Writing the 21st-century resume

Once the shock of losing a job wears off, the next step for many people is to dust off the resume – or CV – and start applying for jobs. After all, this is what they did the last time they lost their job in a recession, and it worked then.

But resumes / CVs have changed over the years. It’s no longer enough to send out the same one for every job, or to start each covering letter with “Dear Sir / Madam” or, worse “To whom it may concern”. Even the tone has changed. We’ve moved from a sort of apologetic “here’s a list of my responsibilities and I hope they’re what you might need” to a much more aggressive marketing sell of how your achievements and skills answer company needs and solve their problems.

If you’re sending out your resume without success (i.e. you’re not getting invited to an interview) ir may well need a complete overhaul to bring it into line with current thinking. Here are six ways to help you do this.

1. Focus on the job

Sending out the same all-purpose CV for each job will put you at a disadvantage, because you’re making an employer search for relevant information in your application. Instead, make their selection process easier by matching what you have to offer with the requirements of the job. For example, if you’re applying for a sales position, make sure that everything you write centres around you, “the sales person”, and on your sales career and achievements.

2. Only include relevant work experience

Don’t water down your application by including details of irrelevant previous work experience. Instead, select key highlights from your work history which prove your suitability for the job and put these in an achievements section. Underneath, you can mention the companies and dates worked (one line per company). Having an achievements section before your work history section also helps you avoid writing a boring list of responsibilities and duties all starting with “I”.

3. Be flexible about how you organise information

Traditional CVs would start with personal details, perhaps include a career objective, then go on to an education section, followed by career history, references, hobbies and interests, then perhaps some exciting additional information (such as “clean driving licence”) for the thrilling finale.

But because your objective is to focus on the job and company needs, you can be a lot more flexible in layout and organisation. For a start, a career objective is by no means necessary. In fact, as it puts the emphasis on “what you can do for me” rather than on “what I can do for you”, if may actually put off some employers.

Secondly, as it’s assumed you’ll provide references if asked, you can delete the references section. Hobbies and interests aren’t relevant either.

As for the rest, analyse the job description to work out what attributes the company are looking for. Most likely these will centre around a particular skills-set or experience, so it makes sense to start either with a professional summary or skills profile, then to go on to your achievements and career history. More rarely, a job description might ask for a specific qualification, and in these cases you can start with an Education and Training section.

Finally, consider if any of the information in an “additional information” section is strictly necessary for the job. If it is, it can often go at the beginning in your profile.

4. Market yourself

The reality is that you have got to stand out from the crowd in order to get to the next stage – the interview. Your CV and covering letter are the tools you have to help you do this.

So not only do you need to use powerful action vocabulary to describe your achievements (designed / managed / supervised / reduced costs / increased profit etc) but you also need to market yourself as a strong candidate. What is it about you that will most appeal to the employer? Avoid describing yourself in cliches, such as “team player” or “self-starter”, as most employers expect this as a matter of course. Instead, think about other, more telling aspects of your personality and then make sure what you choose to highlight from your previous experience illustrates this. As an example, a sales person could be well-connected, tenacious, or patient. A departmental manager could be diplomatic, risk-taking, or innovative.

Focussing on how your professional and personal strengths appeal to a company will make your application sound enthusiastic and positive, rather than deferential in tone.

5. Get to know the people at the company

Receiving a letter addressed to “Dear Sir / Madam” is a turn-off. Find out who you’re writing to (phone the HR department or look up the information on the internet if necessary) and address the letter personally. If you have a mutual contact at the company, mention the name in the first paragraph of your covering letter.

Find out about the people working at the company. Look up on LinkedIn to see who’s who, where they worked before, what their backgrounds are, what hires the company has made recently, and most importantly, if you know anyone who knows anyone there. Do any of these people have a Twitter account? If so, follow them for a while to see what they’re saying, what their interests or preoccupations might be. Employers are much less likely to bin a CV from someone they already know (either directly or indirectly), so making a personal connection will help you get to the next stage.

6. Link to your web presence

If you’ve got a blog, a LinkedIn profile, an online CV with examples of your previous work, or a professionally-oriented Twitter account, link to these. Make sure that employers know you’re active professionally even outside your regular job and working hours, and that you’re up-to-date with new social media. See here for how social media can help you in your job search.

Photo credit: Jim Bowen