Rick Zabor is the founder and Search Consultant with Peoplestaff. Peoplestaff is an Atlanta based Search firm founded in 1988, that has specialized since 1994 in the placement of the Industry‘s best PeopleSoft and Enterprise IT Talent across the USA. Rick has a degree in Physics and advanced degree in Mechanical Engineering and is an experienced engineer and researcher in the automotive and solar energy fields. He welcomes your comments and referrals by email Zabor@peoplestaff.com or through www.peoplestaff.com.

Writing a Resume to Further Your Career (3-31-2005)

For the past 11 years I've been reading resumes from professionals in the Enterprise IT marketplace. My job has been to identify and recruit the right candidates for my client’s needs. Over that time period I estimate that I have viewed a couple hundred thousand resumes. Reading and making real sense of resume under time deadline is tough work. I’ve also listened to the comments of hundreds of hiring managers who have spent hours looking through stacks of resumes and not being able to find the talent they want. The conclusion that I've drawn is that most resumes are a poor reflection of a candidate’s true capability.

Write a better resume and you’ll get matched up with a better-fit job. A better-fit job is one that stretches you but that you have a high likelihood of success and that you can build your career on. If you accept a job that isn’t a fit for you then you might fail or leave it early and possibly sidetrack your career. This column is on writing your resume in a way to help further your career.

Let’s quickly look at the job hiring process and a problem with resumes. New hiring takes place when managers have the need to complete work that their current staff is unable or unwilling to do. The common steps to hiring include:

1)       Creating a job description to help identify the skills and experiences necessary to successfully complete the work that the hiring is for.

2)       Sourcing of appropriate talent.  Jobs or posted on job boards and/ or resume databases are searched.

3)       Interviewing of candidates begins. Quick or detailed phone interviews or in person interviews are used to qualify candidates.

4)       Reference checking and candidate selection.

5)       Negotiation of offer and acceptance.

6)       Starting the job.

I believe that the first two steps are very important for the best fit to take place in a candidate/ job match. Your resume comes into play during step two. If steps one and two are done poorly a good hiring decision is much less likely to take place. A good hiring decision takes place when the candidate hired is able to successfully perform the required tasks. The problem is that most job descriptions and resumes are ‘skills’ based as opposed to “performance” based. While we might make a good match of skills between the job description and the resume we have no indication if the candidate can and will complete the required work successfully. A Skills Based job description or resume is essentially a listing of skills or experiences like:

·         5 years experience as a Peoplesoft HR developer

·         BSCS or similar

·         Experience with v8.4 peopletools

 A Performance Based job description lists the performance necessary to complete the work successfully.

·         Should have built new software sales territories in the Pharma field from $0 to $1.5million within an 18 month period

·         Should have conceived, developed, and presented customized Cost Accounting software power point presentations to C level customers on a monthly basis as part of the sales cycle.

A Performance Based resume lists accomplishments in a way to demonstrate your ability to Perform. Such entries might include:

·         Was assigned a new territory for our new Cost Accounting software product and built annual revenues of $2.6 million or more per year within the first 18 months and over the next 5 years.

·         Created DVD multimedia presentation which allowed my C level customers the ability to simulate their business use of our software.  I gave this DVD to the customer during my second onsite visit and it resulted in a 50% higher closing rate than was standard in the company.

If we accept as a fact that past performance is the best indicator of future success then the hiring manager’s focus should be on identifying candidates who’s past performance is similar to the performance required (with a slight stretch) to successfully complete the job tasks.  This can be more easily done if the hiring manage has created a Performance Based job description and he is reviewing Performance Based resumes. The problem is that most job descriptions and resumes are written with a skills based approach and make it more difficult to make a good match.

Write a Performance Based resume and you’ll have a better chance for finding a good fit job even if the hiring manager hasn’t created a Performance Based job description. Performance Based resumes are easier to understand and give a true picture of your capabilities. True you might be overlooked for some positions that you’d like to be considered for but most likely those wouldn’t be positions that would help you further your career.

Do you want to further your career? An additional career benefit of the Performance-Based resume is that it allows you to clearly identify and understand your marketable strengths and areas to improve at all times. If you have a deficiency in your resume, work to fix it. If you have strength in your resume, work to leverage it. You will begin to seek and complete work assignments that will add to your accomplishments and the strength of your resume. As your resume improves so will your career. 

Writing a Performance-based Resume

1.       Create a well defined career objective

2.       Create a chronology of your career starting from the most current position to your first assignment.  If your resume get longer than two pages summarizing your less significant work.

3.       Create a list of market-valued accomplishments for each position.  Combine any minor similar accomplishments when necessary so as not to dilute your significant accomplishments. If the task you accomplished was truly valuable to your employer it will be valuable to the marketplace as well.

4.       Conclude with education and certifications

5.       Create a KEY WORD list with variations of the keywords so that your resume will surface during keyword searches on job boards.

6.       If necessary create an addendum document showing more details with a full listing of your skills.

The purpose of the resume should be to help you get exposure to opportunities that will help you further your career. This is true with regards to work assignments within your current employment or with a new employer. Working to build a better resume IS working on your career. Hiring managers will more accurately identify you as an appropriate match for their work if they can see what you’ve already accomplished. Creating a Performance Based resume is an important task for everyone seeking career growth.

 Rick Zabor helps hiring managers write Performance Based job descriptions and candidates write Performance Based resumes. He is interested in your comments and suggestions. You can reach him at zabor@peoplestaff.com.