Resume Workshop: You're In The Big Leagues Now

Resume Workshop: You’re In The Big Leagues Now

I recently was fortunate to receive some great constructive criticism from a professional in my network. I reached out to him because I was interested in a position at the company he works for, and I wanted to get the best advice possible before applying.

He reviewed my resume and told me that he was going to be blunt in his feedback. Although I consider my resume building skills to be above average, I was certainly humbled by his feedback. He expressed how some aspects of my resume might have been relevant while I was a student, but when applying for competitive roles at prestigious companies, I have to differentiate myself to be more relevant and precise in explaining my capabilities. “You’re in the big leagues now”, as he put it. ?

This was one of the most productive professional development discussions I’ve had recently and I’d like to pass this insight along to my audience as I realize that many of my peers are recent graduates, looking for full-time positions. Hopefully this workshop will better equip you to attain your desired position quickly.

WHAT, WHY, WHO

One criticism this professional had of my resume was that I had a lot of fancy buzzwords but he couldn’t understand exactly what my job function was or what I did day-to-day. We all hear about using “keywords” to be more appealing to computer algorithms filtering through 100’s of applications, but when a real hiring manager reads your resume, it’s better to remove guesswork on their behalf and take more control of the narrative to convey your capabilities.

First, describe exactly What you do. Don’t just say that you’re researching, creating, building, or assisting. These terms may be applicable but they’re too vague by themselves to convey your experience. Explain the information you’re exploring, what you’re doing with it, and how you leveraged different tools in the process. If you have a particularly specific or niche role, then it doesn’t hurt to include a descriptive paragraph of the role’s responsibilities before diving into bullet points.

“I write informative newsletters regarding professional development topics in LinkedIn’s Newsletter feature.”

Next, explain Why your job role matters and why you are uniquely important to achieving these goals. I would first consider the value that you create on a daily basis. Who’s life do I make easier? How do I solve the paint point? Then, consider what your position means to the overall company goals. What problems would accumulate if my role didn’t exist? What would the company lose without my position? It is incredibly important to both be aware of and to be able to communicate the value that you create. By explaining this thoroughly, the hiring manager can more easily understand how your skills will transfer to create value for them.

“I write professional development newsletters on LinkedIn to provide information, tools, and strategies that may be leveraged to accelerate career goals.”

Now, include Who the relevant stakeholders are. Who do you report to? Who do you collaborate with? Who are you providing the product/service to? Hiring managers are keen to observe who you have interacted with in past roles. If you are applying to a role that requires inter-departmental coordination, they want a candidate who can prove that they can effectively communicate with the right people. For example, when applying to a sales role, it may be useful to have experience communicating with the marketing team about best practices regarding branding, outreach, and social media presence. In a finance role, they may be seeking someone who is comfortable presenting to executives with high authority and high-profile clients. Everybody in the value creation chain matters, but knowing who matters most at what time is a critical instinct.

“I write professional development newsletters to provide my LinkedIn network with information, tools, and strategies that may be leveraged to accelerate career goals.”

Now you know exactly what I do on a general basis. But there are also tactics to help us convey our performance on a frequent basis, such as time management ability, workload capacity, and specific skills. Try using frequency metrics, Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s), and areas of expertise.

I write professionals development newsletters once per week to provide my LinkedIn network of 900+ followers with information, tools, and strategies that may be leveraged to accelerate career goals, such as resume workshops, LinkedIn networking features, and health mentalities towards productivity.”

The example above thoroughly conveys What I do, Why I do it, and Who it matters to. The addition of statistics and other details helps give perspective to the scale and relevance of my experience. You don’t have to fit this all in one long sentence like I did, you can also break it up into bullet points as long as each aspect can be clearly understood.

It’s worth noting that while this advice is relevant to all professionals from high school students to industry veterans, this article is positioned more towards those in the beginning stages of their career. This is because as a student, you may not always have a lot of experience to dive into deeply and it may not always matter if your experience is relevant. The further you progress through your career, the more important it becomes to be specific about your capabilities and how they transfer to certain roles. Don’t put off the important details until the interview, because you may not get that chance to explain.

Thank you for reading.