I’ll give you a hint. The best kept secret resume writing secret is NOT:
Writing a resume is easy . . . anyone can do it.
That’s simply not true.
If you’ve ever tried writing your own, you know that it’s really hard to do.
It’s just as hard for us. Even seasoned resume writers with many years’ experience labor over each resume.
It doesn’t get much easier over time to craft resumes that do their job – brand and differentiate our clients to help them gain job interviews.
So much goes into the writing strategy. And each resume has to be tailored to each job seeker’s particular target, situation and career goals.
I know you’ve already scrolled down for this, so here it is. The best kept resume writing secret is . . .
There’s no one right way to write a resume.
What goes into a resume depends on who will be reading it – recruiters, HR professionals, top-level management in on the hiring process, Board members . . . the list goes on.
They have different needs and may look for different things in resumes. Resumes may need to be adjusted to appeal to specific kinds of people.
And there’s no one right way to format a resume. As long as you do these things, you’re good to go:
- Brand yourself above the fold so it’s easy for readers to quickly get to the important things.
- Keep it to a reasonable length.
- Add enough white space for better readability, especially on small screens.
- Keep the formatting clean and simple, but use some enhancements to make important things stand out.
- Make sure the formatting doesn’t interfere with Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS).
Something often repeated among my resume writing colleagues:
If you pass around the same resume to 10 different people,
you’ll get 10 different opinions about it.
That’s the thing with marketing . . . and that’s what a resume is, a marketing document.
The best marketing communications are those that are written with a particular target audience in mind.
Different things appeal to different people. A resume isn’t doing its job if it doesn’t hit home with the person reading it, and help them see that you’re a good-fit candidate.
But if your resume contains the right information, positions that information in a clear and easily accessible manner, and presents you in the right way, chances are it will do its job.
As long as it’s highly targeted — as it MUST be — a resume can look and read various ways and still work very well. The hard part is determining what the “right” information is and strategically positioning it on the paper or digital page.
This can be hard for you, as a job seeker, to do. You’ve probably only written a handful of resumes for yourself over your career, if that. Many top-level executives have never needed a resume before, or never written one themselves.
So how do you determine what the right information is to put into your resume?
Decide who you are targeting, what those target employers’ needs are, how you can help them meet those needs, and what keywords and phrases their hiring professionals will be searching for when they source talent.
You need to align your good-fit qualities with what those employers are looking for in candidates.
The biggest resume writing mistake job seekers make is
having NO CLEAR JOB SEARCH TARGETING.
That is, not determining at the start of their job search which companies and positions within them are a good mutual fit.
Start there. If you hit all the marks correctly, chances are your resume will hit home, get you the interviews you want, and help you land the gig you want.
More About Executive Resumes and Job Search
How to Write An Irresistible C-level Executive Resume in 10 Steps
Personal Branding or Executive Resume Writing: Which Comes First?