Building a Great Resume

The Five O'Clock Club Way:

What a Difference a Story Makes

by Kate Wendleton 

 

Concentrate your strength against your competitor's relative weakness.

Bruce Henderson,Henderson on Corporate Strategy

 

 The following is an excerpt from our Resume book by Kate Wendleton. It includes scores of sample resumes and case studies. Covers more than 100 industries and professions.

  

Every resume has a pitch although it may not be what the job hunter wants it to be. In scanning Elizabeth's "before" résumé (click to view pdf file of before and after resumes), we can easily see that she has had communications and advertising positions in a number of computer companies. That's the total extent of her pitch. When she went on interviews, managers commented: "You sure have worked for a lot of computer companies."  Her résumé read like a job description: She wrote press releases, product brochures, employee newsletters, and so on.

      Thousands of people can write press releases, so citing those skills will not separate Elizabeth from her competition. But we can get to know her better if she tells us about specific accomplishments.    

      Elizabeth agreed to do the Seven Stories Exercise. She didn't feel like writing down "the things she enjoyed doing and also did well" because she felt as though she kept doing the same things again and again in every company for which she worked, and she enjoyed them all. Still, I urged her to be specific,details can make a résumé more interesting. And working on the Seven Stories Exercise is a sure way to develop a strong overall message.

      She started with an experience on a job early in her career. She had thought of a terrific idea: Her company's product could be sold through the same computer systems that were used to sell airline tickets and car and hotel reservations. She convinced the company to let her go ahead with the idea, promoted it to travel agents across the country, and also to the salespeople in her own company.  It was so successful, it became the standard way to sell foreign currencies when people were going on a trip.

      Most job hunters tend to ignore accomplishments that took place when they were young. But if you had accomplishments early in your career, they may be worth relating because they let the reader know that you have always been a winner.

      I said, "That sounds great. Where is it on your résumé?" Elizabeth said: "Well, it's not said exactly that way. . . " Many times job hunters are constricted when they write their résumés, but the Seven Stories Exercise can free them up to express things differently. So we restated that accomplishment.

      Elizabeth then worked on another story.  She had participated in a conference that had "generated 450 letters of intent."

      I said: "It's nice the conference generated 450 letters of intent. But from what you said, I can't tell that you had anything to do with those results, and I don't know if 450 is good or not. Tell me more about it."

      Elizabeth said: "There were only 1,500 participants in the conference, and 450 letters of intent is a lot because our product is very expensive. I had a lot to do with those results because I developed an aura of excitement about the product by putting teasers under everyone's hotel door every morning.

      "And before the conference, I had sent five weekly teasers to everyone who planned to attend. For example, one week, I sent each person a bottle of champagne.  This direct-mail campaign had everyone talking about us before the convention started. People were asking one another whether or not they had gotten our mailers.  When they got to the convention and found teasers under their doors, they were eager to come to our booth.

      "I also trained the teams of employees who were demonstrating the product at the convention. I made sure that each demonstrator delivered the same message."

      Now I understood how Elizabeth had played a major part in generating those letters of intent.

      Next we needed to think of the message behind this accomplishment. Was her message that she could stick mailers under doors? Or send out bottles of champagne? No, her message was that she knew how to launch a product, and that's what we put on her résumé as the main point for that accomplishment.

      In her "before" résumé, Elizabeth said that she wrote press releases and did direct-mail campaigns. Her "after" résumé gives us some examples of what she accomplished with those efforts, and gives us a feel for her ingenuity and hard work.

 

The Summary

      After we reviewed all of her accomplishments, we tackled the summary. What was the most important point Elizabeth wanted to get across? It  wasn't just that she could write press releases and speeches, or do direct-mail campaigns.                 

      She had to think hard about this. The most important thing was that Elizabeth was a key member of the management team. She sat in on meetings when the company was discussing bringing out a new product, or planning how to handle a possible crisis. Elizabeth would not be happy,or effective,in a job where she simply wrote press releases. She needed to be part of the strategy sessions.

      What you put on your résumé can both include you and exclude you. A company that does not want the communications person included in those meetings would not be interested in Elizabeth,but then, she wouldn't be interested in them either.

      In her summary, instead of highlighting the companies she had worked for, Elizabeth highlighted the industries represented by those companies. She listed Information Services and High-Tech first, because they represented areas of greater growth than Financial Services did.

      Elizabeth was,and wanted to be again, a corporate strategist, a crisis manager, and a spokesperson for the corporation. That's how we positioned her.

      In every summary in this book, the reader can tell something about the writer's personality. It is not enough that someone knows what you have done, they also need to know your style in doing it. For example, a person who had run a department and doubled productivity could have done it in a nasty, threatening way, or could have motivated people to do more, instituted training programs, and encouraged workers to come up with suggestions for improving productivity. Your style matters.

      Look at this case study, and then do the Seven Stories Exercise. Come up with accomplishments that will interest your reader. Let him or her know what to expect from you if you are hired.

      In Elizabeth's case, we hope the hiring manager will look at her résumé and say: "That's exactly what I need: a corporate strategist who knows how to handle crises, and can also serve as a spokesperson for us."

      This is the response you want the reader to have: "That's exactly the person I need!" Look at your résumé. What words pop out? Is this how you want to be seen? If not, let's get going.

 

 

Great minds have purposes, others have wishes.

 Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune;

 but great minds rise above it.

Washington Irving, Elbert Hubbard's Scrap Book

 

The preceding is an excerpt from The Five O'Clock Club Book Series by Kate Wendleton. The Five O'Clock Club, Forty-Year Vision and Seven Stories Exercise are registered trademarks of The Five O'Clock Club, Inc. All rights reserved.

---