Yu-kai Chou’s Guide to Resume Optimization
A resume is essential in getting a great job, but has been
neglected by many. Your resume is the piece of document that
creates a chance for recruiters to consider you as an employee. It doesn’t matter how amazing you are
at interviewing or how brilliant you are for the job, without a good resume, you have nothing. I have
reviewed and edited over a thousand resumes, and most resumes are nowhere near their full capacities.
In fact, most resumes that I have seen are only about 10?15% of their actual capacity. People fail to
recognize that resume building is a craft. A resume is a one?page representation that lets the company
know that, given your GPA and experiences, can you:
1. Create unique value for the company
2. Fit within the company culture
Take your resume seriously
A resume is like a brochure for yourself. Companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars and months
of expert work to finalize on a brochure that can represent the company. The average student only
spends a couple hours piecing vague descriptions together without considering what effects it will have
on their recruiting process. Your one page resume is extremely valuable real estate, and everything you
put on it must have a purpose. If a sentence does not create value in the recruiter’s mind, you should
take it out; if a word does not create value, you should take it out. With a well?optimized resume, you
would be able to get interviews even with a less?than?competitive GPA.
Few seconds to establish a connection
One thing to note is that most recruiters only spend around 10?25 seconds on each resume. Therefore,
your resume must not only have good information, it must “feel” impressive. Within those few seconds,
you need to already have made a connection with the recruiter. Having a high GPA is obviously the
fastest way to do that, but I have seen resumes with extremely high GPAs get rejected simply because it
was not put together in a way that makes the applicant seem valuable.
Build a holistic image of yourself
Recruiters are trying to figure out if you are a good person to be on their team. As a result, your resume
must reflect you as a person, not just a brain. You must show that you are a well rounded, qualified
individual as an employee, coworker, potential leader, and someone to hang out with. A very important
concept to pay attention to is Diminishing Marginal Image, which means that if seven lines on your
resume say you are good finance person, the eighth line that says you are a good finance person would
mean little in the mind of the recruiter. Instead, say that you are a team player, an organized person, or
did something creative, even though your next experience might still be dealing with finance.
The Ins and Outs from an experience
When you are building your resume, keep in mind that your goal is not to say that, “I am impressive
because I had so?and?so experiences.” Your goal is to say that, “I am impressive because WHILE I had
these experiences, I did so?and?so things that others would not have done.” In essence, ten other people could have the same position in the same company, but your resume stands out because you went
above and beyond your daily duties and actually accomplished great things. This brings us to the topic of
Ins and Outs. Ins are what you absorbed through an experience, such as the financial skills and the
softwares used. Outs are what you did that created value in that organization. Companies are more
interested in Outs because it clearly reflects you as an individual, instead of simply the job title of that
experience. Ins are often reflected within your position already, such as “treasurer,” “web development
analyst,” but it is your Outs that ultimately define you as a person.
Four Phases of optimizing your resume
Optimizing your resume could be a year?long process. Some people have spent hours every week for six
months, and still only reach around 55% of its capacity. This is mostly because they do not have a
systematic approach in improving the resume, and as a result work on the wrong things. If a student
does not build her resume correctly from the beginning, she could spend months on it, and still need to
start from scratch to obtain all the interviews she deserves. In order to truly optimize one’s resume, it
needs to go through four phases.
Phase I: Formatting
Remember, a recruiter only takes 10?25 seconds on each resume. In those precious seconds, your
formatting is extremely important in giving them the right “feel” of your resume. Bullet points are the
most efficient way to present what you have done in each experience. You should allow enough space
for each bullet point line in order to put in as much information as you can. Make sure that you do not
waste any space, and everything is consistently formatted. Inconsistencies in your resume could
instantly ruin your chances with your dream job. You can easily find sample resumes and templates
online, so make sure that these key points differentiate you from others.
Phase II: Strategy
Strategy is one of the most ignored parts in resume building, which is costly for students. Most people
just think about what they did in each experience, list them out, and move on. To optimize your resume,
you must first come up with a list of the skills and traits the company is looking for. Then you must list all
the Ins and Outs from your experiences that show that you have these characteristics. Finally, you
should strategically plan out which experiences will convey which characteristics. This is where you
should apply Diminishing Marginal Image. You must decide which experiences are the best at conveying
which qualities, and make sure they are in the order that builds value in the recruiter’s mind.
Phase III: Wording
Wording in a resume is the most technical part of a resume, and is what most resume building sites
cover. However, they usually do not cover enough. They will tell you to use action verbs and focus on
results, as well as use quantitative examples. I want to add that for each bullet point, there are four
things you can include: what it is, method, result and impact. Most people rush to write about what they
did at their job, but in actuality, that is the least important thing to list on your resume. This is the order
of importance:
1. Result
2. Method
3. Impact
4. What it is
If you said you “doubled company revenues by spearheading an innovative marketing campaign and changing the distribution channel,” (result, and then impact) the
interviewer will ask you what position you had in the company and then you can tell them what your
responsibilities were. Also, try to word each bullet?point in a way that they all end at the end of that line. That way you will form organized “rectangles” in each experience.
Phase IV: Optimization
This is where you refine your resume so everything becomes a holistic image of who you are. At this
point, you will notice you don’t need to change many things, but tweaking a word here and there,
rewording some of the sentences, and rearranging some of the bullet?points. These tweaks are also
often company?specific, as every firm looks for different things from each applicant. If you get to Phase
IV, you should already have a resume that is over 80% capacity, and the rest fine tuning specifically to
meet the company’s needs.
Creating a resume is a journey. You will learn more about yourself, what you have done, the values you
have created, and will also help you do better in an interview due to stronger stories. You already spend
so much money and time in college just to get a good career. Why get lazy when it comes to actually
applying for one?
