Jeremy Johnson has a new guest blog post this week on shaping your resume.
Jeremy is a recruiter in Kansas City for EHD Technologies, a recruiting, staffing and managed services company serving the IT, Engineering and Automotive industries.
What Shape is your Resume?
In case you were wondering from the title, no, this blog isn’t about geometry. I’m probably not qualified to give a lesson on it and never excelled at it in high school; however, I have found it really useful as an analogy for building an effective resume.
I’ve heard lots of questions about how to put a resume together. Should it be functional or chronological? One page or two? Or three? Should it be in Word format or PDF? Should you include references? Should you list the month as well as the year in employment dates? All valid questions but it’s important to pull back a bit and think more big picture. Mainly, how should the information in your resume flow?
To bottom-line it, the information should flow like the shape of a triangle – an equilateral one if any math junkies keeping score. But, that’s as deep a geometry lesson as this goes, folks. That’s it! So, why a triangle? First, think about your audience and your goal. Your goal is to initially get their attention, then gain their interest, and finally, solidify conviction to give you a call about a prospective job. The process goes in that order – every time. The concept is pretty simple, pretty common sense. Unfortunately, the majority of job seekers don’t consciously think about this, and in so doing, aren’t paying themselves any favors.
So, back to the triangle. Again, it’s a good analogy for resume structure and an effective framework within which to work. But, first, think about that triangle divided into three sections – the first, which is the attention-getter; the second, which builds attention into interest; and the third, the largest, and the one telling the story of your professional experience, solidifies that interest into the action of a phone call.
Here’s what it looks like:
Section 1 – This is the tip of the triangle and the first thing (other than your name) that your audience sees. Traditionally, this would be the objective statement. My advice on the objective statement is this: don’t use one. It’s usually vague, self-focused and doesn’t give your audience information about what you can do for them. Instead, try using a headline or summary statement – or both. The headline is a simple professional title or short descriptive phrase, but it has to speak to the selfish interest of your audience. It could be ‘C# Developer’ or ‘Senior Ad Agency Graphic Designer’ or ‘Manufacturing Production Supervisor.’ Whatever it is, though, make sure the title is not only accurate, but that it also speaks to the direct need of your audience. Remember, it has to be important to them to get their attention. Otherwise, you might as well be writing in a foreign language. The summary statement should be just as specific, just as targeted, but it’s more of a one or two sentence summation of who you are as a professional who can help them (it’s always about them!).
Think about the triangle’s first section this way: your audience is flipping through a stack of resumes (I know it’s all digital nowadays, but just go with the visual for a second) and you’re trying to get them to “stop” at yours and take notice – just like scouring a newspaper and stopping on the headlines that speak to your interests. Is their curiosity piqued? Good. Now, they’ll naturally move to the next section.
Section 2 – This part is larger than section one but it does build on it. It fits neatly under the tip of the triangle but sits on top of the wider – much larger – base. It’s more of an expanded summary of your qualifications. It could actually say ‘Summary of Qualifications’ (usually in bullet point form), but it could also list technical skills, certifications, education, accomplishments; it just depends on what’s important to your audience. What you’re shooting for here is a well-rounded summary of what you bring to the table in your field of expertise. It should be an at-a-glance proof of your potential fit for the job you’re targeting. If done effectively, this is the section where your audience now sees the possibility that you’re a viable candidate – even before getting to your professional experience (which is in section three).
For example, have you ever been at a store and seen a book or DVD that catches your attention, and you don’t know much about it, but now you’re curious to find out more? So what do you do? If you’re like me, you flip it over and read the summary on the back. This summary gives you enough information to make an informed decision about whether invest your time in the rest of that story. This is what section two of your resume does. It solidifies interest. Now your audience is prepared to invest in the rest of your story – section three.
Section 3 – By now, your audience should have a good basic understanding of your general qualifications and potential fit. Now, they’re just looking for context – when you did it, where you did it, how long you did it – and any red flags that would detract from their interest up to now. This section should still be relevant and targeted. Make sure you put effort into and that it shows a harmony and consistency with the first two sections. At this point, your audience should already have some interest.
The fish is on the hook and you’ve started reeling it in. Now, you just have to get it in the boat. They’ll be looking here for proof of the qualifications you mentioned in sections one and two, accomplishments and further detail. Though this is the largest section of the triangle, resist the urge to write a dissertation. You’re not writing your life’s story here. The goal is a phone call, not a Pulitzer Prize. Remember, the resume doesn’t get you the job; it gets the process started.
As a recruiter, I’ve seen thousands of bad resumes, hundreds of good ones, and dozens that I would consider great. Most of the great ones were structured in much the same triangle format I just covered. But it’s not about creating a resume “shape” for its own sake; it’s all about the flow of information. You have to start small and build on it. Your audience – whether they be recruiters, HR personnel or hiring managers – has a short attention span. You have to pull them into the resume section by section in a single direction.
Get attention, build interest, and convict them to act. At this stage of the job-hunting process, you’re just shooting for a phone call. By shaping your resume like a triangle, you should increase your chances of getting it.