Ten Attributes of a Great Resume

We were asked to share an example of a great resume with the members of the Ask Liz Ryan online community. As I started thinking about this, I realized that an example of a strong resume, while undoubtedly helpful, wouldn't really do the trick on its own. You could read a good resume and not necessarily be able to write your own great resume as a result. The key, it seems to me, is to understand the elements that go into a killer resume, so that you can write a great resume for yourself.

So here is a resume example (a short one) but more importantly, I believe, a list of Ten Attributes of a Great Resume. Can you inject these attributes into your own resume and bring it up to its highest level?

Ten Attributes of a Great Resume

A Great Resume Has:

1. A human voice.

Before you do anything else, delete and replace all of the corporate boilerplate language from your resume. Your resume won't do its job for you if it's written in boring, traditional Resume Language. Write the way you speak! If you need help getting a human voice into your Objective or Summary, send it to us at the Ask Liz Ryan discussion group for a complimentary spruce-up.

2. A clear, compelling Objective or Summary.

The point of your Objective or Summary statement is to let the reader know what this page, or two pages, of job history means. Without an Objective or Summary to tie it all together, your resume says "Here is a person who did some stuff. What is the point of it all? Beats me - you figure it out." You need your Objective or Summary to put the point on the arrow. Do you know what's important about what you've done, what the theme of your career has been so far, and what your strengths are? Figure these things out, and proclaim them, right up front!

3. A storyline.

The reader desperately wants to know what you did, but just as badly wants to know why you did what you did, and why you made the changes you made in your career. It is absolutely appropriate to include the reasons for leaving various jobs if doing so helps your storyline. For instance, the last bullet point in a list of bullets describing your role at XYZ Corp. might be this: "Left company due to family relocation to Maryland."

4. An emphasis on accomplishments rather than tasks and duties.

The worst resumes are full of the dreaded sleep-inducing corporatespeak, but the second-worst resumes ares the ones that list every duty you fulfilled at every job you ever had. No one cares about that - we care about what you got done, and what you made better during your time on the job. Use that valuable resume real estate to list the feathers in your cap during each assignment, not the reports you filed and the meetings you attended.

5. No duplication.

If you learned XYZ skill at Job A, we will assume you still had it when you moved on to Job B. Don't use your valuable resume space to repeat what you've already told us about yourself. Point up the differences, rather than the similarities, between the jobs you've held.

6. A Punchy, Succinct, Un-Stodgy Style.

Punchy and brief go hand in hand. Use fewer words rather than more words, and edit yourself mercilessly. Two pages is the absolute maximum for a business resume (an academic CV is a different story) - one page is better. Ask yourself, again and again: does this matter? It is marketable? Editing is a business skill. Show the reader your editing ability! Punchy means pithy and real - use Thesaurus.com to help you find punchier word choices.

7. Specifics over generalities.

I read more resumes than most, and what strikes me far too many of them is their reliance on generalities, like "Led multi-functional team to meet and exceed business goals." What the heck does that even mean? It doesn't signify anything, and for that reason, it's not impressive. Better to say exactly what you did than to list airy-sounding, ambiguous resume-isms. Say "After a late-in-the-year merger, created Annual Report from scratch in three weeks." Don't say "Responsible for all corporate communications graphics strategy and direction." Give us the goods! Hiring managers want to picture you in the job. Sharing specific accomplishments lets them do that, and shows more of the human side (that's the good side!) of you in the process.

8. Few, if any, lists.

Kill the "List of Qualifications" or "Summary of Qualifications" that no one will read, in any case. Kill those horrible lists of "Skills" that cover all the bases, usually using bullet points between the words (e.g. "Operations - Sales - Marketing - Finance - Customer Service"). Those things are worse than a waste of space. What have you done in each of these functional areas? - that's the question! Make your resume come alive by nuking the lists and giving us the stories. Note: if you're a technical person, you can list your technical competencies, in the form of certifications or software programs or whatever, somewhere down low on your resume. Ditto for financial, insurance-industry and other function-specific alphabet soup bowls. The rest of us should be listless, as it were.

9. Thoughtful contact details.

Which thoughtful details do we have in mind? For starters, your name - pick a job-hunting name that you can live with throughout the interview process. That means choosing between Chaz and Charles, or Penni and Penelope; using a middle initial, or a middle name, or not; and choosing a surname (if you have a choice) that'll serve you throughout not just the job-search process but into the job-holding process as well. It's disconcerting to recruiters to strike up a conversation with Spike Spencer and be informed two weeks later that Spike would like to be called Krishnamurthy, and that Spencer will henceforth be Spencer-Quayles. Likewise, your email address should be suitable for a grown-up job search (that means bill.c.benson@hotmail.com, not billtheman@gmail.com).

10. No "References Available Upon Request"

There are certain phrases, like "This sentence is the one you're reading now" and "References Available Upon Request" that don't have any meaning. If you want to get some upfront mileage from your lofty references, include a line on your resume that says "My references include a Dean at The University of Michigan, the VP of Sales at Ford Motor Company, and the Mother Superior at the Convent of the Sacred Heart." Or you could leave the references out entirely, because everyone already knows that your references are available upon request.

Now, here is the resume (one of an infinite number of possible great resumes) that we promised:

Carl Sanders

123 Washington Lane

Montclair, New Jersey 07042

(phone number) (email address)

Summary:

I'm a Graphics pro with a Sales orientation, keen on creating powerful designs that sell products and bring new clients to my employer's door. I've won a handful of prestigious design awards (listed below) but I'm more proud of the fact that my marketing materials helped my employer win the Best New Product award at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2006 and bring $125,000 in pre-launch orders home with us. I love collaborating with Sales, Engineering and Manufacturing to produce collateral, packaging, and product design that is fundamental to a product's success.

Experience:

XYZ Corporation, Hoboken, NJ
Graphic Designer 2004 - 2008

• Led design program for the X-12, X-15 and X-20 family of wireless computing devices.
• Collaborated with Sales, Marketing, Engineering, Manufacturing and with clients to create and implement design strategy for the product itself; packaging; collateral materials; and sales/customer training aids.
• Won Graphics Magazine "Best Design 2005" award for X-15 product and packaging.
• Was invited to Chairman's Retreat along with top 12 company execs to create 2007 design approach.
• Left XYZ upon its acquisition by YenZen Holdings, Ltd. (didn't fancy move to China)

My ADD is kicking in - I'll stop here. You get the idea. Punchy. Concise. Questions? Write to me at liz@asklizryan.com.