustrate resume clarity and demonstrate the "whole person". A friend and a talented IT professional, Stephen is. The narrative he provides serves to emphasize the significance of earnestness and lucidity in the creation of resumes. A sample of Stephen's resume is provided here for illustration and reference. The resume does not contain any superlatives. Stephen's accomplishments and abilities are clearly and concisely outlined without any embellishment.
Stephen's resume is powerful and effectively tells his story. Although it wasn't quick or easy, we managed to reach this resume. Along the journey, there were many bumps, bruises, starts, stops, and unexpected detours. As a resume writer, I learned and grew from my experience of working with Stephen, and I will share a bit of my story with you. In the form of issues, I will tell this story, detailing the issues encountered and the methods used to resolve them.
Topic: Personalization (#1)
Managers desire to recruit individuals, not marketing brochures. Your resume should provide them with a good understanding of your character and how you could be an asset to their team. When your resume and interview provide conflicting information, it creates a recipe for disaster. By not commenting or intervening when others describe you, you are doing yourself a disservice. Since you know yourself better than anyone else, it is ultimately your decision how you choose to be portrayed in your resume.
One of my common questions when gathering information for a resume, "What is it that makes you most proud?", is answered in the first sentence of Stephen's summary of qualifications statement. It's a game to see who will win for Stephen, as he loves to stretch software functionality almost to its breaking point. Despite his proficiency with numerous BI and data warehousing tools, Excel is still his favorite. I captured this sentence during our discussions about Excel: "Innovative technology professional who takes pride in building complex solutions with basic technology, getting the most from a company's technology investment."
Submitting it as part of my resume certification program, I thought this was a powerful statement that couldn't be a more perfect fit. I was somewhat taken aback by the revised version I got. Innovative technology professional with expertise in constructing intricate solutions and maximizing returns on technology investments. The reviewer changed the meaning of what I had written, attempting to improve it, but in doing so, reduced the value of the statement. The more general statement sounds good, but it does not capture the idea of achieving great results with basic technology. It takes a more careful read to find the meaning, which is less clear than one might expect. Of all things, the most important is that the sense of Stephen taking pride in his technical abilities is lost.
He finds it rewarding to aid in the learning of others, and Stephen has a great passion for learning. His natural patience combined with clear, descriptive explanations make him an excellent teacher. Stephen concludes his summary of qualifications with the statement, "I use my natural talent to make learning enjoyable for myself and others." We included a section in his resume titled "Business Intelligence (BI) Technical Training and Learning Laboratory Management" to further emphasize this message.
and Education
The second issue discussed is the relationship between technology and education.
Modest about his achievements, Stephen is a gentle soul. Upon perusing his resume, I noticed something missing and informed him of this. He asked, "What?" I replied, "Technology." The difficulty of accurately self-describing is highlighted by this simple exchange. Having worked with him in the past, I know that Stephen has exceptional technical expertise. He had not thought to include most of it on his resume, however. He only included technology where he had an extreme level of experience, without taking into account other options in his reasoning. Most technology was excluded due to his high level of acceptance.
I tasked Stephen with listing every technology he has used over the past eight years. Since it can be hard to remember details over a long period of time, it made sense to begin with a comprehensive approach and then refine the list depending on how and to what extent he utilized each technology. We collaborated to ascertain the optimal set of technologies to accurately portray Stephen's skills on his resume.
The way in which you arrange and present technologies on your resume is determined by your own self-perception. Putting technology on the first page makes sense for those who feel closely connected to it. In Stephen's case, his primary focus is not on specific technologies, but rather on pushing the limits of what the technology can do. He desires to view concrete results. Near the end of the resume, we organized his technologies into five categories. We oriented the first page towards the results rather than technology.
was closed
Project #3 was closed.
It was particularly challenging to decide which projects to include and how to accurately portray Stephen's roles in each of them. Given his experience of working on numerous projects over an eight-year period, it was not feasible to determine which ones to highlight solely through discussion. I asked Stephen to make a list comprising all the projects he has worked on, regardless of their size. We selected projects from that list based on how well they demonstrated "the whole person", taking into account Stephen's interests and skills. We then organized them into seven categories.
Issue number four: Value
We were ready to tackle the question "What's the connection to business value?" with an organized project list. Some people do not possess statistics like "delivered 20% cost reduction" or "increased new product sales by 35%". IT professionals often find value statements particularly challenging, as they tend to think in terms of supplying technical solutions rather than business value. When the project is completed, extending from technology projects to business value entails considering what will be improved, who will benefit, and what new capabilities will be available.
Stephen's resume effectively describes the qualitative value he created without any exaggerations, superlatives, or fictionalized quantifications.
We implemented systems to fulfill various business-to-consumer needs, such as web-initiated database transactions, contact management, and communications monitoring. By developing a rules engine to remove hard-coded rules from an existing difficult to maintain ETL process, software development reduced the time, cost and complexity of maintaining the ETL process. The lists of Stephen's projects and technologies now have multiple uses. His resume includes the refined lists, while the original lists serve as a quick review and reference prior to interviews. To ensure you have the facts at your disposal during an interview, it is advisable to refresh your memory beforehand.
Stephen's resume narrates a tale. He is fully characterized by his character, interests, and skills, making it a well-placed introduction. What narrative is presented by your resume? What implications does your past, present, and future have? Coming up with a good resume is not easy. It must be crafted over time, taking into account all the necessary perspectives. Combine all of the necessary components, such as a pinch of this and a dash of that, to give the individual's resume a unique and interesting flair. When crafting your resume, think about your unique qualities and how best to use technology, showcase your projects, and emphasize your value. Conjure an image of yourself as a complete individual that encapsulates your sense of self.
