Resume Podcast
===
[00:00:00] Welcome to The Love What You Do podcast. I'm Kelly Dugan, former HR executive turned career coach, and I'm here each episode sharing stories and strategies to help you love what you do. All right everybody, welcome back to the podcast. We have a little bit of a different format today. Uh, we don't have a guest and I am going to actually be answering some of your listener q and a about resumes specifically.
So thank you so much to everyone who submitted a resume question. I put the call out on Instagram and on LinkedIn, um, and had a few of you submit your questions. Uh, I'm not sure if we're gonna be able to get to. Every single question today, uh, we've got quite a few, but worst case, we'll end up doing a part two because I'm really hoping this episode just stays pretty short and sweet so that when you have questions about resumes, you can get your answers as quickly as possible, uh, because the last thing that anybody wants to do is create their resume.
So, um, [00:01:00] just a reminder of why I'm even here talking to you about resumes and why you should listen to the opinions that I'm gonna share today. First and foremost, uh, I started my career actually in recruiting and I. While recruiting was not my chosen path, I did spend quite a bit of time there, um, becoming very familiar about what, what resumes worked and what didn't.
Uh, I got to see resumes all the way from entry level up into executive level. Uh, and I got some real world experience to understand what is actually working with. Hiring managers, uh, is there are 1,000,001 different tips and tricks out there about how you wanna create the best resume. Uh, and some of those, I believe in some of those, I really feel like the rules are made to be broken.
We're gonna talk about that a little bit today. Um, but at the end of the day, what is most important in your resume is that. It is a depiction of you. And that's what I took away from my time in recruiting and [00:02:00] then in HR as well. Um, I really truly believe that the best resumes are what scream personality, and I don't mean personality in crazy text and colors.
And we're gonna talk about some of all, all of those basic design roles. Um, but when you read that resume, you should be able to get an idea of who that person is, not just. Here's the job description of what they've done. Um, so that's what I try to help my clients do with their resumes today. So after my time in hr, I became, as, you know, a career coach.
Uh, and in my coaching I spend a lot of time, um, doing resumes for clients, uh, and also helping coach clients on how to improve the resumes themselves. Um, so I'm gonna take some of my favorite tips and tricks, share them through these questions today, and that's what this app episode is all about. So I've got my questions pulled up right here.
We are gonna dive in. Um, and the first question that we had, uh, which I love is, [00:03:00] are resumes going extinct? And you know what, maybe I think that there's a solid chance that resumes are not for going to be the tool that gets people into the door through the job application process that they have been for the last.
I don't know how many years. Um, I think AI has a lot to do with that. Uh, you know, chat, GBT is an incredible tool that you should be utilizing, uh, when you are crafting your resume. I encourage people to utilize AI to an extent, right? Um, there is a lot of controversy out there about wanting to trust ai, creating an entire resume for you and blindly sending that to applications.
I absolutely do not recommend that, but I do think there are ways to be able to utilize AI to help you work smarter, not harder. And we can talk about what some of those are. But as far as how AI is changing the resume game, ultimately I think we're playing this game right now between the [00:04:00] candidate side and the recruiter side of utilizing AI to help sift out candidate.
On the recruiter side through a TS systems. Um, and then candidates are trying to also utilize AI to be able to meet what they think the recruiters wanna see from them. And what that is resulting in is just this ballooning number of applications. I mean, if you're on the job market right now, all it takes is one look at a job rec to see the number of applications that are coming in.
Um, so I think what started as a way to be able to help filter and, and make. The process better for qualified candidates has maybe backfired a little bit. Um, and I think the result of that ultimately might be that maybe resumes is not the way to go. Um. I think a lot of people are out there saying the video is next, that you know, instead of submitting a resume, you would submit a video resume so that people are already starting to see your face.
But technology being the way it is, I think before [00:05:00] we know it, video is gonna be just as easily easy to fabricate as text. So who knows what's going to happen there, but frankly. The resume is not extinct right now, and you still need a resume and you still need a great resume, uh, and I highly recommend that you have your resume at all times.
Even if you are not currently searching for a job, uh, and here's why. When you need to sit down and write your resume, let's say you're not gonna be on the job market for another three years, how hard is it going to be for you to go back and remember exactly what you did three years ago? What some of your most major accomplishments were.
What were the things that actually got, actually got you excited about the work that you're doing today? All of that color and personality that we talked about at the top of this episode, that starts to fade. The further remove you are from actually doing the work when you're sitting down to write that resume.
So I highly recommend always having your resume on standby and returning to it on at the very least an [00:06:00] annual basis. Uh. It also is gonna give you the confidence that no matter what happens in the job market matter, what reorganization comes along, what layoff might happen, you've got that resume good to go, and you're not in a position where you're having to scramble at the last minute.
So highly recommend always having that resume on deck. Now let's get into our next question. What do I even put in my resume? And that's a great question because I think a lot of people. Know that what goes on a resume is what I did, right? Like what did I actually do in each of these positions, that list that are listed on my resume, and most people who have resume have that covered.
Um, but I really believe that's only one part of the story. I think it's a three part story that you wanna tell with your resume. Uh, and I use this little, um, acronym with my coaching clients. It's called Arc Action, which is what you did, what we just talked about, [00:07:00] result. What happened because of what you did and knowledge, what knowledge have you gained because of that work that's going to be transferable to your future employers?
So when you are looking at your resume as as a whole, you wanna make sure that you are tick all three of those boxes. Action. What you did result what happened because of what you did and knowledge what you've learned that you're going to be bringing forward. That is the full resume story. And if you're able to hit all three of those check boxes, you already are putting yourself ahead of where most people are in the resume.
Because like I said, most of my resume clients that come to me are really strong on the action, have a little bit of the results in there, and not very much of that transferable knowledge. So. I highly recommend focusing on all three of those areas. Now, when it comes to how long your resume should be, I'm sure many of us have heard the advice, your resume should never be more than one page.
That [00:08:00] was true at a time. And depending on where you are, are in your career, that may be true for you right now. Um, but once you hit that about 10 years of experience mark in your career, that's when I start recommending that you move from a one page resume. Into a two page resume because the people that you are competing against for roles, most likely they have, are going to have a two page resume as well.
Um, and that two pages is gonna give you enough real estate to really tell that full story, that action result knowledge story that we just talked about, um, and fit in all of the different experiences that you've had that are relevant now. Never force a two-page resume, right? If you sit down and you are truthfully going through and representing your arc statements on your resume, you're getting that action result knowledge for your 10 years of experience and you're still within one page.
There's nothing wrong with having that one page resume. [00:09:00] As long as it's telling the full story. Um, but absolutely do not be cutting things out to the point that you are leaving a lot of color and storytelling out just so that you can get it down to one page after 10 years of experience or even approaching 10 years of experience, two pages, totally fine.
And this is just another example of my general philosophy with resumes is that. Rules are meant to be bent and broken. Right? There are some hard and fast rules that we can try to stick to, but if we treat them as hard and fast rules and not situationally, what matters for you, what you're gonna end up with is trying to fit a round peg into a square hole.
It, it is not always going to work for every resume rule that's out there. I could come up with a but accept, uh, rule for how we would, might wanna approach that a little bit differently. So [00:10:00] treat all of the rules that you hear when it comes to resumes as guidelines. Um, and in most cases it is a good idea to follow those guidelines.
But if your gut and advice that you are getting from professionals, if your industry is leaning in a different direction. Lean into all of that information and make sure that you are taking that into account because um, that is what's going to matter more than making sure you have followed every single buy the book resume rule.
Alright, another question that we have on the list here. Do I need an executive summary on my resume? To my point? It depends. I would say that. In most cases, when I read an executive summary on a resume, it could be deleted. It's not adding anything to the resume. That being said, if you are one of my clients, you know, we have an executive res uh, uh, summary on your [00:11:00] resume, um, in 90% of cases, and that's because we are creating something called your unique value statement.
So your unique value statement that is. Something I've done a podcast on in the past already, uh, highly recommend go back, listen to that podcast, but to give you the SparkNotes version, your unique value statement takes a look at your strengths. It takes a look at your values, and it takes a look at your experiences that you've had, and it helps you to be able to come up with a one to two sentence description of what sets you apart in the market.
Okay. That's your unique value statement. That unique value statement is your internal rallying cry for. How you want to show up, um, when you're applying for, for positions, uh, if a position is worth, you even imply for. Um, but that unique value statement can be put into words that are going to appeal to an audience.
And that's what you wanna do with a really [00:12:00] strong executive summary on a resume. On a resume. For me, I don't even call it an executive summary. I call it a profile statement. Um, and it's very short. It does not summarize everything that everyone can just go and read in your resume. It should add something.
It should tell a story about who you are. Um, it should be intriguing, uh, and it should be very short so that everyone could get into, uh, your resume. If you don't feel like you have a really strong statement at the top of your resume that you love, if it's kind of giving you the ick or you're like, this sounds like every other person out there, just go ahead and delete it, that's okay.
You don't have to have one. Um, or you can send up for some resume coaching with us and we can help get that, uh, really strong for you and again, rooted in your unique value. So that's my thoughts on executive summary section. All right, what else do we have here? Uh, if I've been in a company for a long time, how do I show that?
So I think what this person is talking about is [00:13:00] if you have had in role growth. So let's say you've been at the same company for 10 years and you've held technically three different roles, uh, while you've been at that company. 'cause you've been promoted two to three times. How do you show that on a resume?
Do you wanna just show the tenure as one block, or do you wanna show these as individual experiences? I tend to default towards wanting to show each role you've had as an individual experience because what you wanna be able to show here is career growth, not that you've been stagnant for that full chunk of time.
Now, one of the things I hear from clients a lot is, well, my role really wasn't. Didn't, I didn't have a different job description for each one of these positions. I just kind of evolved over time. Um, how do I show that? And what we do through coaching at that point is really start to ask ourselves, okay, what are some of those responsibilities that started to fall off [00:14:00] your plate as you advanced?
Those are the things you wanna focus on, on your earlier level experiences. And you wanna start to layer on the more strategic work, the more leadership work. Um. All of the pieces that are most relevant to whatever you are applying for today in your most recent experiences. Because what you're ultimately doing with your resume is you're telling a story.
It does not matter if, okay, yes, I started processing invoices and after a promotion I was still processing invoices. Do I still have to include that in the second ju uh, second work experience that I have there? Um. No, you don't. Even though you were still doing it, you don't have to write it twice. Your resume is not a test to make sure that every single thing you've done is included, uh, in the exact order in which it happened.
As long as the story that you are showing in your resume is accurate, that it is in spirit, accurate to the growth [00:15:00] that you experienced during your time there, that is what matters. So take a step back, figure out the story that you wanna tell the ru that tenure in a long experience that you've had at one.
Um. Organization, one company, um, and break it down to show that growth. So that's how I would handle, um, if you've been in a company in a long time and you wanna show the progression that you've had there. All right. Do I include every job I've ever had on my resume? And at what point can I start dropping them off?
Okay. You are in control of your resume. At the end of the day, just as I just shared, you know, you have, um, autonomy to be able to decide what roles make sense to include and what don't on your resume, right? If you were a hostess in high school, you probably don't need to put that on your resume. Unless, and except you were a hostess at a five star restaurant and now [00:16:00] you've worked in the, you're going into the restauranting industry.
Uh, and that matters for some reason. Right? And this is why I say it's all situational. Um, in most cases, the jobs that we've had early on in our, in our pre career work do not need to be on your resume. Um. However you like that example that I just shared, if you run into a situation where it's worth it.
Rules are meant to be and broken, um, for your ultimate better resume. Uh, when it comes to people who have had a long tenure in a kind of traditional career market, when do you do that cutoff? Um, I personally don't sub subscribe to having a, you know, what, 20 years back. Cut it off. We don't need to see anything before that.
Um, I think it goes back to the story that you're trying to tell, and that's what I do with my clients directly today. Um, we figure out. Where does it make sense to start telling the career story? Is there a [00:17:00] point in your career where you had a pivot, where you started to focus more on the relevant work that you're doing now?
Then maybe that's the natural point where we cut off in that resume today. Um, for some we don't cut off at all. Uh, for others we cut off sooner rather than later. It all comes back to the resume story. What are you trying to tell and what makes sense for that story? If you have an early, like, if your first corporate job really does not make any sense for what you do today, you don't have to put that on there.
Uh, even if you only have eight years of experience, if you had a six month temp position when you first started your career, that is not at all relevant to the career story you're trying to tell. Leave it off. Ultimately, you are in control. All right. Um, should I put a photo on my resume? 90% of the time, I do not recommend putting a photo on your resume.
Uh, it just opens you up [00:18:00] to discrimination, it opens you up to bias, um, and it's just going, in most cases, it's going to hurt you more than it's going to help you. Um, and so I do not recommend putting any kind of photo, uh, when it comes to design rules. Um. You want your resume to feel like you, you want it to feel very a, a approachable, you want it to look professional.
Um, but as far as what that looks like in terms of the exact font and the exact margins, I am a little bit more flexible than I think a lot of career coaches tend to be on what that can look like. Because I think, again, the overarching theme you keep hearing throughout this episode is. It comes down to what your goals are, what your industry is, and what is going to make sense to tell your story.
Um, so just because you have a photo does not, not, excuse me. Just because you don't have a photo does not mean I am dooming you [00:19:00] to a corporate office space. Oh my gosh. This design makes me sick. Formatted, resume. Um, however, uh, you, you can be a little bit more flexible there, but I don't recommend having the photo.
And while we're on the topic, when it comes to resume design in general, um, I tend to recommend that you have two versions of your resume, parti, particularly if you are someone who you know you love Canva, you like design. Hello, that's me. Um, you like things to look polished, professional, and pretty, but also you're.
Applying through a TS systems who don't tend to love things that are not formatted like a traditional Word document, um, have two resumes. You are absolutely able to do that. Uh, you can have a resume that you use for. A TS applications and you can have a resume that you use when you are interacting with people, uh, as a follow up from a networking conversation or, um, if you were a direct [00:20:00] referral where you want to present yourself, um, in a little bit of a different way, go ahead and do that.
You are absolutely able to have more than one resume. Um, the text can be identical, but the design can look a little bit different so that you do have that a TS friendly version. Um, if you are submitting. Applications, uh, as you advance in your career, uh, you'll probably have more and more opportunity where you are sharing your resume, not with a machine, but with a human.
Um, and in those cases, I do recommend having one that looks a little bit more, um, sharply designed to your personality and, and who you're trying to put yourself forward as your personal brand. Uh, and, uh, we are at 20 minutes, so I'm gonna do one last question and then we can do a part two to this at a later time.
Um, but the last question that we're gonna cover today is, do I really need to target my resume? And what I'm gonna say is, if you really want that job, absolutely take [00:21:00] the time to target your resume. Uh, if you're on the job market, you know there are jobs that you apply for where you say, this is a bit of me.
I could completely see myself in this position. Give me the magic wand. I wanna sit in that chair. Versus, yeah, I think I could do this. If you try to go over the top and target your resume, um. To the same extent for every single job you apply for the, oh my gosh, dream positions and the, and I think I could do this.
I'm just gonna go ahead and submit my application. Chances are you're gonna find yourself, uh, in a world of burnout because if you are, uh, sending in your resume to tens of. Tons and tons of resumes or applications each week. Uh, chances are you are not going to have the mental, emotional, or physical bandwidth to be able to do the amount of targeting, um, for each one of those applications if you're applying to 20 or more applications a [00:22:00] week, particularly if you're currently employed.
Um, however. When you get those positions that you know you could really see yourself in, you are your unique value ties to that in such a specific way. Absolutely spend all of the time targeting because targeting does help your chances. Um, there are some AI tools out there, uh, for targeting resumes. If you wanna experiment them with them, for some of those just, Hey, I'm just applying applications.
But when it comes to a job that you really want and you can see yourself in, do not rely on AI to do that for you. You can use something like chat, GBT as a tool. Put the job description in there and say, Hey, here's my, here's the job description, here's my resume. How would you change my resume to be the the best to communicate my skills in a way that would be the best fit for this position?
Absolutely. Use a prompt like [00:23:00] that, but use your own filter. 'cause at the end of the day, you are a stronger indicator of what is going to help you get that position even more than AI or Chachi PT is. Um, so I do recommend targeting. When you really want the job. Um, I don't recommend spending hours and hours targeting every single resume for every single position that you apply for, um, when you are not on fire about that position, because you will, you'll get burnout.
It only, you'll only have so much energy when it comes to the job search. So yes, target. If you don't target it, you're leaving opportunity on the table. Um, and if it is a job that you really want, I even recommend sitting down and writing a cover letter. Um, that is an entirely other podcast episode in and of itself.
Um, but I do think that there is a way to write a really strong cover cover letter that connects you to an organization, um, that doesn't just summarize your [00:24:00] resume. So maybe we'll dive into that. In our next episode, I hope this got some of your most burning resume questions answered, because I know the resume can feel like this black box of trying to guess how the reader is going to interpret what you are writing, um, because that's really what you're doing at the end of the day.
Yes, you're trying to beat an a TS system to be able to get your resume through. Um, but even if you're sending your resume directly to a person. You're sending it to just that a human, and they're gonna be taking a look at that resume and they're going to have their own interpretations of what that resume should look like.
So my biggest piece of advice, and if you take nothing else from this podcast, is to stick to. Your gut put together a resume that is going to honor who you are. Put that into paper and stand confidently behind that resume because you could share your resume to five different people and [00:25:00] you could get five completely different versions of how you should change that resume.
So what you have to do is find a resume that you're proud of, that you can stand behind and, and utilize that, um, and really tell your career story. Through that page. So that's my resume advice for you. We'll probably dive into another resume topic. We've got some more questions that we didn't get to. Um, but as far as the most important resume information that you need to get started, this is it.
Thank you so much for joining the podcast today, and I can't wait to see you next time.
