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Ähnlich wie Resumes-Remove The Irrelevant Jan 5, 2014 R2
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Resumes-Remove The Irrelevant Jan 5, 2014 R2
- 1. Steve Rogers Systems Engineer “Root Cause Analyst” at Steve Rogers Independent Consulting rogersjs@flash.net 817-456-6123 02/05/2014 R2
- 2. WHY? It will mask or hide important information. The reader will get tired of reading blah, blah, blah. You have 12 to 15 seconds; do you feel lucky? Think BILLBOARD; not BIOGRAPHY. Seriously; do you really need more reasons? Okay How about because I said so. Your mother said so. Foster said he is tired of reading long boring resumes. You’re killing trees or electrons. Resumes – Remove The Irrelevant
- 3. HOW? A PROCESS! Rank every accomplishment or statement you have on a scale from 1 to 5 (5 is best) with respect to its importance to your target job or a specific job description. Think “requirements” in terms of “must have”, “desirable”, “interesting”, “meaningful to you” and “not required.” “Duties” will rank way below “accomplishments.” Resumes – Remove The Irrelevant
- 4. A PROCESS! If it is a “statement” that could apply to 50% of the people, delete it. Example - Team Player able to get along with everyone. (As long as they do things my way, or who can’t.) If it is an “accomplishment” that has no “so what” try to come up with one, or if it was ranked less than 3, delete it. Example – Computerized entire company organizational chart. Resumes – Remove The Irrelevant
- 5. A PROCESS! Pick your three or four best accomplishments, in order of importance to your target job. Move these to the top of your resume between your statement of what makes you so great and your Work Experience. I know it’s a little off topic right now, but it’s a good idea. Resumes – Remove The Irrelevant
- 6. A PROCESS! Look for duplications – Can type 50 …, Can type 50 …, Can type 50. Each duplicate gets a reduction in rank. Why? Because duplicates are irrelevant. Say something new. Repetition is BORING. look for “watered-down” or “weak-worded” accomplishments and statements. Reword them so they are more powerful. Resumes – Remove The Irrelevant
- 7. A PROCESS! • Example: Wrote a 213.5 page System Engineering Management Plan, including the cover page, table of contents and a list of acronyms, with little or no supervision, typing at 40 words a minute, on an electronic keyboard, using an IBM M57p Ultra computer with a 15.5 inch widescreen and Microsoft Word version XTML 2003, with pictures pasted in from FrameMaker 8, version 9.23g, using SEMPMASTER 2003 version 2.6c/rev 16/ dated October 16, 2006, but could have also used a Mac with it’s associated software packages for SEMP authoring, for a UAV proposal, meeting the deadline established by the customer, which was difficult because of a late start on the proposal, while working in a temporary building, with no air conditioning, in Texas, and my company won a $5M contract. Resumes – Remove The Irrelevant
- 8. A PROCESS! Example: Developed a System Engineering Management Plan (SEMP) for a UAV proposal which resulted in a $5M contract award Resumes – Remove The Irrelevant
- 9. A PROCESS! Example: Setup and maintained the sound and special effects systems for the Grateful Dead, ZZ Top, and the Beach Boys by repairing mikes, replacing batteries, loading and unloading vans during tour dates Resumes – Remove The Irrelevant
- 10. A PROCESS! What the “revised” accomplishment looks like: Resumes – Remove The Irrelevant
- 11. A PROCESS! Delete all the items you have ranked below 3 in importance. Save and print out a copy of your revised resume. Look it over and re-rank, delete, revise, reword, as required. Make sure you save each revision. Repeat. At the end, you should have a shorter and much more powerful resume. Resumes – Remove The Irrelevant
- 12. A PROCESS! Your example: Resumes – Remove The Irrelevant
- 13. Resumes – Remove The Irrelevant A PROCESS! Examples: Chaired several cross functional process improvement teams Supervised five customer contact associates Focal point for all service operations Designer with exceptional analytical and innovative skills in all phases of software engineering unto accomplishing hard solutions like new parsers, auto SQL statement generation, rich intranet, and Internet experiences Designed portions of IETM system with C, X-Windows/Motif and Oracle dedicated to FSX, with IBM RS6000 and HP workstations LINKEDIN PROFILE: http://www.linkedin.com/in/mybdmov.com
- 14. A PROCESS! Examples: Delivered expertise in “procure to pay cycle” best practices and process improvement recommendations for the shared services consolidation initiatives Coordinated accounts payable functions for the shared services organization Supervisory responsibility of support staff Proficiency in contract negotiation and enforcement Extensive experience conducting both monthly and annual board meetings of non-profit organizations Selected as 1 of 12 United States Air Force Airmen of the Year Resumes – Remove The Irrelevant
- 15. Some Useful Resources For Jobseekers: CareerSolutions Workshop – A series of twelve workshops that cover critical things you need to know to shorten your job search. Enter at any time. See website for workshop locations, job hunting tips, radio programs, seminars, job fairs, and great job postings. http://www.careersolutionsworkshop.org/ Career Search Network – Networking is how 85% of the jobs are found, this is where you need to be to get your own network started. Guest speakers provide job hunting tips. See website for locations, job hunting resources and a list of other resources. http://www.careersearchnetwork.org/ Search4Uinc – Job postings for all job seekers from no-collar to executive. Job hunting and recruiting tips, upcoming events and much more. http://search4uinc.com/ CareerDFW.com – A super website with, hot job postings, calendar of job fair locations, job hunting tips, groups, and more. http://careerdfw.org LinkedIn – Login and create your professional network. Find former co- workers, locate target companies, make new networking connections. https://www.linkedin.com/ Texas Workforce Commission – Everything. http://www.texasworkforce.org/
Hinweis der Redaktion
- Story – There’s a pony in here somewhere!!! How long should your resume be? Two pages should be enough for most people. Choose your words carefully, try to get your message across in 400 to 500 words. If your resume is in the 900 plus word range, it may get tossed and never read. If you post a 5 page resume with 1500 words, you will get a lot of “hits” or “questions”, but not many will be meaningful or lead to an interview. Your goal is to get a meaningful interview that leads to a job offer. If you are getting two or more interviews a week, your resume is OKAY. A phone interview is a screening process. If you are getting interviews and no job offers, guess what is wrong?
- A rank of FIVE is so powerful it says “bring this person in for an interview!” A rank of ONE says “what the heck does that have to do with this job, so what, or who cares? It would not get you an interview. Sorry, but “interesting”, “meaningful to you” and “not required” all fall into the same category – IRRELEVANT. Remove them. If you look back at what was discussed during your last interview, one that did not result in a job offer, and find that you discussed what was interesting or fun for you, but NOT focused on how you would be the solution to the pain that the company had, that is why irrelevant information should be removed. It may lead the interview in the wrong direction and cost you a job offer. Everyone has trouble identifying the irrelevant – you are not alone. List DUTIES only as a last resort, ACCOMPLISHMENTS are way more powerful. Note: Make sure you have an up-to-date format for your resume. My friend David Rawles covers many helpful resume tips in his book “Finding A Job God’s Way” and in his CareerSolutions Workshops. If you’re serious about finding a job, David’s workshops provide everything you need to know to shorten your job search.
- If it applies to almost everyone, it will not differentiate you from anyone else. An accomplishment with no “so what” or “outcome” is weak and carries very little weight. Think in terms of savings or benefits to the company, TIME – MONEY – RESOURCES – QUALITY, etc. In the last example listed, it may have taken a lot of time to do and was a great accomplishment, but what was the outcome, result, or benefit? Whatever you do – don’t lie on your resume; if you were on a team that had a great accomplishment, put down the part you did to make it happen.
- Think in terms of what your best accomplishments mean to your target company and your specific job.
- Duplications – The first time the statement is used on the resume may be ranked as 4, the next time it is listed it gets a 3, then 2, etc. At some point it will become irrelevant, delete it. Duplications are okay and encouraged, sometimes – You can duplicate a FEW critical keywords used in your profession if you are writing a general resume to be posted on job boards to help recruiters find you. Remember the 0.5% possibility. Otherwise tailor your resume specifically to the job posting you are applying for. Don’t mask or dilute your accomplishments with a lot of fluff or meaningless words. Imagine you are sending a Telegram and each word costs $5.
- Okay - This may be a slightly exaggerated example, but not much. After reviewing several hundred resumes for each job opening, this is what they seem like to the person reviewing them. Question - Is there ONE thing in this paragraph that can be removed which would make this more powerful and memorable? Answer - THE IRRELEVANT!
- Notice – the system and equipment used to develop or author the SEMP is not listed. If it is listed here, your target company may not have it so your experience would be “less valuable” because they would need to train you on their system, or you may not “fit in”, or be able to adapt to their system. If you know your target company has the system, THEN you would list it here. Why UAV is not defined – common use term across many professions. Why SEMP is defined – common to only a few professions or companies. In a document the acronym would only be used if it was repeated over and over so the term did not need to be spelled out each time – In a resume it is an uncommon “keyword” and should be listed in the accomplishment. Linking a “keyword” to an accomplishment is way more powerful than putting it in a table on a resume.
- WOW, what an accomplishment. Fantastic, interesting, unique, wonderful! The bad part is that this may be the most memorable thing about your resume and IF it has NOTHING to do with your job, it will be a major distraction. Do you want to be remembered for the job you are applying for or something totally unrelated? Which one will get you an interview? If you received an interview due to being “interesting” and all of the time was spent on this item, would you get the job? Now for the revision to make it even more powerful. FODDER or FILLERS – People who are called in to interview who have zero chance of being hired because a hiring decision has already been made. The person hired will always be the “best fit for the job” because the others will not even come close to meeting the needs of the company. It is fun to have some “interesting” people come in to fill the time slot. You can discuss football, college, anything else that seems to give you a “connection” with the interviewer and make you think the interview went well.
- Guess what? It’s gone! Why? System Engineering Managers don’t care about no drug-crazed, guitar picking, hippie freaks.
- Save each revision with a different number like Rev 1, Rev 2, etc. Just in case you made a boo boo. Print out each revision – they look different in print than on the screen. It may take five to eight revisions to get it right, don’t worry, this is not a race. Have as many people as you can read it and implement their suggestions if they seem reasonable. Print it out and look at it. It is YOUR resume, if it does not look right, sound right or reflect YOU, then change it. You need to own it. Get typos and misspelled words down to zero. You will know you’re done when you show it to someone and they say WOW instead of OMG. Sometimes less is more; trust me, this is one.
- Examples from the group?
- Can you remove, or revise these? BTW - I would NOT recommend that you put your LinkedIn profile on your resume, nor on your business cards. I often find “red-flags” on LinkedIn that would cause me to loose interest in a candidate. Also, if someone sees your resume or business card and has some questions, would you rather they talk to you in person or go somewhere else? Think about this, a good salesman would rather talk to the customer in person rather than give them a sales brochure or send them somewhere else. Ask yourself this; what is on your Linkedin profile that would be likely to land you an interview that is NOT on your resume? I have heard that putting your Linkedin link on your resume and business cards is a good idea. What I have not heard is any evidence that it will help get an interview. What information is on your Linkedin profile that is NOT on your resume that would result in an interview? What are the odds of that happening? In my experience, most people do not have a Linkedin profile that matches their resume and they have too much info on their profile. My main reason for not making it easy to find the Linkedin profile is because the whole purpose of the resume is to get an interview. Think of it this way, the resume purposely leaves off a lot of information so you will be called in to answer any questions. If you send them to Linkedin to get the answers, they are less likely to call you. Here is another issue; there is a high probability that they will see something on Linkedin that will cause you a problem. Usually, the job titles don’t match; that is a big turn off because it is hard to know where someone’s true passion lies. It could be groups you may belong to that they don’t like, contacts they may have had problems with, companies or jobs you may have left off your resume, etc. More information is not always better. I find some red flags on about 40% of the Linkedin profiles that I visit that eliminates them as a viable candidate. If your resume and Linkedin profile line up 100%, it is less of a problem. In that case, there will be no reason for anyone to go there to get more info, it will just be a waste of their time. If, in the unlikely event, that there is something on your Linkedin profile that was NOT on your resume and that caused you to get a job interview, the odds are that your resume was not written correctly. Having your Linkedin link on your business cards is even worse. If someone has your card, your Linkedin profile will become your resume and you will NOT get a chance to tailor it to a specific job opening or explain any red flags that are seen there. You need to remember that we are usually looking for reasons to reject candidates because there are more job seekers than job openings. More info is not always a good thing; just like talking too much during the interview.
- Note: This presentation is posted on-line and is “public” so you have my permission to use it as you see fit. Use this presentation at your own risk, check with your doctor and/or lawyer first, etc. If you see any errors or problems with this presentation, feel free to make corrections. If you let me know, I may or may not incorporate them. If you present it to groups, it would be nice if you give me credit, if not, shame on you.