Resume tips! (Part 2)

In the previous post on resume, I discussed the timing and dynamics behind resumes at Chicago Booth. I will now discuss, what are the key things to keep in mind while writing a resume.

Some key points to keep in mind while working on the resume are:

1. Plan your resume to be read in 1 minute. Think how you would read resumes if you need to read 200 of them. Within seconds people will decide to read on or not to do so.
2. Employers look for transferrable skills and relevant experiences. Prepare a talent inventory – a list of skills & experiences which you believe that are important in your desired career track. Do not worry about which skills you think you have. Focus on the recruiter's desires. For instance, problem solving is important for Consulting while financial modeling is important for Investment Banking.
3.
Distribute the items in the talent inventory across your professional positions. Distribute such that….
1. …it shows progression in career. As you grow you increasingly are judged according to what other people do for you. Therefore, most recent part of career should be lean towards soft-skills while earlier part of career should lean towards hard skills.
2. …your recent role should be content heavy while the early part of your career should be brief. Perhaps one bullet about internship 6 years ago is sufficient while multiple bullets about your latest role are desirable.
3. …the first thing a reader sees in experience should addresses gaps in assumed in your stereotype or first blush perception. For a consulting position, a liberal art major should declare her comfort with numbers as soon as possible. For investment banking an engineer should bring up team work as soon as possible. If you have poor GPA, bring up educational excellence in some other way – maybe your undergraduate program was hard to get into!
4. Think hard about your experiences and come up with information to substantiate each item as distributed above. Do not try to impose your old resume on required skills. Do the other way round.
5. Order the bullets well. Don't put what you think is coolest first. Put what is most relevant first within the overall reverse-chronological listing of your roles.
6. Don't be absolutely super correct in titles and company names. It just eats up space. Instead of "Sun Microsystems India Private Ltd", you can use "Sun Microsystems". Put a short 4-5 word description of your company next to the company name.
7. Use simplest English possible. I don't know what "MVP" is. I had to be told that it "most valuable player" and that it is a common term in US sports. Just say "deemed most valuable player in college baseball team". The problem may be worse in investment banking and consulting industries where there is a heavy international presence.
8.
Be brief. Resume is a Zip file of your experiences.
1. Think hard if you can say the same thing in fewer words. If you can, say it in fewer words. Else, get your friend to do it for you.
2. Do not put information which just fills space. If it doesn't make you a better candidate for consulting (or whatever), don't waste space. For instance, putting all the GSB groups and concentrations you have paid your fees for will make you look unfocused. For instance, for consulting – MCG and Strategic Management are likely to add value, while think before you put IBG.
9.
Assume no contextual knowledge. Assume that the resume reader knows English and that's about it.
1. "First class with honors" has no meaning unless you say only 1 out of 10 achieved that. "Award for excellence" has no meaning unless you say only top 1% received it. Merit scholarship is not cool enough unless you tell people with 99th percentile score got it. If something is not rare, it is not good enough. Unless you tell me it is rare, I won't know.
2. "Implemented IP v6 protocol stack" is Greek to me. If you want consulting, it doesn't tell me why you would be a good consultant. If you say, "Researched special components of Internet; identified opportunities to speed up software; wrote computer code which processed internet traffic 50% faster" – it'd be better
10. Mention the end result and quantify as much as possible. "Created business plan" is not good enough. You should mention, "Convinced senior leaders, and received $100K funding for plan. Plan implemented"
11. Additionals is to help you connect with people. It is not a litany of what you love. Provide hooks. Make it more interesting. Instead of saying "can read Greek and Latin" say "Favorite Greek book – Illiad; favorite Latin book – Meditations by Marcus Aurelius".
12. Don't make grammatical and spelling mistakes. Get someone who has never seen your resume before, and for whom English is a native language to review your final draft. However, you can take liberties with grammatical conventions to the extent they don't detract from value and help you succinctly convey message. For instance, I never use articles (a, an, the) and always use digits (instead of writing numbers in words)
13. Be honest. No exceptions to this one!