Write the resume for the job you deserve

Over the last twenty years in the hotel business I've written a few resumes of my own. When those times came that I chose to find the next step and attempt to advance to a bigger role, I've taken the time to write a resume for the job I wanted. More than the job I wanted, but the job I knew I deserved with the skills I had. My approach was to spend less time highlighting my professional attributes and successes, but instead highlight who I am as a leader, teammate and contributor to the team. Resume inboxes are filled with people with a history of work, but they are missing a great deal about the actual person they are reading about. After decades of reading resumes and hiring team members, I think these key areas can really help set someone apart.

1. Resumes are not for just providing a timeline of your work. Resumes are WHO YOU ARE. Especially when searching for an executive team member or department head, what you've done before is of superficial importance. What really matters is what kind of leader are you going to be for our team? Can you lead people? Can you develop people? Can you create an environment where your staff do as great a job when you are off, as when you are on site? Write about how you helped make the team better and how a better team drove revenue growths. The revenue growth by itself is not enough. Anyone can do that and a basic expectation for most high-level roles these days.

How you did it is what matters to the future employer.

2. My personal belief and one that not everyone shares, is that cover letters become more essential the bigger the position you are applying for. Why are you applying for THIS role specifically? Seeing that you tailored a cover letter for my job positing at the very least shows that you didn't just blast it out to all the open positions you were looking for. As a I manage a property in northern Maine with typically harsh winters, I hesitate a bit when I see someone applying from Florida or another year-round warm climate who may not realize just how difficult the winters are here. However, if in their cover letter they highlight a yearning to return to New England where they grew up years ago, it right away signals someone that is ready for the less desirable aspects of living on an island in northern Maine. Likewise, any personal information you share provides subtle insights into the kind of person you are, and with that what kind of fit you might be for the existing team you'll be working with. For us here in Maine, we have a very outdoors focused team where nearly everyone goes into our adjacent Acadia National Park and hikes on their days off. They go canoeing in the lakes, kayaking in the bay and enjoy snowshoeing in the winters. These things may not mean much for some people, but when you break it all down, we still spend more time with our co-workers than our families. We still want to know what you like. It doesn't need to be the same things, but it’s a key part of how you will fit into the overall team. 

3. Cover why you left that role with a very short timeline. If you work long enough there is a chance you won't get lucky every time and you'll end up with a role that wasn't a great fit for one reason or another and you had to exit early. Which for me, "early" is anything under a year, or under 2 years for some larger roles. If you have a six month stint on your resume and you don't explain that it was a seasonal or contracted for that length, it could look like you quit, were terminated or otherwise something happened that puts into question how you would do in a future role. If you have several of those, highlighting that specifically in your cover letter or resume what happened and that you're looking to re-build your resume with a longer-term role could mean a great deal to the hiring manager reading it. Explaining that upfront could mean the difference in going straight to the "denied" pile or being shifted to the "maybe" pile.

4. Add key accomplishments to your timeline. When I am reading a resume, I'm looking for key takeaways that highlight quickly what someone has done at each location they've been at. Putting that specifically inside the resume provides useful insights for the hiring manager in how that applicant views success. Do they highlight their own personal successes in say, reducing food cost or labor margins, driving sales numbers or driving costs down? Or do they instead highlight that their team won a service award under their leadership? There is nothing wrong with personal success, or even highlighting it on a resume, yet if a candidate applying for a leadership role is highlighting the success of others first, it’s a telling sign they are a good leader. 

5. References should be provided within the resume. Social Media is now a public reference. With few exceptions (looking for a job and your current employer isn't aware) I believe showing that you have great references on your resume and ready to be called is a level of transparency we all could use more of. Few applicants provide references and instead put "references available upon request." I understand there are reasons for doing so, but for me I'd prefer to just see them upfront. More importantly beyond the traditional references, all applicants with social media presences should really consider what is on their page before applying for a job. This has been written for so many years now and never as true as it is today. One glance at an applicant’s Facebook page can deter even the most forgiving hiring manager when its laced with political rants and questionable material. A sense of humor is one thing, but if its good enough for your personal (and public) Facebook page, it'll be good enough for the water cooler. That's water cooler talk we all want to avoid.

6. Write the resume for the job you deserve. When I applied for the job of General Manager of the Bar Harbor Inn, I was living 3000 miles away and had never even been to Maine. I'd been a GM for a scant few years and was still (and still am) very green in the role. Yet in my cover letter I highlighted exactly why I was the person for this role. As a native Vermonter I was someone that had a history in New England and family in the area. I had a military background which is well respected in Maine where the state boasts the highest Veterans per capita of any state in the US. More so, I highlighted my work ethic and dedication to creating great teams, developing staff and my enthusiasm for learning anything and anything I could. I highlighted my extensive hotel renovation background and never once mentioned a P&L. Later, I learned that my resume stood out from the huge pile of applicants because of that cover letter. The company was about to undergo major renovations so highlighting that was a key aspect of interest. The town we reside in is very small (5,500-year-round residents) and largely closed in the winter. Over the years some people have found the winters to be too difficult and moved on after one year. New England residents and the fine folks from the Midwest don't blink an eye at it and often have been the types to embrace winter fully. A key and essential mindset to surviving winters. My detailing of my Vermont years was enough for them to not be scared off by my blazing hot Phoenix, Arizona address my resume held. Above all, it was my detailing of my leadership approach and goals that stood out. All of which would not have been possible without a cover letter tailored to that specific role. Without that I would have been another applicant with a list of hotel accomplishments much like everyone else.

I did apply to a few other key places with the same approach, tailored to the role and my skills. I was turned down by all of them, but I never knew that until I had already accepted the job in Maine. My values matched so well with theirs, I knew it was the right fit. It was because I put out there what I was offering in full transparency and detail. I wasn't going to get the other jobs because my specifics were not what the employer was looking for at the time, but when they lined up it was the right match.

This cannot happen when the resume is only a timeline of events. It needs to show WHO YOU ARE and what you can bring to the team you are trying to join. It is far more than simply how much money you can make a company, but all about how much better you can make the team you want to lead. 

Focus on that and you'll end up ahead, and so will your new company.