It’s Never Done

Resumes have been on my mind lately – probably because I came across this article and then listened to a discussion about them in this interview. Resumes have also been the focus of much recent work with my clients. Part of that work is coaching around how to manage the resume.

The following* is a bit of my resume philosophy with some how-to sprinkled in:

Your resume is never done. You should regularly update and tweak it. If you keep up with it while you are happily employed, it will be ready when you need it. A good way to manage this is to create a folder called resume that you keep forever, whether in the cloud or by moving it whenever you get a new computer. If you target different industries for which you use a different resume, create a subfolder for each within the resume folder.

Help manage it via the file name. I recommend using First Last Resume Month Year (e.g., Laura Wolfe Resume Nov 2013.docx). Whenever you revise your resume, do a Save As, keeping all older versions. If there are a lot of revisions during one month, use the date in the file name as well (e.g., Laura Wolfe Resume 11-21-2013.docx). It is helpful to recruiters to have a file name that is unambiguous.

Speaking of helping recruiters, the easier you make their job, the better. This is not a resume tip but important nonetheless – personalize your voicemail message. Use your name so the recruiter won’t wonder if they dialed the number right and feel compelled to hang up and dial again to be sure. And, don’t have a cutesie or long, drawn-out voicemail message.

A resume and linkedin profile should be complementary. Make sure the work history, education, and dates are consistent. Using the resume and linkedin profile together to tell the whole story is especially helpful if you have a lot to convey and it won’t all fit on two pages. Including a link to your linkedin profile on your resume is a nice touch, especially if you have additional rich information on linkedin. This link can be placed either in the header with your contact info or possibly in the footer. You can personalize the url of your linkedin profile by following these instructions.

Research suggests recruiters spend only a few seconds scanning each resume so it must be designed to capture the reader’s attention and tell your story clearly and fast. Design options are numerous but your resume really needs to reflect you. Regardless of the design, sloppiness, spacing issues, misspelled words, typos, grammatical errors, and other careless mistakes are often (and should be) fatal.

I have additional thoughts on resumes but this one’s running long so keep an eye out for more in a future post.

*There is conflicting info and advice on resumes out there. Read as much as you can and follow the recommendations that feel right for you. A test of resume effectiveness is whether or not it is getting you interviews.

Would love to know how you manage your resume.