The Content of the Resume
The resume should be an inventory of your past business experience. I like to compare a resume to a Sears catalog, out of which the proper merchandise (in your case, the appropriate experience) can be pulled out of stock as needed in order to make the sale. Your resume, then, is your shelf stock-your saleable merchandise. You will not need to use all of it every time you apply for a job. You must, however, develop it so that it includes all the details of your past work experience, so that you can utilize whatever portion of it may be applicable at any given time with reference to any particular job.
The Form of the Resume
When you start preparing your resume, don't worry too much about what the final form will be. Content is much more important. So much fuzzy stuff has been written about form, without enough concern about content, that many of the resumes I see are utterly insipid. Most of them fail to consider the viewpoint of the person who is going to hire you; often they lack judgment, common sense, and objectivity. Some people have shown resumes of this kind to me and said, "But I did it according to such and such a book," or, "It must be all right. I worked with a counselor and paid him blank hundred dollars." Let me brief you on what I think are wrong with the general run of resumes that I have reviewed.
Most professional resume writers advise you to prepare a one-or two-page resume. Generally, you are told to use a standard format. Some tell you to begin with the most intimate details and vital statistics of your life-your age, health, marital status, number of children, height and weight. Some require your social security number, draft status, father's occupation, mother's maiden name, religious and social affiliations, and even family lineage. All of this is based on the false assumption that a person will be hired on the basis of the vital statistics outlined in his printed resume. In my experience, nothing is farther from the truth. No employer is initially concerned with these details, even though his company will probably ask for some of them for their records after you have been hired.
He does not care whether you came from the wrong side of the tracks, or whether your ancestors arrived here before the Indians. It just might, in some instances, be better if you did come from the other side of the tracks. Many of our business leaders are very proud of their humble origins. Neither should you consider physical size, appearance, or impairment a deterrent in getting a job. Do you think anyone ever gave this consideration at General Electric when Steinmetz was hired? None of these things really matters to an employer. The only thing that will truly impress him is the answer to "What have you done?" "What have you accomplished in your other jobs?" You will be compared and weighed in the scales against others on the basis of your past performance, and your accomplishments.
Business Exists to Make a Profit
At this point, I want to digress to be certain that when you tabulate your accomplishments you head in the right direction. You must realize that business exists for one purpose only, and that purpose is to make a profit. This profit must be large enough to pay and attract top personnel, to attract money from stockholders, institutions, and banks. Business must make sufficient profit to spend on research, better tools and facilities. It must create new and better products in order to stay alive and vigorous in a vicious competitive market.
Though many employers and interviewers are female today, I have chosen to refer to them as masculine throughout the book to avoid the use of cumbersome constructions such as him/her.
Your Job Does Count
Perhaps you feel that your job is in such a minor capacity that you need pay no attention to the profit motive in business that it is of no concern to you. In an article, ''Jobs Cost Money," Malcolm Forbes states that in the loo highest-ranking manufacturing companies, an investment of $24,000 per job is required. It averaged $53,000 in the distilling business, and $62,000 in the petroleum industry, to give a man a job. In today's economy, these figures should be doubled. Never forget, no matter how large or how small your position is that you are counted as a part of this average. Everyone must contribute his part to the earnings or profits in order to stay in the work force. This applies even on the farm-a dry cow or an unproductive pig or hen goes to the butcher. You may not be able to measure your share with exactitude; however, your past accomplishments or your work performance should tell whether or not you have contributed to the over-all picture.
You may be in a business where the amount of investment is not obvious, such as an advertising agency, consulting firm, or an accounting firm. The investment, however, is there; someone has put up the costly office building. Your employer in renting space is renting the use of invested capital. He pays dearly for its use. If the business is not making the profits to pay his rent, he is dispossessed. It is not my intention to give you a lesson in economics. I am merely trying to bring home to you a too often forgotten concept about business-namely, that it 7nust make a profit to exist. Businesses are so large these days that an individual in a particular company may forget and get a feeling that he may not be important. But, in reality, each person is a part of the profit team.
Why Pick You?
Why does an employer hire you instead of someone else? Is it because your shoes are shined, your pants are well pressed, and your hair is properly combed? These are certainly not his primary considerations or motivations, though if these details have been taken care of, they may be a factor in his judgment.
He will ultimately hire you because he thinks you can help him make a profit in his business. He hires you because he hopes you will do more to add to the productivity of his business than some other applicant. Thus, he has the use of one measurement only on which to base his judgment-namely, your employment record. It will be up to you to convince him how much your performance contributed to the profit of your previous employers.
Why You Should Be Interested in Profits
Anything that adds to the smooth-running operation of the business, to its more successful operation, also adds to the profit picture. Someone recently asked, "Give me the definition of a successful business," and the answer came quickly; ''A profitable business." You must get this concept, this philosophy of profit or performance, into every line of your resume. Only then will you be talking the language of the person who is interviewing you. If you can get this simple common-sense idea into your thinking and hence into your resume, you will then be the one person in a hundred, or even in a thousand, who is called in and has a chance at a job. You will have made yourself different; you have become a demand product.
How to Get This Profit-Consciousness Across
Your problem now is to get across to your prospect the fact that you are aware of the profit-consciousness necessary in his business. Can you do it by merely listing the number of functions you have performed previously? No. Can you do it by reciting concrete deeds? Yes. Study the following two paragraphs. They were written by the same personnel man:
I carried out an active nation-wide technical recruitment program, involving employment agency contacts, college interviewing, and considerable advertising. This program made possible extensive organizational growth.
There is no zip to this paragraph. This man gives no concrete factual measurements of his performance. He simply states the functions he performed, and these he embellishes with adjectives of self-appraisement, such as "active," "considerable," "extensive." Avoid words of self-evaluation like the plague. The writer tried to show with words how he contributed to the company's success. He gave no measurable results or achievements. Now note this revised version:
I recruited technical personnel.
I sparked laboratory expansion from 90 to 500 men.
I developed new supply sources for technical manpower by interviewing in 50 colleges and universities.
I scoured the country to see men at hotels, colleges, and conventions.
I increased inquiries from 50 to 75 a week by means of advertising.
Do you see the difference? You would never guess that these two paragraphs describe the same man. Concrete, factual statements carry a powerful message and create indelible mental images. Simply mentioning abstract functions does not leave the necessary mental picture. Measure your deeds; You must create a mental picture to make you stand out from the other applicants.
Oh? Yes: You Can Measure Your Accomplishments
I hear over and over again, "But I can't show measurable results like that man does. My job just wasn't like that." Or "That may be all right for a salesperson who piles up sales, or a budget manager who holds costs in line, but my job was different."
Perhaps I can best convince you by showing you what happened in the case of a public-relations woman who had this point of view. The first of the following resumes is the one she originally brought to me:
Director of Public Relations,-Foundation
I was responsible for over-all planning and execution of Public Relations programs. I disseminated information and promotions for all Foundation projects and publications. I was the liaison for mass media and other agencies having similarly oriented programs in world affairs, particularly the United Nations. I conceived and executed long-range programs. I served as a catalyst for world affairs and peace projects. I prepared releases, brochures, and news bulletins.
When you read the paragraph above, you may well wonder how this can possibly be turned into a list that shows performance or specific deeds accomplished; but when you look at the following rewrite of the above, you can see how it was done:
Director of Public Relations,-Foundation
Directed an anniversary program called, "Perspective of Peace."
I was responsible for 2,000 newspaper free publicity items.
I had eight articles published in national magazines.
Arranged free broadcasts by 21 domestic radio stations and 4 television companies.
Disseminated 20 news stories on a world-wide basis through the U.S. Information Agency.
Secured participation by 600 colleges in World Affairs programs.
I persuaded 125 national organizations to stimulate peace programs, including the Y.M.C.A., the League of Women Voters, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
This woman reworked her whole resume in this style. In her first letter to me, she wrote, "You have revolutionized my attitude toward job-hunting. I am convinced that what you taught me will greatly improve my effectiveness in finding the job I am looking for."
Her second letter to me, a month later, read, "Believe it or not, my new position is the direct result of the conferences we had together. The resume you helped me write was actually the vital factor."
Of Course You Are Different
No one can write a resume that is exactly like another person's, because each person must use his own material. You build your own resume on the basis of what you have done; hence your own image emerges. If you are a foreman, tell how much better your shift does than that of another fore man. Has your boss commended you for leaving a clean place for the next shift? How does your safety record compare with that of another foreman? How many of your work team quit you in the last year? How many new people have you had to train?
What have you done in your job that makes you proud?
Think about all the things you have done-even the ones that seem small and inconsequential to you. If you saved your firm money, increased sales with fewer clerks, or made a similar accomplishment, you are a wanted person. Get your message across.
This same technique can be applied to all jobs, great or small. It applies to any person who is sincere and wants a higher salary. I said sincere? for if you are lazy and a shirker, unwilling to make your place a better place in which you and others work, or unwilling to push so that your boss gets back two dollars for one that he invests in you, then this book is not for you. Just keep on punching a time clock and carrying a chip on your shoulder. There is not, and there should not be, a better job for you.
Examples of Good Resume Construction
I) General Manager
I increased aircraft output from 8 to 135 planes a month, in less than one year.
I reduced the work force from 18,000 to 11,000 in the same period.
I reduced manpower hours per plane from 17,000 to 8,000.
I decreased loans from 51 million to 19 million.
If you were the president of a corporation that had been having production and money problems, and this person came to your attention, wouldn't you want to interview him or her? Of course you would; you could not afford to do otherwise.
2) Sales Manager Increased sales $350,000 and saved $180,000 in field selling costs.
Reduced field sales force from 80 to 47 people. Upgraded quality of salespeople through increased compensation.
Reduced turnover from 58 to 3 people a year. Instituted direct field controls over damaged and shopworn merchandise.
Are you beginning to understand what I mean by concrete examples? This one gives true quantitative measurement. There is no time wasted here in getting the message over; it comes across loud and clear.
3) Director of Administration Jones & Jones, Inc. Engineering and Research Development Laboratory
- Set up policy to make a profit on every Engineering Research and Development contract.
- Made $700,000 annual engineering profit (previous losses had averaged $100,000).
- Set up a tenfold engineering manpower expansion in Multi Plant Divisions.
- Developed a recently acquired subsidiary from a 15-man development shop to a $1,000,000 manufacturing business, and thereby produced a $70,000 profit.
- Set up centers of profit accountability under project managers.
- Developed profit and price control without stifling creativity.
The Format of the Resume
I. Words. Use simple words, monosyllables whenever you can. Langley Carelton Keys, in his article in the January-February issue of the Harvard Business Reviezo, defines this problem and gives examples. He brings out clearly the thought I am trying to convey to you. He flays omnibus paragraphs, abstract words, and passive verbs for fouling up communications in business. He cites as an example: "In a large dairy company, a subordinate had written a long two-page memo random concerning vacations. It was written with plenty of abstract polysyllables for dignity, passive verbs for avoiding responsibility, long sentences for obscurity. He had never used one word when he could use three. As a result, the memorandum was obscure, long-winded, and ineffectual."
Do not use the same word more than once or twice in the same paragraph. It is monotonous and deadly. Employ Roget's Thesaurus of Words and Phrases to find other and stronger words with the same meaning. Use picture-creating words.
2. Sentences. Start your first sentences with direct action verbs, such as "directed," "developed," "sparked," "originated," etc. This gives you direct credit for the deed and strengthens the whole fiber of your material. Don't be prudish about using the personal pronoun "I." If you don't take credit, how is the reader going to know about you? Forget the old adage about people coming to your door because you make a better mouse trap. It doesn't happen anymore. It takes from 15 to 20 million dollars in advertising to get even better toothpaste on the market today.
Keep each sentence down to ten or twelve words. This means working and reworking it again and again, but it is well worth the effort. It will give your resume a telegraphic staccato effect that will pull the reader along. Pretend that you have to get your story across in a fifty-word telegram.
3. Paragraphs, Keep your paragraphs down to three or four lines. Single space the paragraphs but leave at least a double or triple space between them. This helps to divide each subject and provides the reader with a thought pause to comprehend and digest it.
I believe this telegraphic pattern has had a great deal to do with my success in placing people. I have found that unless the reader can quickly absorb material while he scans through it, you have lost him.
Long complex sentences and lengthy paragraphs leave a blurred image or none at all. Nothing is so frustrating as to have to read a paragraph several times and even then not get the meaning of it.
Be Objective
You must be objective in your thinking. All too often I find resumes full of subjective sentiments. Put yourself in the place of the one who reads your material. What would you want to know about the person you have to hire if you were to sit on the other side of the desk? All through the resume you must make statements about real accomplishments and the part you played in them. Often I hear a job-seeker say, "But I did this as a team effort; there were many others helping, too." I then ask, "Were you responsible for getting it done? If it had failed, would you or someone else get the blame? If you would get the blame, are you not then justified in taking the credit?"
Crawford H. Greenwalt, president of DuPont, writes about this in his book The Uncovnnon Man. He says, "Authority can and must be delegated, responsibility can never. For even though one officer may delegate to a subordinate full authority for conducting the affairs of a department or an activity, the ultimate responsibility remains his own. No matter how much responsibility we assign to others, our own stands undiminished." Now I hope this clears up any misgivings you may have in taking credit for your accomplishments.
Develop Power in Your Resume
To develop power in your resume, first of all, get yourself a copy of one of the management handbooks. There are a number of good ones.
- Defining the Managers Job-the A.M.A. Manual of Positive Descriptions, Published by the American Management Association.
- Top Management Handbook, Published by McGraw-Hill Inc.
- Business Management Handbook, Published by McGraw-Hill Inc.
Office Management Handbook
Materials Handling Handbook
Cost Accountant's Handbook
Financial Handbook
Marketing Handbook
Personnel Handbook
Production Handbook
There are others which might contain more relevant material for you. You will find some of them in the business section of public libraries. Get any that are available, for it doesn't make too much difference which you use. They are to be used only as guidelines to help you organize your material. For instance, Prentice-Hall publishes:
Business Methods Handbook
Taxes Handbook
In these handbooks, you will find lists of job categories such as President, General Manager, Treasurer Controller, Sales Manager, etc. Find your job category. Take all of the functions listed and then put one function only at the top of each sheet of paper. Just disregard all functions that do not apply to your case.
Now develop each function, putting down exactly what you did and what was accomplished by it. In order to create a concrete picture, measure each deed in terms of figures or percentages. Your resume is now taking form.
Do not intermingle functions. If you are a financial man, stay in the groove. Do not mention other things that you may have done but which do not relate to a financial position. If you have dabbled in sales, do not mention it, for you weaken your position. The world is looking for specialists, so be one, at least until you get the job.
Work this resume over and over. Set it aside for a day or two. Go back to it. Think about it and rewrite it again and again.
Doing a good job on this resume will greatly add to your self-esteem and give you just the lift you need at this time.
Will the Company Benefit From Hiring You?
Any employer, before he places you on the payroll, wants to be reasonably certain that the investment he puts in you-in time, in overhead, fringe benefits, and salary-is going to yield more than he puts out. He must get this investment back, just as a farmer who plants his seed corn expects a yield far in excess of what he planted. Sure, the farmer gambles-on the elements and on having put his time and capital in land and equipment. It is, however, a calculated risk. If he felt otherwise, he would be better off to feed his seed corn to his pigs.
The operating executive must account to his stockholders as to his being a good servant. He must show a profit in return for the use of both liquid and fixed capital entrusted to him. Your resume must show that you are profit-conscious. Business is nourished and grows on profits only. It is as dependent upon profits as is a baby on its bottle. Industry, and even service and charitable organizations, need to make ends meet or they become stunted and wither away. It has always seemed strange to me that even high-salaried people, when they write their resumes, overlook this basic profit concept.
If you state in your resume that you increased sales, ask yourself, 'Were they on a more profitable basis?" Or are you like the man who sold hot dogs? He made them so tasty that people for miles around came to buy. He lost money on every hot dog he sold, but he claimed he made that up in volume. I will always remember that after a speech by President Lazarus of Federated Stores, someone asked him from the floor, "Haven't your sales fallen off lately?" Air. Lazarus replied, "Young man, we are not interested in mere sales; we are interested in profits, and they haven't fallen off."
If you are a controller (general manager or financial executive) and state in your resume that you installed a $50,000 machine accounting system or one of the latest electronic data processing devices costing a million dollars, then ask yourself the questions, "So what? What good did it do? Did it reduce costs? Did it give management reports one day or ten days sooner or even hours sooner? Did it give daily reports? Did it control inventory in line with sales? Did it reduce capital tied up in raw or finished inventory?"
Did your system show where and when to put greater sales effort? Did your system show management the profitable merchandise and suggest discontinuing the unprofitable items?
If you are a financial person, did you plan capital expenditures? Did you point out which activity-profit wise-was most worthy of the use of capital? Did you show the payout period? How did the use of capital compare with your pre diction?
Did you manage to reduce the amount of working capital tied up in inventory? I remember one man, a general manager of heavy industrial products, who took over the management when the average inventory was 25 million and sales just over 30 million. Three years later his sales had gone up to 90 million.
The Resume-Your Stock in Trade lion, but his inventory was now only 32 million. Can you imagine the impact that this would make on a future employer? He also increased the inventory turnover three times, and completely eliminated all bank loans. This man is now president of a well-known company. This is what I mean when I tell you: Show that you are profit, money, cost, expense, overhead, and sales-turnover minded. This will make your interview much easier and also make it much easier for you to sell yourself into a job.
I will undoubtedly be criticized by some people for laying so much stress on profits and money. In the minds of some, profit seems to be synonymous with sin. I'll challenge any of these critics to run a business or a service without it, or to meet a payroll without it. Money and profits are not everything; they are, however, the universal medium of exchange and measurement. Money is the lubricating oil which keeps our economy from grinding to a halt. Where there are no profits and there is none expected, investors turn away and seek other opportunities, bankers refuse to lend, suppliers re fuse credit, and smoke stops coming out of chimneys. Business must choose between profitable and unprofitable ventures.
I am indebted to Roger Blough, president of the U.S. Steel Corporation, for the following quotation. This is from his recent San Francisco speech on the Unprofitable Puzzlement: ''What is it that creates tall buildings against the sky, provides jobs for over 65 million Americans, creates laboratories where wonder drugs are born, begets the tools of production, pro vides industry muscle to resist aggression? It is the most un profitable thing for a free society to be without. Behind all these, in a free society, is the one great motivating force, the one driving power, and that is the incentive we call profit."
Don'ts for Resume Use
- Never mail your resume with your letter asking for an interview. Many advisors, I know, do advise this, but I can't warn you strongly enough against it. Why should anyone ask you in for an interview when he thinks he already know all about you-in fact, more than he may want to know? Mailing a resume to ask for an interview just kills off the possibility of the interview you are striving to get.
- Do not mail a formal resume when answering advertisements in newspapers or in trade magazines.
- Do not mail a resume, even after a request to do so by a telephone call. By all means resist being interviewed over the telephone. Your interview must be person to person.
- Do not mention in a letter that you have prepared a resume. If you do, you will be asked to mail it in, and that will kill all chances of your getting an interview. I have found that just mentioning you have a resume cuts your interviews down 75 per cent.
- Try to do without a resume when you go into an interview. You may feel that you need it for the first few times-some folks tell me they feel as though they were going in naked without a resume. Learn to do without this crutch as soon as possible. Only one interviewer in four will insist on it and then you will have to give him something. If it makes you feel any better, stick it in your pocket, but do not bring it out. Interviewing in this way requires that you and the employer look each other in the eye. This way he can gauge your personality, and you can discern the breakthroughs. This will be developed more thoroughly in the chapter on "How to Interview."
- Do not print your resume-certainly not at the begin-The Resume-Your Stock in Trade of a campaign. Doing so freezes and fixes it. Resumes will, and should, grow with your interviews. They will bring out important facts and accomplishments which you may have forgotten or have considered too trivial to mention. When you keep your resume fluid, you have a chance to develop one specially directed and sharpened to fit the requirements of the position for which you are interviewed.
The Experience of an Office Clerk
When this boy came to me in desperation, he had been out of work for many, many weeks. He had been making the rounds from office to office trying to get a job. Times were tough-there were 7 or 8 million unemployed. This lad could never get past the reception desk. I asked him to make a resume. This is it. "My working experience is limited. My only job has been with the Associated Willkie Clubs. I was in charge of the mailing department. I ran the multigraph and postage meter machine. I have had one year of college where I was proctor in the dormitory. I was an Eagle Scout, a camp counselor, and then an assistant Scout Leader."
After an hour or two of digging, we came up with this resume:
Office and Mail Clerk Associated Willkie Clubs
I opened all mail received at headquarters.
I accounted for up to $5,000 in daily cash and check contributions.
I daily accounted for, and distributed, several thousand dollars in U.S. Government postage stamps.
I ran off thousands of copies of letters on the multigraph presses.
I was personally entrusted by Mr. Willkie to carry confidential messages to and from Republican Headquarters.
I kept a crew of 50 to 200 volunteer workers supplied with campaign material for publicity.
We embodied some of these items in a letter to the presidents of fifty companies. We did not mail out the resume-just the letter. This boy had more job offers than he had ever dreamed possible. Within two weeks, he was working at his new job.
Your resume will be the basis of one of the most important documents you will ever write. It is worthy of painful efforts. If this resume is to have any power or strength, it will have to come out of your very soul. The process is going to be painful and difficult. You can't build muscle tone by letting someone else do your setting-up exercises for you; you can't win any races if someone else does the training. You must formulate your resume yourself. Try to place yourself in the position of the employer and tell him what you would like to know about a future employee if you were in his place.
