One of the best ways to move this blog up the search results list is to include key words like” Brangelina”, “JLO”, “Brett Favre” or “Tiger” in the text. March Madness, or Jesse James, would help today as they are at the top of the internet buzz list. Or I could stoop to throw in phrases like “health care”, Nike, SAP, Oracle, SEC, TARP, or “97-2″ to get people to read this blog. But most of the people who were tricked into clicking on this blog would be angry with me for wasting their time, and rightly so. Key words are tricky things. They can help and they can hurt. Improper use of key words on a resume, for example, can kill a person’s chances of being considered for a job. A resume is a condensed autobiography of a person’s professional life. It’s the most important work related document that anyone ever prepares as they are the number one filter for determining who gets considered for a job opening. I’ve been reading resumes for over twenty years; mainly ones prepared by accounting professionals. We’re talking thousands of resumes here . . . . . of accountants. In my opinion, less than twenty percent of them properly reflect the skills and abilities of the person they represent. Let’s talk about how we can improve our resumes.
What the Reader Wants to Know
Here’s what I want to learn when I read a resume: 1. What has this person done and what are they doing right now? 2. Where have they done it and for how long? 3. Has their career progressed? 4. Education and certifications, awards, etc. 5. What are the person’s core strengths, expertise? 6. How are their systems skills and where have they used them? 7. Who have they worked for, how big, industry, etc.? 8. What have they done to make a difference during their career? When I read a resume I’m trying to form a picture of who this person is and what they are good at, plus gave some insight into their growth potential. I’m trying to determine if the person has what it takes to be hired by one or more of our clients. This means that my review is much broader than a company’s review for a single opening.
A company will have two or more different types of resume reviews. The first reader is often a recruiter in the H.R. department. The recruiter’s reading will be focused on comparing the open job req requirements to the resume. If there are enough hits, the person moves to the next step in the hiring process, if not, then they are rejected from consideration. The next person reading the resume is the hiring manager; the person with the actual need to be filled. The hiring manager is looking for directly applicable, current experience doing the job they have open. The hiring manager will also look for credentials (schools, Big 4 versus local firms, quality of companies worked for) that set the person apart from the rest of the pack. They may also be looking for common experiences, connections. Here’s an example of this last point: I once had a candidate who was a CPA, worked for a Big 4 firm, had a few years of “industry” experience, and was available for a very specific time period between her graduation from Stanford B-School and a trip to Europe. I presented her background to about ten clients just to see if anyone was interested. All ten wanted to hire her immediately. It seems all of them were connected to one aspect of her career – - – - her time spent as a Dallas Cowboy’s Cheerleader. True story and it has the added bonus of putting the Cowboy’s into my search string! I’m not a big fan of putting hobbies and such on resumes, but, if you have something very interesting to add (like you played professional basketball in Italy, or came in second on “So You Think You Can Dance”), then do it. If not, most hiring managers will not care. In fact, if you list out that you are an avid mountain climber/marathoner/poker player; you may kill your chance for an interview. When would you have time to work?
Resume Don’ts or Who Cares
Here are some things to avoid putting on your resume:
- Credentials you do not have. Do not list that you are a “CPA candidate.” Reader’s see this as a ploy to get through their key word filter. It makes them angry that you wasted their time. But, it is o.k. to state that you have completed the CPA exam and submitted your application to the State. Do not get cute with credentials, it doesn’t work. Another thing that annoys readers is: MBA – In progress. Put it in your resume when you get it. In fact telling people you need time off to attend school is a negative. Companies want you to be working.
- Credentials no one has ever heard of. If you have a very specialized credential or certification like “government forensic auditor” perhaps you should have two versions of your resume: one for companies needing that credential and ones that don’t. Keep the education and certifications section of your resume as clean as possible. And never state you have a degree or credential that you do not have! It’s so easy to check these things out now, so why do it?
- This one is a personal preference thing for me: Drop the “Objective” section from your resume. It’s such a canned piece anyway, it adds no value. Plus a poorly done objective could kill your chances immediately. I’m also not a big fan of the “Achievements/Accomplishments” section either. I would rather see the accomplishments in the relevant portion of your jobs history section. I think a top of the page “Summary” section is a better way to go. Just say in a paragraph or two, a written elevator speech if you will, who you are, what your good at and what you are looking for in your next job.
- Confidential information (or negative comments) concerning a current or former employer should not be listed in a resume nor discussed in an interview. Accountants do not rat out their home boys! I’ve seen people put something like this in a resume: “Left due to ethical issues with CEO of XYZ Company.” It’s TMI, and shows the writer isn’t real good at keeping secrets. Think Robert Duvall in “The Godfather”. That’s how most people feel their accounting people should act.
Here are some things to include in your resume:
- Information about your current and former employers. Size, industry, number of employees, stage of development when you worked there, what happened to them. But, keep it short and to the point. Something like: “Ernst & Young- San Jose. A 300 employee high-tech office of largest accounting firm in the world.” Or, “Wedget.com, Menlo Park, CA. A pre-IPO internet company focused on the needs of brides and grooms, with 25 employees and $300 million in venture funding. Merged with Divorce.Com, a division of Match.com in 2007 and accounting operations moved to India.”
- Projects and systems implementations and upgrades you participated in, with results, and your role in the success of the project. Put these items in the sections where they happened. If you ran a project to move from Quicken to Intacct at Wedget.com, put that in the section about Wedgets.com. Sounds simple, but it’s amazing how hard it is to tie accomplishments to where they happened on the majority of resumes we review. We deal with hiring managers who are accountants, so things need to tie out.
- Put down actual dates of employment. Do not short hand it with just the year started and year you left. People want to know if you spent two years and nine months at Wedget.com, not “2007-2009″. Precision is a good thing when it comes to preparing a resume.
- If there is a hole in your work history, put it down. If you took a year off in 2008 from, say, February, 2008 to November, 2008 put it this way: “February to November, 2008, Took three months sabbatical upon closing of Wedgets.com, then focused fulltime on job search.”
- For those of you in public accounting, provide specific information about your technical accounting skills. List significant clients, areas of expertise and how you rank compared to your peers. Or at least compare your career advancement to the “normal” career track at your firm. Detail is important as all audit seniors or managers have not had the same career experiences. If your clients are comprised 80% software and 20% telecom, and you are considered the software rev rec guru, state this in your resume. This is the time for key words. Now’s the time for the SOP 97-2 stuff to be presented in your resume.
Other Points
A great resume should flow from the current situation to the past. Be chronological. Tell the reader this is what I’m doing now and here’s how I got here. Start with your current position and work backwards. Tell the truth, be concise, but be complete. Please forget the one page resume rule, but don’t write a novel. Two to three pages should be enough space to describe and detail your career. Remember that one of the biggest, most frequently listed “things” on most job descriptions is “great written and verbal communications skills”. Your resume is your first chance to prove that you have these skills. Have your friends review a draft of your resume and provide you with feedback. Work it until you feel comfortable that your resume presents a true and complete picture of who you are, what you can do, and your potential to do even more. When you are happy with it, you’re ready to hit the job market. If you get stuck, Kula will help you finish it.