Here’s How To
Write The Best Resume For Your Industry
An expert weighs in with resume-writing tips for jobseekers in four
major industries.
There are good resumes, bad resumes, and lots and lots of resumes that fall somewhere in
between. But that doesn’t necessarily mean all the good ones and all the bad
ones closely resemble each other. The approach you use to organize your resume
at one stage of your career won’t always pay off
later on. Likewise, a creative, eye-catching resume
for a graphic designer might be an overwrought jumble for somebody applying to
marketing jobs.
So Fast Company asked
the Brooklyn Resume
Studio‘s Dana Leavy-Detrick for tips on how to
craft a resume for four major industry categories. Here are her top tips:
TECHNOLOGY
Don’t just list your hard skills, say how you’ve used them.
Leavy-Detrick concedes that “tech is one area where ‘jargon’ is
relevant and even necessary (i.e., programming languages, frameworks), but
what’s more important to convey is what you accomplished using those tools.”
Indeed, one researcher who recently surveyed hiring managers,
recruiters, and others in the tech sector about the biggest reasons they have
trouble filling roles, said weak
technical skills topped the list. So yes, include a
“skills” section on your resume where you can put all your technical chops
front and center, but then use your “experience” section to explain how you’ve
applied them.
“It could be as simple as building new features, replacing a
legacy system with new technology that supports the business better, or
improving the customer experience,” Leavy-Detrick explains. But no matter what
you focus on, she says, “really it’s about how you used your technical skills
to solve specific types of problems, and how and why that led to positive
results
ARTS AND DESIGN
Show some personality–and that you understand the employer’s.
“Creative companies place high value on
culture fit, and this extends to the resume,” says Leavy-Detrick. “Culture fit”
has earned some
well-warranted criticism in recent years,
since it’s sometimes used (knowingly or not) as an excuse to discriminate. But
Leavy-Detrick says creatives still need to show that they grasp a company’s values,
attitude, and brand identity–starting right on their resumes. In her view, that
often means scrapping formal vocabulary.
“If you’re looking to appeal to design companies, advertising
agencies, or other creative firms, make sure the language doesn’t sound too
corporate, stiff, or jargony,” she suggests.
Explain your creative process.
“When I recruited creatives, what the creative directors doing the
hiring really wanted to see wasn’t a list of responsibilities, or even a great
portfolio,” Leavy-Detrick explains. “They wanted to understand the
strategic/creative thought process in getting from point A to point B. In other
words, how did they take an interesting idea and move it to a winning final
campaign/product/design?” Your resume is a great place to do this. Rather than
bullet out your job duties for a given role (never just do that!), use each
“kind of like a case study,” she suggests, zeroing in on a specific project
creative and its outcome.
SALES AND MARKETING
Think beyond numbers to show your impact.
For people with job functions in these fields, Leavy-Detrick
points out, “metrics are important, and representative of success.” However, “a
common assumption–and mistake–is that metrics have to be quantifiable, and
limited to numbers.” Sales and marketing professionals may feel hard-pressed to
share lots of data on their achievements but don’t always have access to it;
sometimes that information is proprietary, and other times it’s just not
available.
“But you can highlight impact in other ways,” she says, including
by “the language you use in your job descriptions. Instead of quoting exact
figures, use descriptive, impactful phrases such as:
- Delivered
significant brand and bottom-line growth through X, Y, Z.
- Turned around a
struggling business unit to profitability by . . .
- Drove increases
in top-line revenue by . . .
- Strengthened
performance by . . .
- Expanded
customer engagement and online following by . . .
- Grew digital
brand presence by . . .
- Built out a
multi-million–dollar pipeline from the ground-up by . . .”
After each phrase like this, say exactly what you did to bring
about that result. This is a good rule of thumb for any industry, but
Leavy-Detrick says it can be especially useful for sales and marketing roles
since it lets you talk about your own role in driving growth.
NONPROFITS AND GOVERNMENT
Tie everything back to the mission.
Many nonprofits and government agencies, says Leavy-Detrick, have
“limited budget and resources but still have clearly defined goals and mission.
So your language should focus not only around impact, but specifically on how
you helped advance the mission, vision, or values, or helped create visibility
around the work they’re doing.”
If marketers’ resumes need to highlight growth and milestones,
nonprofit and public-service professionals should zoom out further, she
suggests. Don’t just say what impact that project had–explain how it advanced
the organization’s larger vision. Your resume may not seem the best venue for
writing about your work history in such sweeping terms, but connecting the dots
from project to overarching purpose is a crucial requirement mission-based
jobs. So for each bullet point on your resume, Leavy-Detrick advises, ask
yourself, “What are they trying to achieve as an organization, and how did your
role contribute to that?”
Again, that’s a great question to ask yourself while writing a
resume for any type of job, but knowing which features to dial
up depending on your field can make the difference between “just okay” and
“when can you come in for an interview?
BY RICH BELLIS
https://www.fastcompany.com/40494909/heres-how-to-write-the-best-resume-for-your-industry?utm_source=postup&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Fast%20Company%20Daily&position=4&partner=newsletter&campaign_date=11152017
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