Let’s Talk Resumes

It doesn’t matter what qualifications or experience you have, in our digital and globalized world a resume is not only your introductory handshake, but an all-in-one personal sales brochure and initial interview.

Get your resume wrong and you’re going nowhere, but what’s right or wrong and who is to judge?

What are Employers Looking For?

The problem with western professional resume writers is they follow the familiar pattern of boasts and achievements in a desire to impress employers. Did you really increase company profits by 300% in every job you’ve had, or produce a succession of 80% exam success rates in your teaching jobs? The white lie exaggerations seen by you as a cultural necessity in the west will be viewed by others as a major character defect, especially in the east.

What about employers then, what are they looking for? As a resume is both individual and subjective there is no right or wrong answer and it’s rather like asking what employer’s favourite colours are. They all have their own likes and dislikes.

Introducing Rezscore A+

What we need is a comparison which doesn’t necessarily mean perfection, but gives a judgment based against others. Let me introduce Rezscore which is one of a number of hidden gems I’ve discovered over the years. As a simple project I designed my current resume with Rezscore in mind and after some tinkering got the elusive A+ (Brevity 74, Impact 99 and Depth 96).

Upload your own resume/CV in word or pdf and get an instant score. Press ‘continue’ and click one at a time on the boxes ‘resume, jobs, charts’ to get a breakdown of your score.

Design

Although sticking to a prescribed professional format, don’t be afraid to experiment. There is nothing so off putting as a wall of words and stick to a one page A4 length. Open Sans provides a reasonable font and aside from headings, don’t use 100% black font against a white background; it hurts the reader’s eyes. Use plenty of white space and headers, a photo or an info graphic helps breaks up what is otherwise uninterrupted text.

Content

The above linked resume breaks all the rules for western resumes. A photo, age, testimonials… Yet they’re all requirements outside the west. Aim for objectivity. If you can’t prove it don’t say it and let any testimonials you have speak for you. Use emotionally based content phrases: ‘University educated, professionally competent’ has a huge 150% intellectual content. Your eyes might not notice it, but it’s all part of subliminal advertising.

Promotion

You can have the best resume in the world, but if no one can find it it’s a waste of time. At any one time thousands of recruiters are searching the Internet looking for resumes – help them find yours. Use it in forum signatures, join LinkedIn, write an article about education on academia.edu and put a few images on Pinterest; all with links back to your resume of course. Recruiters will find you and if your resume sparkles, they’ll hire you.