TIPS ON RESUME REVISION

 

 

 

When a candidate develops a resume, it often covers as many skills and areas of domain experience as he/she can honestly communicate to maximize the chance of interest by a recruiter or prospective company. However, when sending in a resume for a specific job, this more generic resume often needs to be tailored to emphasize the skills and experience necessary for the specific job for which he/she is applying. The following covers the areas which should be looked at in considering revision needs:

 

• Emphasize skills and experiences the Company has defined as critical requirements for the job. The two or three most important requirements deserve perhaps more than one sentence each at every prior job where it is relevant. Where possible, quantitative results/achievements should be provided, such as monetary value of product, performance to quota (for sales positions), size/importance of project, etc. Secondary requirements should at least be covered in a sentence or bullet point. To avoid an overlong resume, it may be necessary to delete or shorten other areas that are not relevant to the specific job. (Less than two pages is great, over three pages isn’t).

 

• Make sure the structure of the resume makes sense. There should be no unexplained chronological gaps. If the person has been contracting or consulting make this clear, particularly if working for more than one company at the same time. If the individual has worked at the same company at more than one position over time, they should all be under the same company heading. Repeating the company heading makes it look unnecessarily as if job-hopping has occurred.

 

• Description of companies worked for should recognize that the reader may not have heard of the company before. Therefore, indicate what market category the company is in, what niche within that category, its $ size, its public or pre-IPO status and/or to which target the company sells (e.g. enterprise, consumer, carriers, or whatever verticals like health care firms etc.)

 

• Proof carefully including spellcheck so that the reviewing company doesn’t feel the candidate has not been thoughtful in the composition of the resume. It is also advisable to have a spouse or friend review it. Often, they’ll catch things you didn’t notice because you’ve been working and rereading it several times.

 

• Since you don’t know who will be reviewing your resume in the process and what their level of technical knowledge is, we recommend that, where possible, you use terminology from the job description to describe your skills, responsibilities, and achievements.