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Newsletter - July 2010

OI Partners

How to Fit Your Resume to the Job Requirements, without Stretching the Truth

July 8, 2010 - Dennis Ghyst, Ph.D.

Career coaches favor the one or two-page standard reverse chronology resume format because it gets a better response from hiring managers compared with the functional format (in which skills are broken out into three or four professional experience competency segments). Even if you are navigating a major career change and temporarily need to adopt a functional format, it’s important that you then include organizational information for each skill / accomplishment statement. This anchors the skill specified and makes it credible.

Regardless of format, your objective is the keystone element of your resume, casting a direct light on what information you need to emphasize and what can be excluded. Yet, even with a clearly defined objective (preferably, briefly stated as a ‘headline,’ not a statement), defining work-related achievements is a challenge for most of us. And defining achievements can be especially vexing when your professional history doesn’t follow a traditional straight-line pattern, a more common situation these days even for well-educated and experienced candidates. Why? More of us are now making lateral moves within organizations and disjunctive career changes from one organization to another to find work where we can during these challenging times. If this describes your situation, you could probably perform well in two or three different career tracks. If so, consider creating two or three different resume versions with different objectives to enhance your scope of opportunity.

So, how best to tweak your information for any version of your resume without stretching the truth?

Consider the following:

  • Though it’s easier and more comfortable just to list job responsibilities, don’t make this mistake! Remember, if you fail to present yourself well on paper another, less-qualified candidate who has specified their accomplishments will get what could have been your job.
  • Have your career coach ‘interview’ you to draw out accomplishments that you have overlooked or discounted. Most of us are far too modest about what we have achieved throughout our careers. If you don’t have metrics to support your contribution to things like ROI and productivity improvements, you can still emphasize that you were recognized for strong individual or team performance, whether that feedback was formal or informal.The trick is to present yourself as one who has done careful research on the targeted organization and to express confidence that you can support the specific needs of the hiring manager.
  • Interweave as many words and phrases from the posted job description as possible. If the successful candidate criteria call for a ‘technical sales management’ background, for example, and you now have it as “engineering sales,” then change your wording to match theirs.
  • If your research shows that for your target position a significant percentage of companies are consistently calling for a specific certification or kind of subject matter expertise that you don’t have, then begin that certification process now so you can include it in your resume. Alternately, at least indicate that you are training yourself on the system, e.g., with online tutorials.
  • For more background information on general expectations for someone of your professional background / level, check out the Occupational Outlook Handbook at http://www.bls.gov/OCO/.
  • Finally, always carefully tailor the main body of your cover letters to match the criteria posted. Ensure that your resume integrates seamlessly with each cover letter by, if necessary, reprioritizing your bulleted information and adding supplemental information.

Dr. Dennis Ghyst is a senior consultant at OI Partners – Career Management Resources (Atlanta). Dennis specializes in Outplacement & Career Planning and Leadership Development with a focus on publications and Social / Emotional Competence assessments and coaching. Dennis can be contacted at (770) 438-0022 or dghyst@oipartners.net.