Your resume is your ticket into earning an interview. The layout, content, and presentation are critical to achieving this goal. The standard length of a resume should be two pages. A page for every 10 years of employment is a good rule of thumb.
Keep in mind the Three C’s
- Clear
- Crisp
- Concise
Your resume should Tell More by Presenting Less! Don’t tell others just what you do; tell them why you are good at what you do!
#1 – Career Summary Statement
Set the tone for your resume with a brief, powerful statement of your professional brand, value and credentials. It opens with a brief statement that describes your functional expertise and industry in which you have the most experience. From there you will want to identify your top marketable skills and strengths that will have the most appeal.
#2 – Who Did You Work For – Size and Scope
Include a brief statement that describes the scope (operation, aim, purpose), size, revenue, products, employees, and geographic presence of the company – Who, What, Where, When
- $10 million family-owned global consumer goods company
- Global leader in manufacturing of industrial products with 40,000 employees in more than 500 locations in 100 countries.
- World’s leading supplier of beverage dispensing and cooling equipment for top beverage brand owners, restaurants, convenience stores and hospitality chains, with US revenues of over $300M and 2,000 employees.
#3 – What Did You Do
In paragraph form, you want to provide a 13 week summary of your job. This should be two or three sentences/phrases that provide an overview of your day-to day responsibilities, a description of team leadership and supervisory duties, systems/software, and the title of the person to whom you report.
- Managed a global team that included 1 Accounting Manager, 2 Senior Accountants, and 3 Staff Accountants. Developed and managed a $1.5M discretionary budget, covering operations and suppliers in the United States, the United Kingdom, Mexico, China, and India.
#4 – What Did You Do To Make A Difference
- How did you add value to differentiate yourself from others?
- People respond to specifics rather than generalities…state your results in quantifiable or measurable terms.
- Numbers draw more attention and are more believable, so quantify your accomplishments.
- Make sure to include the impact, the scope, or the results of your accomplishments.
- What did I do – daily, weekly, monthly, often?
- How did I add value by: Boosting sales, Cutting waist, Enhancing products or services, Ensuring compliance, Expanding the customer base, Increasing customer satisfaction, Boosting performance, Improving reliability, Improving working conditions, Increasing efficiency, Implementing better controls, Reducing costs, Solving problems, Streamlining operations
- How did I contribute to or participate in change and respond to challenges/problems?
#5 – Everything Else
- Education, Certifications, Groups, Associations
- Customize for each job
- Minimize abbreviations or acronyms
- When making reference to total revenue, assets, etc. use “K” for thousand – $500K, “M” for million – $2M “B” for Billion – $4B