by Samantha Nolan

Dear Sam: I’m trying to make my résumé look a little different than the standard templates, but I’m scared it won’t be well received. How do I know if what I want to do will support, and not hurt, my chances of getting an interview? – Linda

Dear Linda: Can you imagine how bored hiring managers must get when so many résumés virtually look identical? Infusing your résumé with personality can go a long way to differentiating it. In order to know whether the unique look of your résumé will be well received, think about whether it is appropriate for the type of job you want and your target audience. You’ll see from the example I presented this week on my blog, this client’s goal was interior design. As this profession requires creativity, a creative and trend-right look was critical. Look at the “before” résumé, does it do anything to showcase her creativity? Instead, her original résumé is void of any creativity and is simply a list of duties. Now, look at the “after” version. Her new résumé makes her look creative before anyone reads the first word.

Creating the right “look” for a résumé is vital to its success. I am a firm believer that the most successful résumés are great to read and great to look at. Think about it, if your résumé looks like the “before” version, it doesn’t attract the reader, so even if your content is superb, who will read it? The “after” version is stronger in content and design, better engaging the recipient. In addition, instead of opening with an objective statement, her new résumé opens with a summary—presented in what is a creative version of a cover letter—positioning her for interior design roles. Overall, the design of the package is visually friendly, appropriate based on her background, and fitting to the target audience. If you make your design decisions based on these criteria, your résumé will be sure to be more effective and yield additional time in front of the hiring manager.

View before and after résumé – page 1 |  page 2

by Samantha Nolan

Meet Steven!

Steven met me at an event I facilitated, an event he attended in order to learn how to craft an effective résumé. After listening to my presentation and further reflecting on how he was going to present his experience on paper, he decided to contact me for help.

Steven had a varied background, mostly in the fitness industry. He had served as a program coordinator with a local branch of the YMCA in addition to running his own gym and personal training business for 8+ years. Steven had recently returned to school to complete his undergraduate degree—a degree he had started many years earlier—when, all of a sudden, his life had taken an unplanned turn.

As an 18-year-old freshman college football player Steven was living his dream when, in a split second, his life changed forever. A fitness enthusiast, when Steven experienced heart-pounding pain during a practice session, he knew something was terribly wrong. Two days later and fifteen pounds lighter, Steven was diagnosed with kidney disease. Returning to his hometown, Steven underwent treatment and a kidney transplant. Four years later, Steven’s body rejected his sister’s donated kidney and Steven performed self-administered peritoneal dialysis five times per day for six years. Starting his days at 4 a.m., Steven spent 12 hours in his gym each day, returning home every 3 hours to perform the exchanges he needed to survive.

Still living with his “glass half full,” Steven was approached by a good friend adamant to donate her kidney for a second transplant. Discovering she was not a match, Steven’s friend researched and discovered a groundbreaking paired donation program at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Undergoing a successful second transplant in 2007, Steven emerged stronger than ever and once again lives a healthful life.

Steven’s Goal…

Steven wanted to share his story with others to serve as inspiration for those navigating life-changing medical diagnoses, and possibly even represent some of the medical companies that helped keep him alive. His résumé needed to reflect this message while conveying his experience, education, involvement, presentations, and publications.

Steven’s Brand…

To accomplish Steven’s goal, I created a unique brand centered on the theme of “One.” I used this theme to convey that it only takes one moment, one journey, and one life to make a difference. For Steven, this provided him with the framework he needed to share his message. For Steven’s résumé, I created something akin to a piece of marketing collateral, paying attention to both content and design. While Steven had limited experience, he had a very special story to share as well as an expertise level reinforced by his related involvement, presentations he had facilitated, and publications in which he was featured.

To give the résumé a more polished “brochure-type” look, I also included logos of some of the places where he had delivered speeches or had been published, providing Steven’s résumé with a third-party validation “edge” over his competitors. When coupled with the professional bio I wrote for Steven, he had a tool to sell himself for product representation, public speaking, and patient advocacy roles, helping him share his moment, his journey, and his life with diverse audiences.

View Steven’s résumé here

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

Meet Jordan!

Jordan had worked in the grocery industry for more than seven years, launching his career with a food broker before segueing into a grocery department manager role. In recent years however his career had shifted downward, and he had returned to an individual contributor role as a department team member. Jordan’s goal was to return to a management-level position in the grocery field, and sought to reposition his experience to show he possessed the experience and track record to predict success in a leadership role.

The problem:

Jordan had maintained the same résumé since high school and simply added to his list of positions and responsibilities. At first glance, his résumé looked, well, like a grocery list! Looking more like a plain text version of a résumé, Jordan’s presentation of his background left a lot to be desired. The top issues I found with Jordan’s original résumé were:

1. Lack of positioning – Jordan opened his résumé with an objective statement which did nothing to engage his target audience and sell how he could effectively manage a grocery department.
2. Overly succinct content – While being brief and impactful is important, Jordan had taken this to a whole new level, presenting many two and three word bullet points with little ability to communicate anything.
3. Formatting – As mentioned above, Jordan’s résumé looked more like a plain text résumé rather than a nicely designed Word document. With no attention to formatting, the aesthetic was sure to repel readership.
4. Value void – In Jordan’s ever-so-brief statements there was little-to-no ability for him to communicate the value of his experiences or accomplishments, leaving his résumé to read as a high level overview of his basic job descriptions.

The Solution:

As with many of my clients, Jordan was a little uncomfortable self-promoting on paper. Through our consultation however, I was able to have Jordan narrate his days at work, allowing me to capture valuable pieces of information completely omitted from his original résumé. By asking pointed questions about his experiences, I was also able to gain a much better understanding of the value Jordan had contributed to his employers, the performance he had driven, and the accomplishments he had achieved. For example, important facts like managing a $12 million department and achieving 97%+ on his labor budget, were not even on the radar of Jordan’s original résumé. By explaining to Jordan the importance of leveraging this quantitative and qualitative data to differentiate his candidacy, he better understood what it took to create an impactful résumé.

Opening Jordan’s résumé with a strong qualifications summary—instead of a self-serving objective statement as on his original résumé—immediately positioned him in the minds of the reviewers. By creating mini headlines that would attract his target audience, while communicating key areas of experience critical to the grocery field, it became crystal clear how Jordan was positioning himself in the market. Moving on to the meat of the qualifications summary, I went on to present highlights of Jordan’s candidacy, further positioning him as a subject matter expert.

Combining stronger and more targeted content, within a well packaged and aesthetically pleasing résumé design, Jordan emerged with a new résumé that definitely had him graduating from that old high school format.

Jordan’s response:

After digesting his new look on paper, Jordan wrote and stated, “My résumé and thank you letter look wonderful! I am more confident in my job search knowing how great everything turned out. Thank you!”

Take some time to make sure you aren’t still hitting this candidate-saturated market with your high school résumé. Remember, the most successful résumés are those that pay attention to the content and design, ensuring a solid presentation of your value in a nice attractive and engaging package.

Before Makeover |  After Makeover

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

Meet Douglas!

Douglas, a technical analyst, came to me having gained significant experience within a niche market, seeking to transition into an analyst or market research role. He had developed a two-page résumé which he felt could be improved on significantly. After seeing one of his coworker’s résumés, also developed by Ladybug Design, he contacted me to get the process started.

Original Strategy…

Douglas’ original résumé consisted of a basic list of job duties. His résumé opened with his education section, despite not being a very recent graduate, and followed with his professional experience. In the professional experience section, he listed all of his duties in bullet points with very little white space to differentiate positions, promotions, or priorities. Page one of Douglas’ résumé consisted of 18 bullet points with absolutely no spacing between any section, and page two followed with two additional roles (6 bullet points), a skills section, and a table of relevant courses.

New Strategy…

Given Douglas was coming into the market having amassed some very specific types of experience with an organization unique in its industry, it was imperative that we present the value of his experience along with the transferability of the functions he had performed. During my discussion with Douglas—which focused on how he contributed “value” to his past employers by doing things outside of his “duties”—I took 8 pages of notes, and perhaps even more important, gained the insight I needed to really focus his background in the direction needed to secure a target position.

I created a unique design for Douglas’ new résumé, ensuring a clean, modern, and technical feel to reinforce the candidate I was presenting on paper. Imperative to positioning Douglas, I opened the résumé with a qualifications summary reflecting the core skills and experience that would be sought by the hiring managers he was trying to attract. Through a brief paragraph overview of his background and a list of strengths, Douglas is now promoting how he is qualified for his target positions rather than expecting a hiring manager to “figure out” how he fits within the organization.

Perhaps most dramatic was the transformation of the professional experience section. From what was a never-ending list of bullet points came a prioritized, aesthetically pleasing, and engaging presentation of Douglas’ positions and the value he contributed. Gleaned mostly from our conversation and my probing of key areas where I knew he would have made an impact based on the details contained in his job descriptions and original résumé, his new résumé focuses on his key differentiating factors. You will notice that this section presents a brief paragraph overview of his “job” followed by bulleted achievements with bold formatting highlighting the results of his actions. This best practices-based approach ensures the reader can glean as much value as possible during the ever-so-brief 7-second screening process.

Douglas’ new résumé, as mentioned above, does not open with his education section as it did in his original version. Often not understood by candidates—but a good point to note—is that rarely can candidates differentiate themselves based on education alone. Therefore, opening a résumé with an education section versus a qualifications summary is never the best presentation of your candidacy. While a degree can be very important, you need to remember that hundreds, if not thousands of candidates also possess that same degree; what is actually unique about candidates is based on the experience they have acquired throughout their career, however brief. Presenting education as a bonus to that experience is typically the best approach as candidates can rarely—unless graduating from a particularly noteworthy institution or aggressive and/or unique program—sell themselves based on education alone as Douglas was attempting to do.

Through strategic positioning, prioritization of content, and additional exploration of Douglas’ value, he emerged with a strong résumé that differentiates him in a saturated market.

Douglas’ success…

Douglas was kind enough to think of me when he landed his new position, telling me, “I would just like to drop you a line to thank you for the exceptional résumé and cover letter you developed for me. Your service has helped me land a job with a Fortune 500 company. The product was well worth it and I plan on recommending your service to many of my friends and family in the future.”

View Douglas’ before and after résumés

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

Dear Sam: I had my own business for 27 years and grew it slowly and steadily from $300,000 to $3 million in sales. While this sounds good, unfortunately it required my attention with every facet of the business; therefore, I consider myself good at many things, but not good enough in any one specific area to compete as a subject matter expert. One of the issues I and many other entrepreneurs face, is a stigma in the potential employer’s mind of “Can this person work for anyone, after he/she has been his/her own boss?” What advice can you provide the thousands of former business owners who are now seeking to become employees? – John

Dear John: Fantastic question and, unfortunately, an all-too-common situation as we continue to navigate through economic uncertainties. I consistently work with entrepreneurs who have been forced to close their businesses, all fearing that same situation you mentioned of an employer not understanding the value in their “generalist” background.

As you mentioned, there is a potential stigma surrounding a former business owner/entrepreneur. Typically, entrepreneurs are engaged by challenges and quickly move on when the challenge has been overcome; they like autonomy, they prefer to “make” the rules, and they have thrived in environments they have created. All of these characteristics often cause concern for the hiring manager attempting to recruit and retain talent for a long period of time.

As an entrepreneur, I believe one of the most important things you can do is figure out how to position yourself. As you mentioned, you are a generalist; you have done a little of everything, so find it difficult to compete with the specialists out there. To compete more effectively, and more successfully, you need to define your target, meaning figure out what you want to do and tailor your résumé and its content in that direction to make you look more like a specialist. Doing this will likely mean you have two and possibly more versions of your résumé. For instance, a lot of times I position entrepreneurs for business development and relationship management roles as this makes sense based on their proven success developing and retaining a client base; for an alternate target, I often position them as operations managers which is also a target which would make sense. Knowing that you have a broad skill set is a wonderful “value-add” to reinforce during an interview; but on your résumé, be sure you are presenting a targeted and refined image of who you are as a candidate so that you can compete against those specialists or subject matter experts (SMEs) out there.

Dear Sam: I am returning to the workforce after 6 years as a stay-at-home mom for my two daughters. My résumé is severely outdated, and I am not sure how to grab the attention of employers as they will first see the huge gap in employment. I have listed only the last 10 years of experience on my résumé. Also, I have done some work for my husband’s company including answering phones, janitorial work, and scheduling. Help! – Ruth

Dear Ruth: Let me “paint a picture” for readers. You open with your objective statement, followed by work experience including three positions held between 2000 and 2004. You close your résumé with an education section, noting your diploma.

If I were a hiring manager reviewing your résumé, I would ask three questions: (1) What does she want to do? (2) What can she do? (3) What has she been doing since 2004?” Unfortunately, with this number of questions, the hiring manager would likely look no further. There are, however, strategies you can employ to create a much more effective and attractive résumé.

First, do you know what positions you are interested in? You need to figure this out before you can even begin to craft your résumé. If you are seeking administrative roles, then you would have a perfect background to highlight based on your past experience.

Second, can you define your key strengths? You need to reflect on your background and determine what you like to do and what you can do well. Are your administrative and computer skills up to date? Can you validate those skills and statements through your work experience? Take some time to uncover your “value,” albeit packaged in a small amount of experience.

Three, why not explore what you have been doing professional with your family business since 2004? While I know you have been a busy stay-at-home mom you have also been working with your husband’s company. There is no reason you can’t list this within your professional experience to fill the gap. If you worked for him part-time, you can still list the experience, presenting what you did accurately but in a manner which reinforces how you are positioning yourself now.

Lastly, take some time to revamp your format. You can still maintain a reverse chronological résumé as you have your family business to fill the gap in your employment, but the format of your résumé is going to be vital to its success. Making something pleasing to look at is a great way to sometimes “hide” a lack of content, and, in your case, recent experience. I know you can have a great résumé that facilitates your reentry into the workforce; just take some time to further develop your strategy before you put pen to paper.

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/