How To Make Your Resume Come Alive With Hiring Appeal

All writings, documents, art, movies, videos, music, architecture are the artifacts of a culture. If an archeologist a thousand years from now dug up (or accessed in a database) the aforementioned artifacts, he would learn a lot about American culture today. In general, what would he learn? America today is a dynamic, creative and innovative culture that is infused with energy, enthusiasm and a desire to excel. If plunking a SUV-sized rover on Mars -- a planet human beings may never really visit-- is not an example of the innovation and search for excellence, I don't know what would be.

Now, if we were to expand the definition of 'cultural artifact' to resumes, what would the typical archeologist of the year 3012 conclude about American culture today in 2012 if he read thousands of them? It's a pretty simple answer to imagine: boring, unimaginative, and unenthusiastic. To the cynical archeologist, he may even think "a decaying culture."

The hypothetical opener to this blog entry is meant to be a humorous segue into into a serious question and topic: Why are so many resumes not read? In other words, if resumes in the resume databases of the large job boards number in the multi-millions, why are so few called for job interviews?  The common answer is a lack of training or qualifications. But that answer is too simple and generic. As I will demonstrate later in this entry, the answer lies in the lack of hiring appeal the typical resume today possesses.

If you were to have read as many resumes as I have --perhaps 5,000 over a decade--you would readily see that most resumes "read" the same and are uninteresting. Why? Part of the reason, I suppose, is the common, job-seeker habit of looking for a resume sample on the Internet and imitating it. But that's not the sole reason. Another reason is a lack of resume-writing training. If you suggest to a job seeker that he needs to get more training to be competitive, he will actively pursue more education or an industry certification. But suggest to the job seeker that he needs "job readiness training," and you receive a dumb look or the telling roll of the eyes that suggests, "you don't need any training to look for a job!" Perhaps that's why he is unemployed.

All other reasons aside, the primary reason why resumes are not read or candidates not called is the resume lacks hiring appeal. That is, the resume lacks information that suggests to the recruiter this person is a rare candidate and a great match for the job he is trying to fill. In other words, uninteresting resumes do not get read because they are after thoughts; the job seeker does not understand that a resume is primarily a marketing tool, that is, a personal-product brochure of what he is trying to "sell" to the employer. Boring resumes lack the salesmanship aspect of all job search campaigns.

Here's an example of a resume from a successful, technical salesman with a 20 year track record of achievements. He spends most of his 2-page resume communicating the following career information:

• identifying potential resellers
• researching target customers in reseller markets and creating contact information
• writing copy for all marketing, product instruction and reseller training material
• training reseller sales and service staff
• making joint sales calls with reseller sales people
• working trade shows, with or without reseller sales people
• creating and promoting workshop
• design marketing campaigns and webinars
• creating new markets for products
• identified software solutions to enhance this product
• wrote 175 page manual on software programs
• developed Windows OS software programs where there are gaps in our software offering

The above is a list of duties that all software salespeople perform on a regular basis. While this information is commendable and does suggest someone who understands his business and can probably start making an impact from the first day of employment, by and large, the information is so often repeated that his resume makes a recruiter yawn because there are hundreds of resumes in the Monster, CareerBuilder or LinkedIn resume database that say the same thing. It also suggests a disconnect between his being an experienced performer for many years and the casual job of writing his resume. In other words, he didn't put much effort into writing the resume. Early in the hiring process, while the employer and job seeker are trying to build a relationship, a job seeker does not need to suggest subtle negatives into the mind of the employer.

In defense of this job seeker, he does list his special accomplishments (sometimes called "achievements") on his resume. He has won some awards and published some software books. Of course, winning an award in a Business Plan writing contest is nice but if that's all he achieved, then he should be looking for a technical writer job, not a VP of Technical Sales. Having a business plan writing award on a resume and detailing how this award turned into a financed technical start up is something one would expect of a VP of Technical Sales. This is an achievement that could have come alive with hiring appeal had he invested more time in communicating the value he brought to the company, organization or local economy as a result of the award. He did not.

He mentioned at the very last line of his 2-page resume that he "earned 'President Circle' sales awards for my employer most of the years that I worked there." Looking at his resume, he states he worked there for 20 years. He apparently earned many of these sales awards. Yet, it is barely mentioned and he never details what all these awards involved.

To make his resume come alive with hiring appeal, he could have created a section called "President Circle Sales Awards." Then he could have detailed the reason he earned the award for each year. This is how he could have done it:

President Circle Sales Awards

• For expanding the company's market share of technology products in a 3-state region that generated $1.2 million in new sales (2005--2007).
• For building new relationships with the University of Illinois system that resulted in an initial contract for $500K (2003-2004).
• For developing a sales training program for product resellers that resulted in expanding the customer base by 20% (1999-2002).

Most new jobs today are created in small businesses. These companies need people who can perform immediately. They do not have the time or finances that old brick-and-mortar companies of decades past had to develop new employees. Hence, a resume that comes alive with hiring appeal is going to be a reflection of our business times. That is, a resume that demonstrates stellar performance. Anything else is an old dinosaur bone.