Make Your Resume Stand Out

One of the strongest reasons resumes get passed by is managers read so many resumes, and they all start looking the same. It’s very much like having the same meal every night for a week. The same meal every night seems to work for the family dog but, hey, it makes its own gravy! I’m not saying that you have to make some strange resume just to get noticed, or play a bad trumpet, (see "Keeping Your Resume Out of the Trash"), but the old standard of a one-page list of tricks performed for your past employers can get blasé.

Standards are only good if they actually work. If we stayed with the old covered wagon wheels for all vehicles my Prius would drive a lot different. Not better, just “different”. As a hiring manager, I want the resume to tell me the capabilities of the prospect. Sure I can grill them under the interrogation lights during an interview, but basically, your resume is your “one minute” pitch so if I’m not interested by the time the resume is read; you will never hear from me.

Time and time again, as the hiring manager I would receive a resume from HR and I had no idea if there was a cover letter or not. Sometimes there was a letter stapled to the resume, but other times I found out during an interview that it was not passed on to me. Make sure that your resume includes at least some of the information from the cover letter. Some of the real eye candy stuff like; “100% of invoices paid within terms”; “Former employer stated I was most inspirational”. These little snippets of information tell the hiring manager that you could be worth talking to. And more importantly, tell me specifically how your successes will meet my company’s needs and my objectives. Do some research to understand what the challenges are for the industry you are perusing and how your profession or trade can affect the challenges of their business. Then list a specific instance where you were successful in overcoming that challenge. Statements like this will have the hiring manager looking like Chevy Chase bobbling the telephone in a frantic attempt to dial your number!

Let me tell you, I have seen them all. People have been very clever trying to make their resume stand out. I’ve even received several resumes with full glamour shots! For an accounting position I thought it was a bit much. However, I had the headshot framed and hung it in the office labeled “Wife”. And, unless you are applying for a magazine layout artist, don’t make your resume look like the cover of a Vanity Fair. Even then, I don’t recommend it.

When a hiring manager sees a good resume, they know that you won’t be available for long. They know they have to act fast because other employers are on the hunt as well. Make sure the phrases you use make your “horn” sound beautiful. Tell them how good you are and how you can affect your new lucky boss’s objectives. Give them meaningful information that tells them the value of your expertise and passions. Remember, your whole career is on a piece of paper so make it like an exciting movie trailer.