Resume Makeover: A Sales Exec Gets a New Marketing Document
Editor's note: In this feature, CareerJournal.com presents
before and after resumes of actual job hunters. The name of the candidate, his
prior employers and contact information have been changed.
Jeffrey Sales, an advertising-sales executive, made some smart
moves during his career, such as breaking into Internet-ad sales in the 1990s.
But four companies later, he found himself in a senior-level sales job that
sounded ideal during interviews but turned out to be a poor fit.
He knew it was time to hit the job market again. With his
experience, he was in a good position to move into another executive ad-sales
position, but he looked for a job for nearly a year with no success. He realized
his
resume needed work.
"If a resume is a presentation of your career, then my
presentation was not very good," Jeffrey says. "I wasn't giving a
true picture of what I've accomplished."
For the first time in his career, the 40-something executive hired
a resume writer. He contacted Alesia Benedict, executive director of
GetInterviews.com, a resume-writing and career-coaching company based in
The situation: Jeffrey had impressive
advertising-sales-management experience in print media and the Internet, says
Ms. Benedict. But his resume did a lackluster job of showcasing his work
history and accomplishments.
"He wasn't marketing himself on paper," Ms. Benedict
says.
As Ms. Benedict does with all her clients, she asked Jeffrey to
answer written questions about his career, and then they talked about his
experiences, accomplishments, the level he was at and where he wanted to be. In
all, Jeffrey spent about five hours with Ms. Benedict, including the time on
the questionnaire. The fee for her work, which included a cover letter, was
$595.
The challenge: The resume Jeffrey had written didn't reflect
his executive-level status. For example, the career
summary started with his description as a "highly effective
Sales/Sales Management professional," a term that could apply to someone
of lower rank. It also included such platitudes as "Loyalty, honesty and
hard work are great assets."
"For the level and salary he was looking for, he came off
much too junior," Ms. Benedict says.
The document was also thin on details about his accomplishments.
The job
descriptions were limited to expected responsibilities. They failed to
gauge the impact of his performance and reflect his promotions and growth in
past positions.
Other blunders stood out to Ms. Benedict:
The fix: Ms. Benedict reviewed his original resume,
questionnaire and notes from her interview with him to identify his skills and
accomplishments. She put these in the summary at the top of the document. Then
she selected work experiences that best support those claims.
"I look for strengths I can substantiate. I want clients to
be happy with the document, but, ultimately, I'm trying to impress the
reader," Ms. Benedict says.
Jeffrey's revised
resume has an entirely new look and a lot more information. Centering his
name and contact information on two lines eliminates the empty space and
creates a more polished presentation while still allowing them to stand out.
The Times Roman font is easy on the eye and puts more text on each page.
The executive
position he's applying to is clearly stated at the top. In the summary,
the platitudes were replaced with specific skills that show his breadth of
experience and point to bottom-line results.
The professional experience section is more tightly organized.
Under each company's name and location, there are short company descriptions
and Web addresses, when available. Under each job title, Jeffrey's experience
is described in bulleted summaries and, below them, "Accomplishments"
elaborate on his successes. When possible, the results of his work are
expressed in numeric terms. For example: "Increased agency revenue 25%
through implementation of traditional services & Web to print
conversion."
As for verb tenses, current employment is described in the present
tense, except for his accomplishments, because they have already taken place.
Prior experience is described in the past tense, Ms. Benedict says.
To show that Jeffrey received promotions along the way, the new
resume lists three jobs descriptions and accomplishments under one company
where he worked between 1993 and 1997.
"You want to show you are growing and being promoted,"
says Ms. Benedict.
At the end of the resume, Advanced
Training was added to the Education section to highlight the well-known
sales-training seminars Jeffrey attended.
The result: After two months of circulating his revised
resume, he had two offers. He chose an advertising-sales director post at a
magazine and Web site. "So far, so good," he says, referring to his
new position.
What do you think of this Resume Makeover? Share your
critique with other readers on the CareerJournal
discussion board.
-- Ms. Devlin is a free-lance writer in
Article from CareerJournal.com – November 2005