Many of my candidates spend a lot of time and energy worrying about the state of the their resume. I get a ton of requests to re-write someone’s resume or to give tips on the content. But most of the employers I work with are more focused on looking for specific details in the resumes I send them, and they are unlikely to care about the minor stuff, like the font size or whether it is 2 or 3 pages. If they see what they need to see in the resume, they will bring the person in for an interview. End of story.
So what do they need to see in the resume? I have found these are the three most important factors in a good resume:
- A clear understanding of what it is the candidate does, or wants to do (ie, their profession)
- How much experience they have in that profession (specific software or hardware experience, years in the field, etc)
- The candidate’s career trajectory (where will this person be in 5-10 years if they continue the career path they currently have?)
When you look at great resumes, all three of these factors are immediately understandable, usually within the first 15-20 seconds.
Case Study
Let’s invent a imaginary candidate and write her resume. I will call her… Melinda Doohickey. Melinda is a young engineer and is only a few years out of college. She got her first job through an internship at school, and has not updated her resume beyond the simple one she wrote in one of her classes. Now she wants to transition into a more senior role at a larger company for some increased moolah, but has no idea what sort of resume will look attractive!
We start with the outline. My basic template for resumes is as follows:
- Name, Address (city and state only is fine), Cell / Email contact information
- Job Title that describes the role you are targeting, or the role you currently have
- Skills Section (this is where most of your keywords will go)
- Work Experience
- Educational History
- Awards, Achievements, Extracurriculars
From a formatting perspective, keep it simple. 10 or 11 pt, and a normal font like Times New Roman or Calibri.
That’s it! Very simple. Let’s fill in the outline for Melinda below.
Melinda Doohickey
Minneapolis, MN
952-111-1111
Melinda.Doohickey@UMD.edu
Mechanical Engineer
Skills
Solidworks
Oracle
Lean / Six Sigma
Work Experience
Company A - Minneapolis MN - 05/2016-Present
Mechanical Engineer
Responsible for two production lines
Lean Specialist, lead numerous Kaizen Events
Design Fixtures for manufacturing equipment
Education
2016 Bachelors of Science - Mechanical Engineering
University of Minnesota - Duluth
Extra-Curriculars
Eagle Scout - 2007
Regular Volunteer at Feed My Starving Children
Here we have a very simple resume that will get the job done. Melinda could add a lot of detail to this, specifically in the Skills section, and probably also more details about what she does for Company A, but a hiring manager reviewing this resume will immediately notice the following details:
- What is Melinda? She is a Mechanical Engineer.
- Is she working currently? How much experience does she have? She is working at Company A as a Mechanical Engineer and has 2-3 years of experience.
- What is her career trajectory? Melinda has significant Lean / Six Sigma experience, and could conceivably become a Lean Engineer or a Lean Specialist in the future. She also has a strong mechanical engineering background and could simply continue down that path.
If I was hiring for a Mechanical Engineer or a Lean Engineer, I would take a very close look at Melinda!
Final Thoughts
If you have part of your resume already written, and are looking for advice, take it out and imagine you have never seen it before. Try to ask the above questions about your resume, and see how long it takes for you to take in. If you have to dig through the resume to find the details the interviewer is going to be interested in, your resume is probably not very good!