by Samantha Nolan

For the next few weeks, as the job search season ramps up, I am going to introduce you to a candidate who likely struggled with some of the same issues you are finding troublesome in your job search. For this week, I’d like you to meet Julie…

Who is Julie?

Julie was a client of mine not too long ago who came to me in the hopes that I could take her diverse experience and recently completed education and position her for entry-level customer service jobs in a banking environment.

Why did Julie need help?

Julie needed assistance with her résumé as she was finding it difficult to identify the transferability of her past experiences to what she now wanted to do. On her original résumé, she had listed 4 positions since 1999 including tenure as a data entry clerk, revenue recovery specialist, warehouse associate, and preschool teacher. Now, with the objective of securing a job as a teller in a banking branch, she did not know how to “relate” her past to her current goals. Julie had also recently completed a bachelor’s degree and was pursuing her master’s degree, which was making it even more difficult for her to position herself as “qualified” and not under-qualified by experience and over-qualified by education.

What did I do for Julie?

First, and the key to all good résumés, was to have an in-depth discussion with Julie to review her background in much greater detail. Knowing that her dream job was in a banking environment, I knew I needed to uncover and promote Julie’s customer service, sales, relationship development, and administrative skills. Through our time together, we explored her background and I learned she had experience in two retail settings that she had not presented on her résumé. This information was vital in positioning her as “qualified” for her positions of choice.

On Julie’s new résumé, I used a functional format—rarely used and to be avoided unless you do not think you can get your foot in the door using a more traditional format—as I needed to minimize several aspects of Julie’s candidacy: (1) Julie was not entering the field with any previous banking experience; (2) Julie had changed positions several times in recent years and could possibly have been seen as a job-hopper; (3) Julie’s experience would not immediately be viewed as transferable into a banking environment, especially given her most recent roles were as a preschool teacher and a warehouse associate; and (4) I needed to focus the reader’s attention on her qualifications first, and her places of employment and titles, last.

As for the content of Julie’s new résumé, I leveraged her past retail experience to showcase her sales and customer service strengths, along with her ability to lead stores to achieve #1 ranking. Julie provided me with some great additional information during our consultation that I was able to use to promote the transferability of her experiences into a banking role. This content was used to fuel the Highlights of Experience section on her résumé where I also focused the hiring manager’s attention on the transferability of her experiences by introducing statements with functional keywords that related to her current goals.

As a recent graduate and current student, I positioned Julie’s education immediately following the qualifications summary. Doing this provides for heightened focus on her strongest qualifications and moves her work history section—presenting employers, titles, and dates of tenure—to the very end of page one.

Julie’s new résumé positions her as a very competitive candidate to join a bank in a retail-focused role and, just as important, promotes her “value” as a candidate. Julie’s original résumé did little to differentiate her candidacy and instead expected a potential employer to “figure out” her value by assuming a lot about her experiences. Now, with Julie’s new résumé, the 7-second screening process will be spent learning about how Julie is qualified for the job and not on her potential disqualifiers.

What did Julie think?

Julie was thrilled with her new résumé and wrote to me a day later stating, “What else can I say other than WOW! I would never even have thought of writing my résumé the way you did. I am very impressed and I am really looking forward to sending this version of résumé out there to potential employers in the hopes of landing my career job. Thank you so much for your help and expertise, it meant a great deal to me.”

If you would like to see specific case studies highlighted for this series, with candidates tackling issues you are facing, feel free to email suggestions to dearsam@ladybug-design.com

Do you have a résumé or job search question for Dear Sam? Write to dearsam@ladybug-design.com.

To view archived versions of the ‘Dear Sam’ column (January 2006-April 2009), please visit www.ladybug-design.com/dearsam/

by Samantha Nolan

Candidate’s Overview

As is the case with many of my clients with 30+ years of experience, Frank came to me with an existing résumé he had contained to one page given he was still under the impression that a résumé had to be one page. In fact Frank was so brief in his descriptions of his positions, he had used just 45 words to describe his most recent nine-year role, a mere 25 words to describe his previous position of 21 years, and another 19 words presenting what he did in the military during the infancy of his career. The remainder of Frank’s one page résumé was filled with a lengthy education section spanning at least one-third of the page, especially long given that it was only presenting two certificates and no degrees. A one-sentence objective statement and six-line volunteer section rounded out his one-page résumé.

The Problems

The problems with Frank’s résumé were that it (1) was an inappropriate length when presenting 30+ years of experience, (2) unnecessarily aged his candidacy by presenting very dated information upfront on page one, (3) did not present his experiences in a value-based manner and instead focused on the basic duties he performed, (4) lacked focus by not defining a career target, and (5) was unexciting through a combination of poor word choices and formatting.

The Solutions

The first step in transforming Frank’s résumé into a value-added tool was to gather as much information as I could about his career. Through a lengthy consultation I discussed Frank’s positions, the challenges he faced, the results he achieved, and the value he contributed. I also discussed where he wanted to go at this stage in his career so I would know how to relate his past experiences to his current objectives. To overcome the five key problem areas I implemented the following solutions:

(1) Résumé length: I transitioned Frank’s résumé to an appropriate two pages in length. His most recent position, formerly described in 45 words, was now presented in 295 words with concrete examples of how he added value to the organization.

(2) Unnecessarily aging candidacy: By presenting a fairly robust description of Frank’s most recent role, combined with a fully developed qualifications summary, Frank’s earlier position spanning 1979-2000 fell to page two. This strategic move reduced the chance of his candidacy being screened out, and focuses the hiring manager’s attention on what Frank has done most recently to add value to his candidacy.

(3) Transitioning to value-based content: Much of the new content on Frank’s résumé focused on accomplishments. By presenting his achievements, in addition to overviews of his daily responsibilities, the hiring manager will receive a much fuller, more valuable picture of how Frank can add value to his/her organization.

(4) Targeting résumé: Before putting pen to paper, I had to understand where Frank was headed in order to translate past experiences to future goals. Using this information to steer content development throughout his résumé, I also used it to create a refined qualifications summary that was successful in positioning him exactly how he wanted to be seen.

(5) Engaging the reader: Reinventing Frank on paper was not only performed by way of content changes, but also by creating a format that better drew in and engaged the reader. Still selecting a conservative design, appropriate based on the target audience, I created a clean and uncluttered look with clear hierarchy to each piece of information, providing the reader with an easy-to-scan résumé with key aspects of Frank’s experiences formatted to attract extra attention.

The Morale of the Story

I encourage any candidate with an extensive background presented in an under-valuing one-page résumé, to think about some of the strategies I used on Frank’s résumé. How can you implement these same approaches to create a dynamic, engaging, and interview-winning résumé? Frank wrote, “After reading your column for several years I knew the end product would be great, but this résumé far exceeded my expectations.” Take one or more of these approaches and run with it, I guarantee it will improve the effectiveness of your résumé and your job search.

Click to view Frank’s one-page résumé, before the makeover!

Click to view the first page of Frank’s new two-page, value-based résumé.

Do you have a résumé or job search question for Dear Sam? Write to dearsam@ladybug-design.com.
To view archived versions of the ‘Dear Sam’ column (January 2006-April 2009), please visitwww.ladybug-design.com/dearsam/

by Samantha Nolan

Dear Sam: In this time of deep unemployment and many folks like myself out of a job for 12 months now, how is it even possible to think we can afford to find hundreds of dollars to cover a résumé service? Those of us who have been unemployed for some time do not have money for next month’s rent, let alone money for a résumé. Has America lost its core values to help their own, especially for those who have been unemployed for a year or more? I have attached my résumé for an honest look and a little help. – Sal

Dear Sal: Thank you for your letter. I feel your frustration and I am so sorry you have been unable to find work. I’m happy to help you, and will address your concerns.

First, there are many résumé writing services—all with different price points—so if you feel that using a résumé service is the right solution for you, you should explore your options and see if the investment is worth the potential return. I do understand, though, that with limited resources, enlisting the help of a professional would be seen as something you need but something you cannot afford. Allow me to offer an alternate solution…

Many résumé writers like I volunteer their time to local organizations, facilitating both train-the-trainer type workshops and seminars for those looking for work. For example, just in the past few weeks, I have given several presentations and facilitated comprehensive résumé development workshops for 200+ job seekers, and I know many of my colleagues in the industry do the same thing. In addition, I have been invited to several Job and Family Services One Stop Centers to train their résumé counselors, and I have done that same thing with local nonprofits that focus their efforts on helping mature (over 50) candidates. I know of several writers who attend job fairs, just like I do, and spend entire days facilitating free workshops and meeting with clients to assess their résumés. I encourage you to look around for events, seek assistance from job search networking groups, and reach out to your local Job and Family Services office to see what assistance is out there that is completely free of charge.

As for the real reason for your email —to receive an honest critique of your résumé—at first glance, I think the mechanics of your résumé are sound. You have followed protocol in the qualifications summary and I think the content is actually quite good. I have, however, identified four key reasons behind perhaps a lack of success in the job market:

1.   You need to remove focus on your most recent custodian role of 2 years as it does not support your objective of gaining entry back into district/regional sales management.

2.   You need to pull out accomplishments and not blend them—albeit you have tried to attract attention to them by bolding them—with responsibility statements, as they are difficult to read.

3.   You are dating yourself by including experience from 1976.

4.   You have no college degree, which I imagine is a preferred requirement for the management positions you are seeking.

So how do we fix these issues? Well, the good news is there is a “fix” for almost everything on a résumé. Let’s review what you can do to improve the effectiveness of your résumé by minimizing the impact of these four potential disqualifiers:

1.   To remove focus from your most recent and unrelated tenure as a school custodian, deploy the use of a combination format. In this format, you would include a Career Highlights section, which would allow you to pull from your strong related experiences and achievements. Organize this section —which will appear after the Qualifications Summary and before the Professional Experience section —by employer or key action area (turnaround management, talent acquisition, business development, etc.). If you choose to organize this section with functional subheadings as suggested, I would make sure you list the employer at the end of each statement so the reader doesn’t have to wonder when and with which employer that particular achievement occurred. The goal of using this strategy and format would be to push the custodian experience to page two so it plays a lesser role during the screening process.

2.   Differentiate your responsibilities from accomplishments by using a paragraph/bullet combination. Highlight additional accomplishments (you’ll have remaining accomplishments that were either not the strongest or somewhat redundant, therefore were not placed in the Career Highlights section) in the Professional Experience section, but do so with bullet points. Bullet points are easier to read and subconsciously our eyes go to the bullet points when we read a résumé. Still communicate your overall scope of responsibility in a paragraph style, but augment this with the bulleted achievements for each role.

3.   Figure out a way to “break” your experience from your first employer, which spans 1976 to 1996. You can do this in a number of ways.

(1) You could present the following statement: “Additional foundational experience with ABC Employer, serving in DM, (list other titles here) roles. By using this byline strategy, you can use all of the great accomplishments from this timeframe in your Career Highlights section, but avoid aging your candidacy by going back 34 years.

(2) You could include the entire Early Experience section, but without dates, by simply breaking formatting and adding a subheading entitled “Additional Experience.” Underneath the subheading, present the experience in all its glory, never mentioning dates. This strategy is accepted as you have added a subheading and therefore are allowed to be inconsistent with your inclusion of dates.

(3) Include only some of your experience with your first employer of 20 years with dates following titles and not the employer. By doing this, you could explore your DM role and possibly one other position with the company. As I don’t imagine you joined the company as a DM, you could trim several years of experience off of your résumé by only including the most recent one or two roles you held during your 20-year tenure. If you do this, be sure you are presenting dates of employment after titles and not employers throughout your résumé.

4.   I don’t know how much not having a degree is hurting you, but if you didn’t attend college, or didn’t complete very much, then there is really nothing we can do other than make sure you are presenting all of the professional development you have in your field of interest. If you did attend some college (2+ years) and you find the degree is a “preferred” and not a “required” qualification, then feel free to include that you pursued a degree and completed 2+ years.

I hope this candid critique helps you identify the potential challenges in your résumé despite a fairly solid-looking document. I am certain if you work on these items, a stronger and more helpful rather than harmful résumé will emerge. I truly wish you the best of luck. Perhaps I’ll see you at an upcoming job fair or event.

Do you have a résumé or job search question for Dear Sam? Write to dearsam@ladybug-design.com.

To view archived versions of the ‘Dear Sam’ column (January 2006-April 2009), please visit www.ladybug-design.com/dearsam/

by Samantha Nolan

Background:

Mitchell came to me with the goal of preparing his résumé for an advancement opportunity. While he had felt confident about his résumé, he had recently reviewed a résumé I wrote for a peer of his and had started second guessing the strength of his candidacy on paper.

Original Résumé:

Mitchell’s original résumé was three pages in length and included 14 years of work experience. Mitchell opened his résumé with a large heading section, continued with an objective statement and his education, followed with a qualifications and achievement section, and ended with a two-and-a-half page professional experience summary. In this summary, he had represented all of his responsibilities in bullet points, creating a lengthy résumé with little prioritization in its 57 bullet points.

What was wrong?:

Mitchell’s original résumé was not going to position him for the senior leadership roles he was seeking. Instead, through poor formatting, inclusion of unnecessary sections, and lack of content prioritization, it would not get the time of day in front of the recruiters who were pursuing him as it looked more like an entry- or mid-level management résumé. For instance, Mitchell’s heading, objective statement, and education section would likely be the only items seen during the 4-to 7-second screening process, and within those sections there was really nothing to differentiate his candidacy from that of a competitor. In his professional experience section, it was clear he had copied from job descriptions, something that would immediately disengage the reader. The qualifications and achievement section was lacking in content for someone with 14 years of experience, not to mention that this section was not the strongest representation of what Mitchell had to offer. Lastly, and perhaps the only thing that was right with Mitchell’s résumé, was the length. With 14 years of experience and a strategy to position him for the next level of leadership, I was comfortable with a three-page résumé.

How to fix it!:

First, Mitchell really needed a résumé that “popped!” The format and content were going to be vitally important in attracting and keeping the attention of readers given their limited time and the competitive nature of the field Mitchell was in. I therefore designed a format that would serve as a great backdrop to tell the impressive story of his career.

Opening Mitchell’s résumé with a robust qualifications summary was critical in positioning him for how he wanted to be seen. Mitchell’s summary reflected some of what others had said about him—from performance review excerpts—in addition to key accomplishments and core skills. When contrasted with the objective statement on his original document, Mitchell’s “after” résumé became immediately more effective than his “before” version.

Flowing through his résumé next to his professional experience section, I took some time to better explore Mitchell’s responsibilities and accomplishments, placing them in a bullet point/paragraph style to better highlight where he had contributed value. This format allowed for better prioritization of experiences and would draw the reader’s attention to the most important details on the résumé.

Mitchell’s new résumé ended with his education section and industry training. Mitchell had placed his education on page one as he was a recent graduate, but as his education did not differentiate his candidacy and was not his key selling point, a more appropriate placement would be at the end of his résumé.

Mitchell’s results:

Mitchell was thrilled with his new résumé, calling, once he received it, to convey his thoughts and appreciation. He later emailed to tell me, “I have received nothing but positive remarks in regard to my résumé and I have even had employers screen me for higher-level positions.” I am confident Mitchell’s career will continue to progress with the benefit of his new résumé representing him as he wanted to be seen.

Do you have a résumé or job search question for Dear Sam? Write to dearsam@ladybug-design.com.

To view archived versions of the ‘Dear Sam’ column (January 2006-April 2009), please visit www.ladybug-design.com/dearsam/