In my
business, I naturally see a lot of resumes, written by amateurs
and other professionals. Lately I've seen a rash of resumes
that seem to have lost their minds. Is your resume "headless?"
If your resume reads something like this, you may be missing
a critical section.
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JOHN
T. FRUGALBERRY
(with that dreaded middle initial, no less)
1122 Boogie Woogie Avenue,
Middletown, CA 94000
frugal@zippynet.net
(714) 111-1112
WORK
HISTORY
XYZ
Company, Middletown, CA
1997-Present
Lead Project Engineer
This
is what I do. Sometimes I also get asked to do that
and the other thing. One time, I got an award for
doing this and that with a high degree of accuracy.
ABC
Company,
San Jose, CA
1990-1997
Engineer
When
I worked here, I did a little of this and a little
of that. I got promoted a few times, and then I
got recruited away.
EDUCATION
B.S.,
Widget Engineering, Summa Cum Laude, 1990
Ivy League University, San Francisco, CA
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If the
example above looks like your resume, you should know that
you've missed out on an excellent opportunity to sell yourself.
Why? The recruiter reading this resume must go through the
entire document to form a mental picture of you. You know,
who you are, what you want to do with your career, whether
or not you'll be worth interviewing. Will she/he form an
accurate picture?
Creating
an opening paragraph or bullet list with the heading "Profile"
or "Summary of Qualifications" is an excellent
opportunity to present your reader with a thumbnail sketch
of who you are, what you're doing with your career, and
what your most marketable attributes are.
For
those of you who consider this type of information "fluff"
or "b.s.," I respectfully beg to differ. Surely,
if that's the kind of information you've seen in summary
statements, then they were misused, like the much maligned
objective statement that says "a challenging career-oriented
position using my education and experience, blah, blah,
blah."
The
Profile or Highlights Section is the place where you can
sum up all the great information on the resume, add relevant
information that just doesn't have any other place to go
on the resume, and create an impression of you as a living,
breathing, unique individual. It doesn't have to be fluff
or flowery, meaningless information. If it's done properly,
it can add "sizzle" to the steak when being read
by a human being, and it contains relevant key words that
will boost the number of hits your resume gets in a database
search. Most or all of what is stated up front is backed
up by the remainder of the resume. For those of you resume
buffs out there, no, this isn't a functional resume per
se. Observe:
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JANET
PROMOTABLE
PROFILE
Telecommunications
Project Manager with 10+ years of rapid advancement
with Fortune 100 companies.
Consultative
and clear communication style, resulting in the development
of innovative business solutions that exceed client
expectations. Articulate and persuasive presentation
skills.
Outstanding
knowledge of voice, data, and networking products;
demonstrated ability to coordinate contributions from
multi-disciplinary team members. Dedicated to maintaining
cutting-edge technical skills.
Consistently
recognized by managers, clients, vendors, and colleagues
for ability to orchestrate all details of critical
projects with a high degree of service, within tight
deadlines and budgets.
|
Then,
of course, the rest of Janet's resume covers the detail-rich,
quantifiable accomplishments in each position that back
up these statements. By introducing her in this way, however,
we don't have to count on the recruiter's ability to sum
her up accurately.
So if
your resume is not getting you the attention you deserve
sans profile, perhaps now would be the time to sum yourself
up.
