When it comes to writing your résumé, the advice you get is likely to be varied. Believe it or not, people can have strong beliefs about the proper way to write a résumé and these opinions cover the whole spectrum.
Penelope Trunk, on her blog Brazen Careerist, believes that your résumé should be a collection of your accomplishments, not responsibilities. She has a good point in this because, as she wisely points out, a hiring manager is likely to spend a mere ten seconds looking at your résumé. You want to do everything in your power to make sure that this person is impressed in those precious ten seconds.
On the flip side, a lot of the traditional advice will lean toward advising you to make your résumé a straight compilation of dates and places of employment, job responsibilities, and education. There is merit to this advice as well because these are all valuable things that a hiring manager will want to know.
When I was a recruiter I received résumés that reflected both of these extremes. There were problems with both because each leaves something out. A résumé replete with nothing but accomplishments fails to reflect the core duties a person was expected to do at previous jobs. A résumé that is a straight laundry-list of responsibilities, however, doesn’t stick out or impress anyone.
The best résumés tend to be short, concise, and a happy mixture of both of these methods. I recommend taking advantage of both of these schools of thought in a way that is appropriate to where you are in your career.
For example, if you are an entry-level recent graduate, you likely don’t have oodles of professional accomplishments to list on your résumé. In this case, list as many as you can in addition to your complete work history and any educational awards or honors you might have received.
If you are an experienced employee who’s been in the industry for a while, you could likely fill numerous pages with all the responsibilities you’ve held. Pare down your résumé and limit yourself to your most important responsibilities and accomplishments. I promise, if your résumé is seven pages long, no one but you will ever read the whole thing and hiring managers will likely miss the best parts.
The best résumé advice I’ve ever received was actually from Penelope Trunk’s book, “Brazen Careerist The New Rules For Success.” In this book, Penelope advises that you regard your résumé as a marketing document. If a hiring manager is only going to take ten seconds to look at your résumé and you have no idea which parts they’ll see, it’s imperative that your résumé reflect the best parts of your career.
The hard part is being objective enough to view your career as a hiring manager might. Once you’ve figured that out, the rest is gravy.
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