John Hazard in his April 26 blog ( http://zd.net/mOU8hh ) on ZD Net, Titled, Quantify Your IT Resume Qualifications, made a point that has been my pet peeve ever since I became a career coach 10 years back. In his well-written and short article he exhorts his readers not only to just write their accomplishments in a language that is more compelling, but also asks them to quantify it to further their impact. The reason for this blog is that John’s point is much more profound, and goes beyond both the IT résumés, and beyond just capturing your accomplishments!
Let me explain:
Like everything else, our ability to communicate well depends on our choice of words and how we choose to arrange them. This is even more so, when one is writing their résumé. Here, one is faced with a variety of challenges, including how to make your message stand above the noise, how to convey your accomplishments without bloviating, and how to make your message forward looking–letting the reader conclude that you are capable of doing much more than what you have already done, even perhaps in an entirely new direction!
Despite a seismic shift in the overall job market during the past decade, in the employment scene, and in how people are hired from an ocean of possible candidates, not much has changed in how résumés are typically written. This blog is about a radical concept that I came up with nearly 10 years back, when I became a career coach and found then, when everyone in the Silicon Valley was struggling to reinvent to go in a new direction, that traditional résumé design was woefully inadequate to convey a fresh message that helps through this reinvention. This new concept, now proven with over 10,000-plus résumés is called an Inductive résumé. An Inductive résumé is a forward-looking message, not historical, which is the essence of a traditional résumé. The Inductive part “induces” the reader to consider new possibilities that may not be apparent from a typical backward-looking message that traditional résumés present.
The New Design:
A typical résumé starts with a Summary at the top and then goes to describe Career Highlights, followed by Experience, which is a showcase of the person’s chronology. At the end there is the Education and Awards section, which complete a typical résumé.
The new Inductive résumé consists of the following elements, instead: Career Objective, Leadership Profile, Unique Skills, Technical Skills, Accomplishments Chronology, Education, and Special Achievements. The headings thus named for the key elements of an Inductive résumé transform its very ethos.
Let us now explore how each of these elements torques your résumé message in a forward direction and in an exciting way:
By replacing the Summary section with a Career Objective you are making your résumé forward looking. In this Career Objective you state what you plan to do tomorrow for the employer in a forward-looking message. The Career Objective statement is no more than a two-lines of your intent, aligned with the job description; it must be more about them than it is about you. Recruiters often object to this element by arguing, Who cares about what you want, just tell them what you know and have done. This specious argument is trumped by how the Objective is phrased and its focus (“them” and not you)!
The second element of the Inductive design is the Leadership Profile, which takes place of the typical Career Highlights. The difference between the two is that the latter merely summarizes you assignments and experiences, whereas the former captures a summary of your leadership stories (see Accomplishments Chronology, below). These are 4-6 bullets that summarize your leadership successes, not assignments! Some clients, who are not yet a manager question the naming of this element by arguing that they are not a “leader” yet, so this is section is not appropriate for them. WRONG!
A leader does NOT need an imposing title, but an ability to provide thought leadership and to create followership by virtue of their thoughts and actions that create value. Just remember, Gandhi, Mandela, and King had no titles, but we remember them as great leaders!
The third element of an Inductive résumé is Unique Skills. These are skills that define your verbal brand and showcase what you have done that differentiates you from everyone else. They typically stem from the stories that are presented in the Accomplishments Chronology section of your résumé. They are a two-word (typically verb-noun) pair bolded phrase, followed by a one or two-line descriptor of that phrase to explain your uniqueness in that dimension. Typically five Unique Skills capture a good cluster of competencies to differentiate you. From the one Accomplishment bullet crafted below a Unique Skill can be derived as follows (please read that section first!):
Ø Inspire Teams: Organize and lead highly productive, curious teams by creating clear mission statements, accountabilities, and by allowing them to take calculated risks. Reward teams.
Technical Skills are presented in the same way as they are in a typical résumé, so there is nothing unique about them in the Inductive design.
The Accomplishments Chronology section replaces the Experience part of a traditional résumé. By naming this section differently you are forced to present your accomplishments, not just your assignments when presenting your chronology. Although they will be headed by the company name, your title, and the times when you held that title, the actual bullets will reflect accomplishments, not just your duties. So, let us look at a typical example:
- As a manager heading a team of 15 engineers, carried out budget, annual reviews, and other administrative duties. Reporting to the Director, communicated department matters up/down to keep communication flowing. Motivated the team through good reviews.
The problem with this bullet is that it merely states your duties (done poorly at that!), which means that if you did not do them you should have been terminated. That is not the message you want on your résumé. Instead, try writing the following:
- Upon onboarding, quickly discovered that the team of 15 engineers was demoralized because of previously delayed/failed projects. Redirected the team on a new project, creating clear accountabilities. Worked-out four non-performers and cross-trained the rest, promoting a star player to Team Lead. The smaller team delivered the project two months (of 14) ahead of schedule, a team first!
With bullets that carry this much power you do not need many such bullets, despite their being slightly longer.
For any given position you must showcase bullets with stories (such as the one shown above) that have different leadership threads. For example, the bullet above can be classified as having an Inspiring Teams thread. In fact, that could be a title of one of your Unique Skills in the third element we presented earlier, as demonstrated above. The Unique Skills must be derived from these pithy bullets.
The Education section lists your formal degrees. You can also include any certifications that are relevant to your job that you are pursuing.
Special Achievements list your proud kudos that enhances your value in the job you are after. These can include a Project Management Award or special recognition that you received from a customer.
A résumé is your proxy; it must represent you in the most positive light with enough intrigue to get you in for an interview. One reason why so many people dissemble on their résumés (estimates are that 39% of résumés have lies in their message) is because they do not know how to craft them with the right attention-grabbing messages, as I have presented here with examples. With the Inductive design described here you can use this strategy to not only get attention of a potential employer, but to also change the direction in which you want to change your career! And, in so doing you can be completely truthful about what you have done, and get what you want!
Good luck!