Unbeatable Resumes (6 page)

If you have a graduate degree, such as a Ph.D., consider preparing one résumé that includes this information and one that omits it. In the business environment, a Ph.D. may communicate that you are overqualified. The academic, scientific, or healthcare environments are different, of course. An undergraduate degree with an MBA is reasonable to report; however, more advanced degrees scare some business employers, who may think,
Why would someone with a Ph.D. want to work here?
(I discuss in more detail in
Chapter 6
how having two or three different résumés may be useful for different situations.)

Here is an example of an education statement, placed in the beginning of the résumé because of the prestigious school and the candidate's outstanding athletic success:

Education
U.S. Military Academy, West Point, NY (B.S. Engineering Management 1989)

4-year Army Football Varsity Letterman and Senior Captain at Strong Safety

Awarded Colonel Gillespie Memorial Award for “Leadership, performance, contribution & dedication to the Army Football Program”

Selected as Graduate Assistant Army Football Coach for first active-duty assignment

Sun Bowl vs. Alabama, Peach Bowl vs. Illinois, Emerald Isle Classic vs. Boston College

I never recommend including personal data, and the reason is simple. While what you include in a résumé may work in your favor, it may also work against you. For example, being married with three kids may sound to you like you're a stable, solid citizen, but to a hiring authority looking for someone to travel 60 to 70 percent of the time, that personal information may keep you from being interviewed. Similarly, mentioning that your hobby is golf might communicate to prospective employers that you're going to try to spend two days during the work week playing golf. In short, there's just no good reason to include personal information that may keep you from getting the interview or the job.

Also, forget the ancient history. If you are more than thirty years old, no one cares about your having been an Eagle Scout or having held the high school state record in the high jump.

Never include mention of why you left an organization. That information suggests too many reasons you shouldn't be hired this time. In an interview, when a prospective employer asks for the reason you have left the prior organization, for some reason your
verbal
explanation satisfies the question, whereas a
written
explanation never seems to work in your favor.

A few years ago, I had a candidate who, after each job listed on his résumé, included an explanation of why he had left the job. After four of such explanations, he wrote “Laid off due to downsizing.” Now, what do you think a prospective employer will think of that?
When I have to eliminate someone, I will eliminate this guy!
With all those résumés out there, hiring authorities are looking for reasons
not
to interview you as much as they're looking for reasons they
should
. So, it is in your best interest not to explain in your résumé why you have left any organization. Wait for the interview to answer that question.

Don't
ever, ever
include your past, present, or desired earnings on your résumé. This will automatically eliminate you from too many opportunities.

Any time you e-mail a résumé to a prospective employer, you run the risk of your job search being discovered by your present employer. This matter has become more complicated now that résumés are posted on literally thousands of Internet sites or job boards. No matter how confidential you try to be, if you're looking for a job while you are presently employed, you may be discovered.

If you are worried, and rightfully so, about confidentiality, then you need to send your résumé to specific hiring authorities only after you've spoken with them on the telephone. Unless you are soon to be out of work or don't care if your present employer finds out you're looking for a new job, be careful about where you send your résumé.
Keep in mind that including the word
confidential
on your résumé does
not
help keep it confidential.

Often, candidates state “Employer
confidential
2006–Present” instead of including the name of the company. Don't do this, either. Potential employers want to know who you have worked for. They have too many other résumés to choose among, and with this missing information, yours won't get read.

For openings in most traditional business environments, there's no need to include references. With some academic curriculum vitae or political, scientific, and research-oriented résumés, however, it may be appropriate to provide a list of references. It also may be appropriate to just state, “References upon Request.” Depending on the situation, you may want to give different references for different positions.

There are exceptions to this guideline, of course. If your references are high-profile people, it could be of value to include those names on your résumé, provided you have checked with the individuals first. Since most of us don't have those kinds of references, it is usually better to leave off any names.

The same advice is true for quotes from people who “endorse” you personally. Unless these quotes are from the president of the United States or someone else who is readily recognizable, it's a waste of space.

Here are some tips for better résumé content and format.

Numbers, statistics, percentages, and the like on a résumé get attention, especially if you put them in bold type. Use truthful statistics on your résumé, and don't go overboard. Statements like
“150% of sales quota,” “Increased profit by 28%,” “Came under budget by 30%”
get the attention of the reader and communicate performance.
Chapter 6
has examples that show how to include meaningful numerical measures of your performance.

As for including stories of your accomplishments, consider brief statements that could prompt questions in the interview that would enable you to tell success stories. People love stories; they humanize the numbers behind your accomplishments and inspire admiration. Stories are particularly effective when they distract from or counter any biases that the hiring authority might have toward certain applicants.

How do you plant in your résumé the seed of a story? A number of years ago, we had a candidate who held an engineering degree from Texas A&M. He was born and raised on a chicken farm, which he noted on his résumé. Subsequently, in interviews, he told stories about his childhood on the chicken farm—how hard the work was, what he learned, and so on. The company that hired him admitted that what made him different from other candidates was that his stories gave them confidence that he would be a hard worker.

Earlier in the
chapter I
suggested having different résumés for different situations and different employment opportunities. This is a matter of developing targeted résumés, something that is simple to do nowadays with computer word-processing software. Make sure to save each version you create.
Chapter 6
has a sample of such résumé variations.

A targeted résumé is simply one that is customized to stress the relevancy of its content to the specific job you are applying for. If you find a particularly narrow job posting that your experience fits very well, add to your résumé the terminology used in the posting. For instance, if a posting reads something like, “Manage a staff of six senior accountants and four junior accountants,” and your résumé reflects that you have managed an accounting department, you may want to alter your résumé to reflect the number of accountants, both junior and senior, that you managed. Try to be as specific as you can.

Similarly, if you're an engineer with both design and quality control in your background, and you're applying for an engineering position with a major emphasis on quality control, you can emphasize the quality-control experience in the résumé you send. Likewise, if you're a bookkeeper who has worked for a comptroller where you
used Great Plains software, you may not want to put that information on your master résumé, but paste it into the résumé when applying for positions where knowledge of Great Plains will set you apart from other candidates.

Customize your targeted résumé with anything you might know to be of value to a particular employer. For example, if you are an HR professional and you read about a company that is fending off union organization, you could emphasize that you have helped your previous employer defeat attempts at union organization. In short, the more precisely you customize, the better off you are.

For information about jobs, don't simply rely on the ads posted on the Internet. Those ads are usually quite generic, and most of the time they are not written by the person actually feeling the pain (the one needing the person to be hired). Use any specific insights you might have regarding a particular position or any information you might have gleaned from someone else. If you speak to the hiring authority before you forward your résumé, you may collect excellent information to customize your résumé.

You might even try investigating the opportunity with someone in the organization other than the hiring authority. For instance, a company looking for someone to manage a group of purchasing agents or a purchasing department has subordinates for the job in question whom you may want to talk to. Subordinates can give you lots of information about what is needed. The more specifics you get, the better targeted your résumé will be.

Caution!
Sometimes people put different spins on their basic résumé. In fact, they sometimes go overboard with so many different résumés they forget which one they use for which situation.