Create A Resume That Works

Have you ever asked yourself what you would need to include in your resume to present yourself to potential clients and employers? You know this document makes a difference in whether you receive that long-awaited opportunity, but where do you start? A resume is not something that most of us write every day. Yet we should be familiar with some fundamentals for when we are called to action. 

Let’s meet Lisa. Lisa is a learning and development manager who is interested in a position where she can be more involved in a business’s strategic planning. Like many other learning and development professionals, she thought she was off to a good start after visiting a few websites that offer career guidance. She soon found out otherwise. 

Lisa started by listing her employment history, beginning with her current position and working backwards to her first position as training clerk. She had a long professional track record to present and ended up with more than 20 years of experience to write about. 

Then she started listing her duties and responsibilities, her degrees and certifications (including dates), and every professional development activity, certification, recognition, and publication that she could remember. Lisa had read somewhere that she should include as much information as possible so that whoever received the resume could pick and choose what was relevant for the position. To her, that meant everything she had ever done needed to be included in the resume. 

“A five-page document is better than a three-page document,” she thought. Then, soon after, she connected with Maggie (a training and development professional herself, an SME in career and succession planning, and a professional resume writer) at a local ATD chapter meeting. Maggie offered to review Lisa’s resume and give her feedback from another perspective. They agreed to meet to discuss Lisa’s resume later that week. Lisa expected to receive a glowing review of her document. Instead, she received a very constructive critique focused on the following key points:

• A resume should include information about the most recent 10 to 15 years of your employment history. Anything longer than that will call attention to skills and experiences that, very likely, are not up-to-date. 

• The document should be written thinking about the reader and what you can do for that potential client or employer. Therefore, be selective in what you highlight depending on your objective. 

• Start with a brief summary or profile of your career that highlights the value you bring to the potential client or employer. Do this in about 100 words. Place this summary at the top of the first page to grab the reader’s attention with a solid description of who you are. 

• Focus on your achievements and contributions instead of your job responsibilities, and keep your resume to a maximum of two pages. 

• Start every achievement with an action verb in past tense that shows how you have made a unique contribution to the business. Some examples of verbs to consider are strengthened, reduced, improved, increased, streamlined, designed, implemented, contributed, partnered with, and prepared. 

• Use a variety of verbs without overusing any single one. It’s better to spend time looking for the best synonym to capture your idea than to come across as repetitive or having a limited vocabulary. 

• Quantify the impact of what you have achieved whenever possible with phrases such as “reduced by 20 percent,” “increased participation by 35 percent,” or “obtained response rate of 97 percent” to prove how you contribute to the business. 

• Watch how you use words such as “very,” “highly,” “extraordinary,” “excellent,” and “outstanding.” They might draw attention away from your success. 

• Simple and clear is better. Your resume is not the place to tell the world that you know obscure words and jargon; if you do, you will come across as stilted and unnatural. 

• Use The ATD Competency Model as a reference to identify your strengths in foundational competencies and in talent development areas of expertise. 

• Include your achievements in the talent development areas of expertise such as managing learning programs, integrated talent management, coaching, knowledge management, change management, performance improvement, instructional design, training delivery, learning technologies, and evaluating learning impact. We recommend that you also include achievements related to communications.   

• Present examples of how you have demonstrated the foundational competencies such as business skills, global mindset, industry knowledge, interpersonal skills, personal skills, and technology literacy. 

• You may also have specific accomplishments related to strategic agility, reengineering, organizational effectiveness, internal or external consultation, administering and interpreting standardized assessments, transforming cultures, as well as diversity and inclusion. Introduce those that are relevant. 

• Be selective about the professional development activities, awards, and publications that you include. They must be relevant to the position you are seeking. 

• Keep phrases such as “references available upon request,” “willing to relocate,” “hard working,” “dedicated,” “talented professional,” “willing to learn,” or “quick learner” out of your resume. They have been overused. 

• Skip the dates of when you obtained your academic credentials. You will be hired based on what you can show that you did with them. 

• Use a simple font that makes the resume easy to read, such as Arial or Calibri no smaller than size 10. Aim for larger font size for section headings and subheadings. 

• Bullets with complete sentences and ample white space will improve the document’s look and feel for the reader. 

• Finally, make sure that someone else proofreads your resume before you submit it for consideration. 

Lisa learned quickly that you need to spend time reflecting about your strengths, who you are, and what you can bring to the new employer before beginning to write a resume. It is also important to become familiar with your current job description, as well as with job descriptions of positions to which you aspire so that can tailor your resume to every position that you seek. Finally, you must do extensive data mining on your performance evaluations to gather information that will make your resume more compelling.   
Remember: Your resume is what opens the door for you. Your experience will allow you to enter and your interview will give you the opportunity to stay.