I love helping friends and associates improve their resumes. Here’s how.
Your resume will be sent to prospective employers. Consider that:
- It’s your first impression.
- It needs to get you the meeting.
I’ve helped hundreds of people optimize. Some of who are making over $100k a year. I worked with one of these people for just a couple of hours to improve it immensely. He was embarrassed by how much better it portrayed him.
Goal: Make people want to know more about you.
It is supposed to be a brochure, not a manual.
Once you’re in the interview, the resume isn’t as important as your performance in the interview itself.
One page is better than two, but two is fine if you have a TON of notable experiences.
Focus on condensing to one page.
(If something isn’t a major value add, reduce it or remove it.)
10-15 seconds (to make an impression)
Remember your audience: Recruiters. Recruiters are busy. They are paging through and reviewing MANY resumes.
You are building an image of yourself in someone else’s head.
Think about these images, then craft it.
Ask yourself: What are the best 2-3 powerful aspects about you?
Make these very clear. For help, you might consider looking into the Skill Triangle, something I developed for Octalysis Prime.
10k Hours of Play, Skill Triangle 
Diminishing marginal image
Keep in mind that as you add information about a given skill, each new piece of information adds less value.
The next bullet point suggesting you are good at marketing research may not resonate as well as the first and the second. Instead, round out the resume.
For example, Could you show how are you as a team player?
I’m looking forward to sharing a template with you as well in Part 2 of this series.
In each bullet, there are four possible areas to discuss
- What it is
- How you did it
- Results
- Impact
Usually, you can cover 2/4 of these in each bullet.
As most Octalysis Prime members know, simply listing your responsibility may not be putting your best foot forward.
Get Remember, for example, that all other analysts will have similar job titles.
If your role is unique, be sure to highlight that, but don’t waste too much real estate on the ‘What it is’, and spend more time on the How, the Results, and the Impact.
Ins and Outs
Another way to approach is to consider the Ins and Outs.
What did you put In? Effort, approach, resources.
What came Out of it? Results, results, results.
Consider that low In but high Out demonstrates creativity in approaching a problem.
Formatting
Use past tense and stay consistent in your punctuation and grammar.
Good luck and we’ll see you in part 2!
