A colleague suggested I chat with a more junior person about his job search. I’m trying, but I’m having trouble understanding what this guy does. His resume is too long and doesn’t have what I need in it. I don’t think he’s alone, so here’s what hiring managers look for on a resume.
Your address. Yes, the hiring manager wants to know if you’re local. An email address is not enough. You need a street address and phone number also.
Where have you worked? I want to see the companies, and under the companies, the projects that you’ve worked on. Don’t overwhelm me with the number of projects you’ve worked on.
What value have you added to the project? What did you accomplish? Don’t tell me you reviewed documents or code so that you could understand the requirements. Everyone does that. What unique value did you add?
Do not list every single language you ever studied in school, every operating system, every database, every variant of every operating system unless that is somehow material to the job. Honestly, do you really want me to test you on the C++ or the Smalltalk or the Lisp or Forth or the Algol (does anyone learn that anymore?) or PL/1 or Fortran you once learned. Don’t tempt me. I will.
You have two pages to catch my attention. If you have a resume longer than 2 pages, I might not throw it out, but a bunch of my colleagues will. Especially if you have less than 20 years of experience. That means that #3, describing the value you’ve added to a project is critical.
Ask someone to review your English (or whatever language you are writing in) if you are not a native speaker of the language.
When I see a resume of more than 2 pages from a person with fewer than 15 years of experience, I generally put it in the No pile. That’s because the candidate is not attempting to show me good judgement about their accomplishments.
You have maybe 30 seconds to catch a hiring manager’s attention. Don’t waste the hiring manager’s time. That means you need to spend the time writing a great resume. You spend the time so the hiring manager will spend theirs.
If you think you need more guidance, read Louise Fletcher’s blog. She helps people write resumes for a living.
Remember, a hiring manager is going to spend maybe a minute (or less) on the initial scan of your resume. What do you want her to see in that minute — a list of college courses you took, or work experience directly relevant to what she’s hiring for?
That means that no matter who you are, focus on your experience in your resume. If you can attach any value to the work you did, say that too: “developed microcode for blah-blah project, saving the company $50,000 in NRE.” (NRE is non-recurring engineering costs.)
Whether you’re a new grad or an experienced knowledge worker, use your resume to highlight your experience and the value it provided to your organization.
In his comment, Gregbo asks what I mean by “bad” judgment.
Here’s an incomplete list:
Frequent job changes, at least one job a year for several years
Months of no discernible work or lag times between jobs.
Titles that appear to move up and down the ladder.
There are more, but those are the common ones. Sometimes, people take jobs because they need a paycheck or health insurance (or both). Those people tend to feel as if their jobs are sucking the souls out of them. If you see a resume like that, don’t discard it. That candidate wants a good job–and may almost be desperate for a good job.
I once had a job for two weeks. The same week I was hired, I got a call to report to headquarters in another state, where they laid me off. I made a bad decision to take that job. Luckily, the hiring manager at my next job thought it was funny, and didn’t consider that small interlude a problem job.
So that’s what I mean by a “bad” decision. Candidates can’t tell if a company is on the skids, or will cancel the project they got hired for. If you’re a hiring manager or a recruiter, you have the opportunity to offer the candidate a great start in your organization. Don’t let your prejudices about length of service persuade you to avoid this candidate.
A capable senior manager has been looking for a new job for a couple of months. He’s a capable guy, and although two months isn’t that long, I was surprised that he’s had no nibbles.Then I saw his resume. His resume was 5 pages long, and had too much detail to read quickly. It also seemed to repeat information from one page to another.Candidates, remember you don’t have much time to impress a hiring manager. Those of you looking for senior management positions–you probably have less time because once the more senior manager takes a look at your resume you may only have 10-15 seconds to impress that manager.It’s ok to have two versions of your resume: the short one that’s no more than 3 pages long (one overview page and two reverse chronological pages), and a longer one that you explain is available if people want more detail.Remember, a resume is a marketing piece. Your job is to whet the hiring manager’s appetite, not kill it. Think about how long you really need your resume to be.
I was speaking with a project manager the other day, who’s looking for a job but does not have a PMP certification. He was worried, so I asked him how he presented himself to potential hiring managers and HR people. He said, “I don’t have a PMP, but I’ve been really successful managing projects for the last 20 years.”I suggested he turn around the sentence: “I’ve successfully managed projects for 20 years,” and stop right there. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know how I feel about certifications and their relevance to the position. (Too often, certifications are the lazy manager’s way to avoid analyzing the job.)Candidates, when you’re looking for a job, focus on the skills you have. Consider your answer (or multiple answers to) Your Most Significant Accomplishment. Those are your strengths. BTW, I agree with the comment on that post that deciding what that accomplishment is and writing or speaking about it is a difficult thing to do.