Last time, we talked about refocusing your job search energies from the Result, which is beyond your control, to the other four “Re’s” that you can do something about.  Today let’s look at the first “Re”, your resumé.

Isn’t it interesting that the rich and varied English language has to borrow from the French (resumé = summary) or Latin (curriculum vitae = life’s program) to find a term to describe the bizarre concept of summarizing your whole professional life in a couple of pages?  How can you do justice to the highs and lows, the triumphs and follies, the daily routines and the big strategic leaps that make up a career in a few paragraphs?  How can you communicate the essence of yourself in such a constrained format?  How can you reach out to strangers in a way that they “get” you and the value you bring? How can you stand out from the crowd?  These are only some of the obstacles that you, the resumé writer, face.  So, how to make it work for you?

It is critical you understand the real purpose of your resumé.  It is a highly stylized marketing document with a dual function: to communicate succinctly and powerfully your best professional self, and to persuade the readers that you are the answer to their problems.

Let’s address each of these points.

Highly stylized. Whether you choose a chronological, functional or hybrid resumé format, there is a pretty standard way of packaging your past, and you will have one less thing to worry about if you follow one of these structures.  Clear headings, lots of white space, a logical order, highlights in bold, organizations you’ve worked for, titles you’ve held, dates and education summary.  These are the high points the reader wishes to capture in a thirty second purview of your resumé.  The advantage is that the readers’ expectations are already primed, and their eyes can glide across and down the page and see clearly the arc of your career.

Marketing document. Remember this is not your autobiography.  You may think a resumé is all about you, but, in fact, the reader (a recruiter or your potential manager or employer) thinks it is all about them.  What is in the reader’s mind is:  “I am looking for a person who can help me” not “I’m so interested in learning everything about you.”  So, your resumé needs to make clear what value you add, how you have approached problems and what you have accomplished for the organization rather than recording a laundry list of tasks and responsibilities.

Communicate succinctly and powerfully.  This is the secret of successful marketing documents.  They have to tell a compelling story.  The reader has to be able to follow a thread from beginning to end and be sufficiently intrigued to want to know more about you so they will call you for an interview.  The biggest trap that resumé writers fall into, especially more senior candidates, is they believe they have to write about everything they have ever done.  This is not a court of law.  Yes, your resumé has to tell the truth, but it does not have to contain the whole truth. Every point you make must be relevant to the position you are seeking.  If not, leave it out. It is perfectly permissible to highlight certain aspects of your history and to de-emphasize others.  You may have different versions of your resumé for different accomplishments or different contexts.  Career changers from the for-profit world have to become particularly adept at reframing their past accomplishments to be relevant for a non-profit environment, but everyone needs to be a skillful self-editor and write his or her story in a crisp and compelling way.

Your best professional self.  Before you start writing your resumé, get yourself into a good mindset.  The best way to do this is to jot down the high points in your career. When were you at the top of your game? When did you really shine?  Build your resumé around these moments.   By taking this “Appreciative” approach to resumé writing, you will transform your document from a run-of-the-mill summary to one that increases your desirability and gets you closer to the result you want.

Fredia Woolf, Principal of Woolf Consulting, is a leadership and change management consultant. Fredia works with clients to build their capacity to manage career and organizational transitions, and to accelerate the accomplishment of positive results. She dreams about organizations with wise leaders and engaged people having a positive impact on the world – and in the meantime, blogs about careers, leadership challenges and workplace survival strategies.
She can be reached at fwoolf@woolfconsulting.com.

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Last updated on December 17th, 2009 at 08:54 am