What is the purpose of a Resume?

A good resume may not be enough

A few blogs ago we talked about using a Bio or Profile instead of a resume in some situations.  However, we did not talk very much about the resume itself.  I’m about to remedy that situation, but first, let me start out with a very simple, one question quiz.  Awwww, come on, I know you’re out of school but you can handle one question, and it’s multiple choice so you can guess.  Here it is:

Question: What is the purpose of a resume?

A)  Document your entire work history
B)  Get a job
C)  Use up the ream of 20# buff colored bond paper you bought 20 years ago
D)  Impress your mom with how many great sounding job titles you’ve had
E)  All of the A through D
F)  None of  A through D

Those of you who recall my blog on Bio’s (Your RESUME may not be enough, think about a bio) may know the correct answer is “F”.  But first, let’s look at some of the wrong answers.

Should your resume document your entire work history?

This is a very common misconception.  A good resume should not necessarily document every nuance of a long and fruitful career.  Knowing what to leave out of a resume is an important to your resume skills as knowing what to put in it.

I remember in the mid 1970’s when I was looking for my first “real” job after I finished my formal education, how agonizing it was to find things to put in my resume work history section.  Should I put in that summer job where I worked in a slot car racing hobby shop?  How about the two summers I did lighting for the “Summer Music Theatre Workshop” at the high school that I didn’t even get paid for?  And, then there were those 5 weeks I spent in the summer of 1969 working for a small rock & roll music festival in upstate New York that drew over 800,000 attendees (I actually did get paid for that one, but several years later after the movie came out).

If you are a mature worker, your work history, like mine, may go back many decades.  It is not necessary to put such ancient history in your resume unless it is a vital part of your story.  Keeping it to the most recent 15 to 20 years should do just fine.  It’s also not necessary to list every company and every job in that time frame.  If the job or company is not relevant to your current goal, leave it out.  Here is some important resume tips - If this should leave an ominous gap of more than, say 4 to 6 months, put in a filler such as “personal enterprises” or “non relevant work” or “personal travel”.

Should your resume get you a job?

While the ultimate goal of a resume is to get a job, and it is certainly a component of getting a job, a resume by itself will not result in landing you a job any more than having 10 gallons of gasoline will get you 200 miles down the road.  In my travel analogy, while having enough gas is important to your objective, you also need to have a car to put it in, you need a road to drive on, you need the skills and license to drive, and many other things.  In other words gas is a necessary component of driving to your destination, but in and of itself it will not get you there.

A resume is the same.  It is one component of a job search.  Along with having a resume you also need to do research, find opportunities, apply for positions, participate in interviews, and perhaps negotiate with a potential employer.

Is the purpose of your resume to impress people?

A good, well crafted resume should impress people who read it.  It should draw out the wonderful things you’ve done in your recent career.  It should highlight your achievements and show the value you brought to the companies you worked for.  It should articulate the money you saved them, the disasters you prevented, how you helped products succeed, and the problems you solved. The text should be crafted in such a way as to highlight your contribution to these successes.  Which brings up 2 other things I’d like to talk with you about in writing a resume.

1. Be painfully aware of the difference between you and your team, department or group.  The hiring manager is interested in what you did in relation to the achievement, not just that there was an achievement in which you may have been involved in some way.  While showing that you ‘play well with others’ (teamwork) in the work environment is good to do, when talking about your success, focus on you and not the team or project.  What did YOU do rather than what the team did.  For example, “Participated in the Zonex product launch which exceeded its first year sales goal by 25%”  says there was a successful project and you had some role in that project, but says nothing about what it was you did or how you helped it succeed.  However, “Designed, developed, and executed the marketing strategy used in the Zonex launch resulting in first years sales exceeding goals by 25%” is about YOU and your achievement.
2. Do not confuse job/task/project descriptions for achievement.  As a hiring manager I have seen hundreds (actually a majority) of resumes that present a list of job duties or project descriptions under work history.  It’s almost like they copied the job description, but not one word about personal accomplishments.  These resumes do not occupy the top of the stack, and look something like this:

Purchasing Administrator

• Set up Vendors
• Pay invoices
• Negotiate contracts
• Resolve payment disputes
• Etc.

Or Project Manager

• Participated in the Zonex project that successfully brought to market a new Shaving cream and exceeded sales by 25%
• Managed the RiceCraft project which designed a revolutionary toy to make art work from rice

Boooooooooooooorrrrrrrrrrring!  No indication about what you did or your achievement.

So what, then, is the purpose of a resume?

Here is a very important piece of job search help - the one and only purpose of a resume is to get an interview.  It’s that simple.  Nothing more.  Nothing less.  When writing a resume keep this in mind.

If there’s something that will help you get the interview put it in.  For each job you apply for, make sure you adjust your resume to address points in the posted job description – those are the things they are looking for.  Pay most attention to the first few points in the job description and job requirements sections as those are the real requirements.  Once you get past the 3rd or 4th one in these lists they become “nice to have” items.  However, if you have them flaunt them.

If you have insight into problems the department you’re applying to is having, or strategies they want you to help make happen, make sure your resume shows how you’ve solved such problems before, or how you’ve successfully implemented such strategies.  In other words, fine tune your resume to the situation at hand.

On the other side, if there is something that will not help (or even hinder) you getting the interview, leave it out.  That’s why we nowadays leave out hobbies and non work related activities.  While those things may be interesting, they don’t help get an interview.  Similarly if you had some work history that is not relevant to the job you’re after don’t waste space on it.  A prime example is dating yourself if you’re over 45.  Leave out the year in which you attended or graduated schools.  Don’t have your work history go back too far.  Be vague about projects that could date you.  It’s great that you designed the first jet engine for a commercial airliner but it dates you.

To steal an old show business saying, “Leave them wanting more”.  By this I mean it’s better to whet their appetite about something, but not tell the whole story, than it is to spill all the beans.  Just enough info to raise the curiosity so they will want to talk to you, but not so much that they feel they know everything they need to about you and thus don’t need to talk to you face to face.

Just like a good TV advertisement, the goal is to get the reader excited about what you bring to the party.  The emotion should be: ’Wow, would you look at that.  I could sure use some of that in my department.  I need to find out more’.  If you can achieve that, your resume will fulfill its purpose.

For excellent in depth training on how to craft a resume, see the OurExperienceCounts workshop “A Winning Resume Does Not Have to Cost a Fortune.”

Categories: Resumes & Cover Letters, Job Search Help