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Spring cleanup of your résumé will be helpful

In order to help you “spring clean” your résumé, Dear Sam will be presenting client case studies all month to provide readers with strategies to make their résumés more effective and yield stronger results in their own searches. To view the before-and-after résumés, please visit www.dearsamonline.com/cincy.

CLIENT BACKGROUND

Jennifer had a strong administrative and customer service background and wished to secure a position in the administrative, customer service or medical billing/coding arena. She had held nine positions since 1985, all of which were listed on her original two-page résumé.

Jennifer did not have a degree, although she had pursued a B.A. for three years and one class toward a degree in human resources.

RÉSUMÉ STRATEGIES

When I first opened Jennifer’s file I knew we would be transitioning her résumé from a functional to a standard reverse chronological résumé. Functional résumés are only effective when you have little chance to get your foot in the door if you present your experience in the “preferred” format.

For Jennifer, there was no need to resort to a functional résumé. She felt that she had changed jobs frequently, a reason she chose to use the functional format, but when transitioning focus from her post-1985 to her post-1994 experience, there was no such concern.

On average, hiring managers like to see about 10 years of experience and certainly with an administrative background there was no need to present 20-plus years of experience when technologies and processes have changed so dramatically. Therefore, by focusing on only the experience that was going to enhance or support her candidacy, it left us with five companies all with at least two years tenure.

Through our phone consultation, I worked with Jennifer to reorganize her résumé and understand what responsibilities and accomplishments belonged where. A key reason that hiring managers dislike functional résumés is because they cannot answer the question of what you did where, and Jennifer’s résumé fell into this trap.

Once we had placed each of the original bullet points with the correct employer, I worked with Jennifer to gather additional details pertaining to day-to-day functions and significant achievements.

Jennifer had some great accomplishments to highlight, and even when she thought that she had played more of a supportive role and couldn’t highlight any achievements, we were able to talk about the experience and pull out areas in which she had contributed value to her employers.

For Jennifer’s education section, I separated education from professional development and omitted pursuits that were not in progress, limited in scope and otherwise unrelated to her objectives. As important as transitioning her résumé into a reverse chronological format was adding a strong qualifications summary and core skills list.

These areas not only defined who Jennifer was to each hiring manager, but also assisted Jennifer in understanding what her core skills were and how to answer the “tell me about yourself” question in an interview. The opening summary and core skills highlighted her broad qualifications and served to differentiate her from other candidates.

SUCCESS FACTORS

Jennifer had a strong background but it was hidden in a functional résumé. Transitioning her experience into the standard reverse chronological format was key in providing the information a hiring manager would want to know in order to bring her in for an interview. Using an aesthetically pleasing format, with accomplishments highlighted and only relevant experience presented, was also important in generating the interest and focus required in her job search.