Saturday, July 14, 2012

Additional Section Contents and Criteria for Choosing Them



Beyond the professional experience and education sections, all resumes should have an additional section that sheds some light on the personality, interests, and extra-curricular accomplishments of the owner of the resume.

What can go in an additional section?  A lot. So much so that often the hardest thing to do is figure out what stays, and what goes. Let's start by listing some typical examples of additional section content, and then we'll focus on how to choose from amongst the resulting examples.

1) Involvement in sports

This is often a good choice, as such activity can show teamwork or leadership skill.

2) Music

Playing a musical instrument can be a good talking point in an interview, and this interest can also show creativity, or sometimes leadership or team skills as well.

3) Other Hobbies and Interests

Here it really depends on what you do, and the specific purpose of your resume.  Colorful additional section contents can include taking flower arrangement or karate lessons, for instance.

4) Anything you are learning.

As shown above, interests can be shown effectively if you study them! Being a member of a music school or flower arrangement class makes for interesting additional section content, and it certainly helps the resume reader understand what you do with your free time. Language are okay, as long as they add value to the position you are applying for. So think carefully before just blindly adding in 4 languages of which you only know a few words.

5) Volunteer work

This can go from volunteering for an NPO to volunteer teaching ice skating to local kids.  Volunteer work is considered by many to be strong on the resume because it demonstrates community engagement.  Don't list examples of how you donate money though - examples of actual activities that you put effort into are always better.

6) Publications

Non-professional, non-academic publications can go here. As can, for that matter, presentations or patents you hold that don't fit neatly into either the professional experience or education section.

7) Memberships in Interesting Organizations

If you are a member of the Book-of-theMonth discussion club in your town, this can certainly be considered for inclusion. As can membership in an association that promotes entrepreneurship or 

8) Awards you have won or recognition you have earned.

If, for any activity, you could win something or be recognized in a special way, then you may wish to consider including it in the resume.  

9) Anything else that may be relevant to the person who will be reading your resume.

If they are looking for "international experience" then aim to highlight content relevant to that.  If you started a business as a university student, put it in, especially if you are aiming to emphasize your initiative or entrepreneurial skill.

10) Other Skills

The key here is to be selective and strategic.  The days where someone would be impressed to see that you can use Microsoft Word are long, long gone.  So you should not include such basic skill in your resume.  But you may consider noting if you have a certain academic qualification, or a professional designation that doesn't fit neatly into another section of your resume. Computer programming? Maybe - if it is relevant to the job you are applying for. Again: be selective and strategic.




Hopefully, after reviewing each of these categories (and possibly thinking up others) you have determined 7-8 solid bullet points for the additional section of your resume.  That is good, but it is also of course too much! Depending on what you have done with the other sections, you should have 3-5 lines left over for the additional section.  This means you have to be selective, and choose only the most interesting, attention-grabbing elements that say a lot about you. How to choose what makes it into this section and what doesn't?  I'd recommend considering the following three simple criteria:

1) Does the activity demonstrate a significant time commitment?

In other words, have you done it for a long time or a long amount of time? If you played basketball once that would not be "resume-worthy" because it doesn't say anything about you. If on the other hand you established a golf competition that has been active for 5 years, or if you have been a member of the same community basketball teams for 1.5 years, and play every weekend, these would be activities worth keeping.

2) Is it recent?

Don't give examples from junior high school, because they don't really say much about who you are know (unless you are, in fact, a junior high school student). Instead, emphasize more recent activities in the additional section of the resume. Doing so will help the reader feel like they are getting to know who you are NOW.

3) Is it impressive? 

This last criteria is at the same time the easiest and most difficult to assess.  

Easy: is it memorable and interesting?  6 hours of volunteer work per weekend says a lot about who you are and what you are dedicated to - to me that would be memorable.  I'd choose that over membership in a pickup hockey team, if space was an issue and you had to make the choice. 

Hard: it may be difficult for you to be objective and assess your own activities.  If so, fair enough - get someone to advise you!



John Couke
john.couke@gmail.com



Sunday, July 8, 2012

Chronological vs Skill-Based Resumes



This post originally appeared in my MBA/LLM/grad school admissions blog, that is focused on providing advice for people applying to schools.

Choosing between a chronological and a skill-based layout is necessary when designing the layout of your resume. Both have merits, although a chronologically organized resume will clearly be superior for most. This post defines each resume style, and then lists reasons why the chronological resume is preferable.

1) The Difference Between Chronological and Skill-Based Resumes

Chronological Resumes:

A chronological resume will list contents within the academic and professional experiences sections in the order they occurred. Most resumes are reverse chronological, i.e. the most recent position (or degree) is on the top of the section.  Like this:

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Company A, Barcelona Spain
Senior Strategic Consultant 4/2011 - present
Company B, New York, USA
Marketing Project Manager 4/2009 - 9/2010
Business Consultant 4/2006 - 3/2009
Company C, New York, USA
Business Consultant 4/2004 - 3/2006
Marketing Manager 4/2002 - 3/2004
Administration Manager 4/2001 - 3/2002

ACADEMIC BACKGROUND
University XYZ, Masters 3/2001
University XYZ, Bachelors 3/1999


All jobs are listed, right back until the university career was completed. One concern with a chronological resume is that gaps in experience become readily noticeable, like the one above from 10/2010 to 3/2011.  This is not necessarily a problem as long as the additional section of the resume explains what they were doing during that time.

ADDITIONAL
Gained intermediate-level certification in Spanish language from ABC school in Barcelona (10/2010 to 1/2011)

Any additional question marks (why learn Spanish?) would be covered by the nature of the responsibilities or accomplishments in the Senior Marketing Consultant position that started in 4/2011, or if not then in a statement included as part of the job/school application. In this rough simulation above, the gap makes sense, as it appears this person chose to study Spanish prior to starting their current position, where it would presumably be useful.


Skill-Based Resumes:

A skill-based resume groups working experience by the nature of the work, rather than in a chronological way. Here is the same example as above, but reorganized into a skill-based format (with the academic and additional sections deleted for the purpose of the example).

Strategic Consulting Experience:
Company A, Barcelona Spain
Senior Strategic Consultant 4/2011 - present
Company B, New York, USA
Business Consultant 4/2006 - 3/2009
Company C, New York, USA
Business Consultant 4/2004 - 3/2006


Marketing Experience:
Company B, New York, USA
Marketing Project Manager 4/2009 - 9/2010
Company C, New York, USA
Marketing Manager 4/2002 - 3/2004

Other Experience:
Company C, New York, USA
Administration Manager 4/2001 - 3/2002


In this case, the line items are unchanged, but their order is changed.  The idea here is to highlight a certain strain of working experience that is particularly useful for the position being applied for.  In this case, one might assume the person is aiming for a role related to Strategic Consulting. The gap in experience is de-emphasized, as are any switches between functions, because the jobs are not listed in a chronological order. In a skill-based resume, the person may or may not choose to list the dates next to each position. Instead, the focus is on the experience gained within each area.  



2) Why is a Chronological Resume Preferable?


A) It's clear and complete.

Reader often scan the dates to see if gaps exist. I think it's a natural reaction to a resume, I have certainly done this for the hundreds (thousands?) of resumes I have scanned in my career. The first test of a resume is that it is complete, and documents your background and progress. It does not need to include everything - but at the least you should aim to account for all of your time. There is no problem with having a gap between jobs, or between experiences - as long as it is explained somewhere in the resume.  Note as well that if Job A finished on May 11, 2006, and Job B began on June 27, 2006, I would not consider this a gap at all:

Job B 6/2006 - x/200x
Job A x/200x - 5/2006

There is no gap here that the resume needs to address.

A skill-based resume is often chosen when there is a break in the working experience, or a period of time that is difficult to explain or wholly irrelevant to the position you are applying for.  The problem here is that the reader of the resume is most likely aware of this strategy. So, in essence, it backfires, as the skill-based resume may cause the reader to attempt to find a problem, solely because of the choice of the format in which it was written. If a recruiter, employer, or school admissions officer is only going to give your resume 1-3 minutes anyways, it would be advisable that this time is spent admiring accomplishments, not hunting for disasters. This is the case whether your resume ultimately has chronological gaps or not. 

B) It better shows career progress.

The younger you are, the more important this is.  In any case, most people's career arcs upward in responsibility and accomplishment, and you should use a chronological resume to highlight your own arc as best as possible. By breaking up your experience in other ways, the overall impact of the growth of your responsibility is harder to see. If your resume is chronological, but you worry that the progression of your career is hard to see, than you may not be emphasizing the right responsibilities or accomplishments in your career descriptions and bullet points.

C) The skills can be summarized effectively elsewhere.

Rarely is a resume meant to speak for itself. Rather it is an introduction, and comes along with an essay (school application) or cover letter (job application). The essay or cover letter is a better place to note that you have "over 8 years of experience in strategic consulting". Such headlines are rarely effective on a resume. So, instead of making a skill-based resume, consider a chronological one and be sure to include a cover letter or description in the essay as to what choices you have made, what skills you have gained, and how they are important to the job you are applying for, or the program you want to enter and future goals you aim to achieve.



Have you thought about the contents of your resume today?

John Couke
john.couke@gmail.com

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Tips on Organizing a Strong Resume



This post originally appeared in my MBA/LLM/grad school admissions blog, that is focused on providing advice for people applying to schools.

One point worth keeping in mind about your resume is the amount of time the reader will spend on the document - typically 1-3 minutes. Given this, layout and readability are both extremely important. A good resume starts in the presentation: how the document is organized and designed, as well as the content you choose to include, and how that is presented. Here are a few things to consider when judging the effectiveness of your own resume.


1. The document must be easy to look at.  For example, if the font is too small, the margins are tiny, and everything is crammed together, your reader will get a bad first impression.  This is especially important because the person reading your resume will likely only give it a minute or two, in total.  So it is vitally important to avoid having a bad impression.  Here is a small checklist to keep in mind:

a) Use a typical font, such as Times New Roman 10.5 or 11.
b) Use margins of between 10mm to 15mm all the way around, for instance using 10mm for the top and bottom, and then 15mm for the left and right sides. This will ensure your document has some white space in the margins and is centered properly on the page.
c) Ensure the paper setting is correct: for documents going to the US or Canada, use "letter-sized", and for outside the US, use "A4". Here is a page on betweenborders.com that explains the difference.  Even though many schools these days have computerized their application reading process, it is still worthwhile to be aware of the difference. 
d) Decide on line settings that will make your bullet points readable, and avoid crunching lines together in order to fit too much onto one page.  If you are using Microsoft Word, under "home" go to "line spacing options". Set it at "exactly" and at a setting between 12pt, 13pt or 14pt.  In addition, after each bullet point have a small margin, in order to ensure each bullet is separated nicely.  Experiment with these settings until you have arrived at the setting that makes your resume look best: not too packed together, and with a small bit of space between each bullet point.


2. Keep it to 1 page (see my previous post on why this is best) by selecting what to focus on rather than including everything you've ever done! When deciding, ask yourself what skills you possess that are most relevant to your future - either skills that demonstrate your ability to succeed at graduate school, or skills that are relevant to your future goals. What skills that you possess will an admissions officer or future employer value? Highlight your relevant skills in the bullet points of your resume. 


3. Avoid too much personal information (marital status, age, number of children, height, weight etc) unless requested. Such information can be distracting because it is not what your reader will be expecting when they review your document - so be sure to manage their expectations effectively.


4. Avoid long lists of adjectives like "dedicated team player" and other such fluff. These are not valuable additions to a resume, and are better included elsewhere. For instance for a job applicant, your personal description of characteristics relevant to the job to which you are applying could be in the cover letter.  And for grad school applicants, such concepts are hopefully to be found in your recommendation letters.


5. Include a short list of personal activities in the additional section. In terms of what to choose, this is the criteria I consider: 

a) The activity should demonstrate something appealing about you.
b) You can show a strong time commitment to the activity.
c) The content should be recent.
d) The content is strategic.  

If the activity fits all three criteria, then certainly include it.  For instance if you have been a starting member of a community basketball team for the past 1.5 years and you play twice a month, this is worthy of inclusion. You can highlight team and/or leadership experience, and also you have shown dedication to the activity.  It is easy to see how an activity that does not meet all three criteria would not be worth including: a 2-hour volunteer experience in 1994 that was never repeated is probably not worth fitting on your page, especially if you have more recent and significant experiences.

In terms of point d), some activities people do regularly are just not worth including in the resume, even if they fit a) b) and c). Many people read hundreds of books, or watch hundreds of movies, for instance.  However interesting such activities are, they should not typically be included in your resume, because they don't say anything interesting about you.


6. Make sure each individual bullet point, no matter what section it is in, is clear, impressive and impactful.


7. Have someone whose opinion you trust read your resume and give you feedback on it. It can be difficult to assess the effectiveness of your own work.



Steps 2, 6, and 7 will likely require assistance, so do consult with a professional to ensure your resume is working as effectively as possible. Finally, be sure to read carefully the instructions provided by the school you are applying to, or the recruiter or company to whom you will send your resume.  There may be additional instructions, including the number of lines to use, or other sections that may be requested such as international experience or situation-specific information.  Show that you may taken the time to understand their specifications and reflect them the version of your resume you send to them.

John Couke
john.couke@gmail.com

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Should a resume be 2 pages or 1?



This post originally appeared in my MBA/LLM/grad school admissions blog, that is focused on providing advice for people applying to schools.

Your resume is one of the most important documents you have, and requires constant attention and updating, even if you are not looking for a job or applying to grad school.  How long should this document be? Look around on the internet and you'll see people advocating for a 2 page resume, especially if you have a lot of working experience or a lot of academic accomplishments like written publications. Others swear that the only good resume is a 1 page version, where you limit and focus the content on just that which is most relevant to its audience.  Which is right?

My short answer is that the 1 page resume is the only document which should be used in your job or school application (except for those positions that very explicitly ask for a detailed and complete curriculum vitae, usually involving lengthy detail on academic accomplishments).  But that doesn't mean there is no use for a longer version.

I recommend regularly maintaining and adding to a 2-4 page resume, that is inclusive, and documents all of your positions and accomplishments. When you decide to apply for a job, or grad school, or anything else that requires a resume for that matter, then you can take this long resume and cut it down to a final 1 page version that is highly presentable because it shows a focused and strategic version of you.  For the purposes of this article, let's call the long list of accomplishments the "master" resume, and the 1 page version the "finished" resume. There are several benefits to be had from such a system.

Benefit #1: You can keep everything, without having to show everything.

For many, it is hard to cut their 6th consecutive M&A deal from a resume, especially when they all seem to be so interesting!  But the reality is that this level of duplicity is rarely necessary in a finished resume.  So, keep the master resume as a comprehensive list, while the finished resume can be a more focused version that contains just those contents that are most relevant for the job or application.  This is a great way to fulfill both urges people feel when they make a resume: 1) they want it to reflect absolutely everything, and 2) they want to feel that it is focused to the individual reader. It is hard to accomplish both with just one document, so don't even try.

Benefit #2: Content which is cut from the final version doesn't disappear.

I used to keep just a 1-page resume, and so when I decided to add something, invariably something else had to be cut.  This is fine of course, but what if one of those cut accomplishments may have some level of value in a different, future situation? If all you are doing is continually refining and juggling the content in your 1-page resume, then once you cut something you may forget about it - and it may be useful later.

Benefit #3: The master resume can be easily adapted into a finished resume that is targeted for specific situations. 

I've mentioned here that the finished resume needs to focus the reader's attention on the details of your background that are most relevant for them. Given this, a finished resume for your application to the MIT Sloan MBA program (where, by the way, they require a resume that is not "more than one page in length (up to 50 lines)",  is not necessarily going to be the same resume you would submit for a job as a domestic sales manager at a fashion retailer. Your finished resume should instead be catered to fit each individual need to which it may be applied. 

Note that as you finalize resumes for different purposes, you are not only cutting the volume of material so that it fits 1 page, but you may also be tweaking the word choice within bullet points to highlight different skills that you may aim to highlight for different purposes.


But why is it so necessary to make all of these painful cuts in order to arrive at my finished 1 page resume? Wouldn't a 2 page version just be easier to make? Why do I have to carefully go over all of my accomplishments in order to find just those key ones that are most representative of my skill-set, and that are most relevant to the reader? In asking these questions, you are giving yourself the answers: you need to make all of these decisions and evaluations of your resume content, so that your reader doesn't have to.  Your 1-page resume is the movie trailer of (the relevant parts of) your life - it is short, to the point, and gets the viewer interested in wanting to learn more.  Can a two-page resume do this? In most cases it can, but a one-page resume does it better, because it foes it more succinctly. There is a reason why movie trailers are only 2 minutes on average. It is not because there is anything wrong with a 10-minute trailer. The reason is because 2 minutes is all that it takes to make you understand, and get you interested in the story being told.


Here's a quick summary of the benefits of having a 1 page resume:

1) A 1 page resume offers the strongest initial impact, and makes it easy for the reader to quickly scan your background and be impressed.
2) A 1 page resume has only the most highly relevant and impressive content, because you have taken the time to select which bullet points to include.
3) A 1 page resume doesn't require the reader to go back and forth between pages or have to hunt for what they are looking for. Everything is laid out clearly.


John Couke
john.couke@gmail.com

Monday, July 2, 2012

Mixing Responsibilities and Accomplishments in the Resume



This post is cross-posted in my MBA/LLM/grad school admissions blog, that is focused on providing advice for people applying to schools.

I am often asked how to combine accomplishments with responsibilities in a well-organized and easy-to-read resume.

Accomplishments are the attention-grabbing and impactful things you have done. Describing your responsibilities, on the other hand, helps to make the nature and scope of your job clear. 

Describing Responsibility:

Let's use a management consulting position as an example. In this case, the job description is obvious, something like "provide management consulting to clients".  This information is not necessary on your resume.  But detailing the nature of clients, for instance, could be more useful, and add a new layer of detail: "responsible for planning strategy for automotive supply companies; specialize in cross-border acquisition cases".  In this case, the explanation of the responsibility that comes with this particular job serves to add detail and focus. So, thus far we have this information ready for the resume:

Management Consultant
Responsible for planning strategy for domestic heavy equipment and automotive manufacturers; specialize in cross-border acquisition cases


Describing an Accomplishment:

This is the core of your resume.  In any job, you want to show the key accomplishments you have had that impacted your customers and organization.  This is the best way for you to represent what you have done, and provides the most effective basis for the reader of your resume to assess your career. Using the same management consulting example, our consultant may have helped a client purchase an overseas parts supplier:  "Led multinational team of 4 completing due diligence on target as key part of US$35M purchase of French automotive parts supplier". This would give us this:

Management Consultant
Responsible for planning strategy for domestic heavy equipment and automotive manufacturers; specialize in cross-border acquisition cases
  • Led multinational team of 4 completing due diligence on target as key part of US$35M purchase of French automotive parts supplier


The completed example leads with a title, and then offers a description (i.e. job responsibility) and then has accomplishments as bullet points.  This is one effective way to include both types of information on the resume.


Questions:

1) Doesn't listing both responsibilities and accomplishments create too much overlap between the two?

Answer: It is natural for there to be some overlap, as your responsibilities should be connected to your accomplishments in some way. If you feel that the responsibility line is totally and completely redundant, obviously you can remove it, and just focus on the accomplishments.

2) Won't this method take up a lot of space on the resume?

Answer: It is most effective to list responsibility for recent positions, positions where the responsibility is important detail, or for positions in which the nature of the work may be unclear.  I'd recommend not listing detailed responsibility for older positions, especially starting positions.  If you were a "Junior Marketing Analyst" 5 or 6 years ago, for instance, I think the responsibility description would be less necessary, although the accomplishments would still be important.



John Couke
john.couke@gmail.com