Resume Review

Legally Blonde (2001)

         Dr. Callahan: Do you have a resume?

         Elle: Yes, I do. Here it is.

         Dr. Callahan: It's pink.

         Elle: And it's scented. I think it gives it a little something extra.

          - Victor Garber, Reese Witherspoon

Today, I met with the Career Counseling Office at my graduate school. I had one hour to discuss my career objectives, current strategy and resume as well as ways to improve said strategy and resume. It's a rough job market and I wanted to give my resume a little something extra. After one hour, regardless of progress or clarity, I was on my own again.

The meeting was productive. The Career Counselor (let’s call her “Pam”) began by asking me to summarize what I was doing since I had been laid off. I explained that I established a 3-year plan. I know that I would one day like a job within brand management and that over the next 3 years I would like to broaden my understanding of market research, financial planning, management consulting and, of course, brand management. I said that I was finding the most success in leveraging my network and that the majority of my interviews came from my network rather than through submitting my resume online (Tip: I have also had success writing personal letters to C-level executives at companies I am interested in). I said that in addition to looking for work I was keeping busy by attending student club meetings, career workshops, industry panels, and networking sessions. I decided not to tell her I was writing a blog.

Pam told me I was doing everything right (Sweet, I am doing it all perfectly and still can’t get a job. This reminded me of the complimentary rejection I got from the Managing Director of the Investment Bank). She said that many students she speaks with do not know to leverage their network and do not involve themselves in student clubs. She said they solely rely on job search engines and that they are also less sure of what they want to do (Again, while I know she said this in order to compliment my strategy, I began to question my classmates. They don’t network? They don’t take advantage of student clubs? They don’t know what they want to do? Did they lie on their application essays? Don’t you need a career direction to attend an MBA program?).

We got into the nitty-gritty of my resume and we decided I should make two separate resumes. One should focus more on quantitative skills and be targeted more towards financial planning and management consulting opportunities. The other resume should highlight my analytical skills and marketing experience and be targeted more towards brand management and market research. We also made other revisions:

• Change “Work Experience” to “Experience”
• Incorporate “Activities” (mine consisted of Fraternity President and Varsity Sport Captain) within “Education”
• Leave GMAT and SAT scores on Finance Resume. Take them off Brand Management Resume (we later agreed to leave them on both as long as there was space)
• Use bold font more often
• Find ways to add more “white space” to the resume without taking out information
• Don’t show all the years you attended college (2001-2005), rather , just list the graduation year (2005) (I did graduate within the 4 years expected of an undergrad, but it is still better to just show the graduation year only)
• Keep “Education” on top of resume instead of below “Work Experience” . I am back in school and this is important to highlight (I asked her if being a part-time student might hinder my job search because some companies may not want an employee that has school 2 nights per week. She said it could or it couldn’t. I said that was a true statement.).
• Don’t go smaller than size 10 font. I haven’t, but it was good to confirm this

She told me to check out Vault and WetFeet. While I am usually not enthused by job search engines (When I do a search for Licensing Manager I usually get posts for Licensed Nurse), she showed me that these sites have information about various industries. They have articles highlight experience needed for each industry, ways to improve your experience, information from people in different job functions, how they started, etc. It actually sounds rather helpful and I am eager to read these articles.

I also got a resume template that may help me revise the format of my resume. Maybe if the same information is bulleted differently and different words are bolded and italicized more HR execs will notice me (some sarcasm here, but I do agree that it can help. It’s sort of like that show What Not To Wear. Sometimes you just need a different look.).

I left the meeting upbeat and excited to work on my resume. I do not know if my resume in its current state is the reason behind my lack of employment, but I know changing it for the better won’t hurt my chances. Pam and I are planning to meet again in a week or so to discuss my new resume and talk about the next step: a cover letter. I can’t wait for the meeting where we talk about the next step: what to spend all my money on.