Gamechanger Resumes:
Hudson Job Search – June 3, 2013
Presenter:
Kelly Blazek, Job Whisperer and
Principal, Gemba Communications, LLC
Gamechanger Resumes
Metrics and Storytelling Elevate You
as a Candidate
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Resume Basics and Formats
Make Life Easy for HR
Layout Tips
Offering Statements
Powerful Action Words
Metrics, Deliverables, Volume, Velocity
Experience, Job Gaps and Education
Cover Letters
LinkedIn Pointers
Gamechanger Resumes
Agenda
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Your resume needs to say the following:
• I am a gamechanger and move the needle
• I pay attention to detail
• I have great communications skills
• I can focus on the big picture
• I understand a business environment
Gamechanger Resumes
Your Resume Has a Job to Do:
. . . But it should NOT be a Job Description!
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• Paper: always white or cream
• Bold, Italic and Underline help the reader
• Consistent tabs and spacing
• Absolutely NO spelling or grammar errors
• No complete sentences – write in bullets
• No need to use “I” in resume
• The 1 page resume rule has left the
building! Two to three pages are fine.
Gamechanger Resumes
Resume Basics
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Resume Formats
- Preferred by HR and hiring managers
- Easier to follow work history, time in job
- OK for job gaps - your cover letter can explain
- Start with Offering Statement, then work history
Functional / Skill-Based Resumes Are:
- Frequently used to hide spotty work history
- To be avoided! Tie your results to employers
- Tough to connect accomplishments with jobs
Gamechanger Resumes
Chronological Resumes Are:
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Gamechanger Resumes
Layouts
The edge of your paper is NOT radioactive.
Avoid wide, space-wasting 4-side margins.
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Gamechanger Resumes
Layouts
Your “High Rent District:” is the top slice of
your resume – don’t waste it with air!
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Layouts – Chill on the Indents
Avoid indent overkill!
- Example here
- See how this candidate starts to waste space
- With even more indents and eye movement
- And then she returns to the left again
- With more visual hopping
- To even deeper tabs
- Couldn’t this applicant
- Have made this cleaner without so many indents?
Gamechanger Resumes
- And then gives
- The reader a headache
Maximum 2 or 3 indents – keep it Flush Left!
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Layouts – Too Much Copy
Gamechanger Resumes
Talk about a headache . . .
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Instead, topic
“Buckets” focus the
reader and tell your
story more clearly
Gamechanger Resumes
Layouts – Use Buckets
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Font Suggestions
•Garamond is a great Resume font, Sanjiv and Nedra.
•Georgia is a great Resume font, Sanjiv and Nedra.
•New Baskerville is a great Resume font, Sanjiv and Nedra.
•Palatino is a great Resume font, Sanjiv and Nedra.
Sans Serif Font Examples:
•Arial is a great Resume font, Sanjiv and Nedra.
•Century Gothic is a great font, Sanjiv and Nedra.
•Calibri is a great Resume font, Sanjiv and Nedra.
Gamechanger Resumes
Serif Font Examples:
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Make Life Easy for HR
Gamechanger Resumes
1. Please list your address
2. Provide a business-sounding e-mail
3. Indicate whether Home, Cell, etc.
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Offering Statements
Employers don’t care what job you
hope to land, and what you like to do!
Gamechanger Resumes
Wrong focus: on “what I like/want”. . .
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Offering Statements
A product management and marketing support
professional with 20+ years’ experience in a $1 billion
industrial organization. Proven ability to get people to
“buy-in.” Excellent interpersonal and computer skills,
can multitask and work under pressure to meet and
exceed deadlines. Demonstrated proficiency in
budgeting, trade show coordination and significant
travel administration.
Gamechanger Resumes
An Offering Statement is your Elevator
Speech: How I’ll move the needle for you!
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Offering Statements
Outstanding, award-winning creative leader with 20 years
of consumer products and B2B agency experience.
Skilled at national product launches, integrated
consumer campaigns, and all facets of print, web, direct
and POP marketing. Expertise in retail, beauty, infant
and personal care, hospitality and financial services.
Ability to lead large teams in delivering on-target, ontime campaigns that drive sales.
Gamechanger Resumes
An Offering Statement is your Elevator
Speech: How I’ll move the needle for you!
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Offering Statements
Strategic sales leader and business development
executive with proven track record in building
and leading world-class teams that deliver
revenue, market share and profit in competitive
markets. Industry proficiencies include
automotive aftermarket, distribution and molded
plastics. Exceptional negotiation and closing
ability, persuasive communicator.
Gamechanger Resumes
An Offering Statement is your Elevator
Speech: How I’ll move the needle for you!
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Offering Statements
Results-focused economic development, marketing
and fundraising professional with 20+ years of legal
experience in business law, contracting, human
resources, estate planning and litigation matters.
Successful in exponentially growing memberships,
donations and volunteer base. Significant civic
leadership in youth sports, literacy/library nonprofits as
well as capital campaigns. Ohio attorney license
current and active.
Gamechanger Resumes
An Offering Statement is your Elevator
Speech: How I’ll move the needle for you!
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Offering Statements
Senior finance and audit executive skilled in leading
bottom-line financial projects and audits that
unearth hidden revenue, expenses and fraud.
Significant experience in international project
management, contracting and office expansions.
Led multiple major software selection and upgrades
including SAP, payroll, collections, billings and asset
databases. Successful track record in complex,
highly-matriced environments.
Gamechanger Resumes
An Offering Statement is your Elevator
Speech: How I’ll move the needle for you!
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Make Life Easy for HR
Gamechanger Resumes
1. List employer first, then title/time in job
2. Description conveys scale and scope
3. Don’t make HR do . . . Math.
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• That 24-year old HR Generalist likely hasn’t
heard of some of your prior firms/employers!
• Help them understand the Scale, Scope and
Importance of firms/companies that hired you
• Place a description underneath your employer
and title – use italics
• Short is key: “height and weight” only
• List annual revenue, # of offices, attorneys and
practice groups
• This is where you explain “firm merged in 2008”
Gamechanger Resumes
Employer Descriptions a Must
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• A 100-attorney, 15-practice group business and
litigation firm with 3 offices in Ohio and Florida.
• Eaton’s Industrial Sector is a $6B operating unit
with 33,000 employees and 127 global
manufacturing facilities in the hydraulics,
aerospace, truck and automotive industries.
• Dun & Bradstreet is the world’s leading source of
commercial information and insight on
businesses; publisher of marketing databases.
• NorTech, a $4M technology-based economic
development nonprofit with a staff of 18, serves
21 counties in Northeast Ohio.
Gamechanger Resumes
Description Samples
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• Use these in your employer write ups
• Action words set you apart
• Action words say you “get ‘er done”
• Action words convey leadership
Proven
Award-winning
Won
Strategic
Successful
Created
Managed
Executed
Led
Counseled
Delivered
Leveraged
Coached
Implemented
Handled
Launched
Sustained
Grew
Increased
Improved
Gamechanger Resumes
Powerful Action Words
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Using Your Action Words
Gamechanger Resumes
Financing: Led finance group though IPO with only 9 months’ notice, and
three years of audits all at once. Renegotiated credit line with bank (twice
in 6 months) from $4 million to $14 million at a time of rapid growth.
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• Quantify how you made a difference
• Prove you drove revenue + solutions
• Show your job scope is large
• Say “I crank work out, no problem!”
“Reduced annual conference costs by 11%”
“Managed inbound calls for 12 sales territories”
“Increased ticket sales by 19%; highest ever door”
“Improved machining changeover time by 15%”
Gamechanger Resumes
Powerful Metrics
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Gamechanger Resumes
Using Your Metrics
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Experience and Education
• If college degree, no high school needed
• If high school, add certifications or courses
• Graduation year can be eliminated
• Put Education at the end of your resume
Gamechanger Resumes
• Begin chronology with most recent jobs, no need
to list every first job you had
• Account for work gaps – cover letter is fine
• List specific types of computer software
• Add Civic/Professional Involvement, Volunteering
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• Include key metrics
• Women: ditch the “love,” “thrilled” and
“passionate” – please!
• No “I will call you Wednesday”
• Short – 3 or 4 brief paragraphs
• Awesome closing sentence:
“I look forward to learning how I can make
a contribution to your team’s goals”
Gamechanger Resumes
Your Cover Letter
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Profile
• The largest professional network on the
Internet, with over 200 million members
• What kind of account do you want? FREE!
• Use your Offering Statement as your Summary
• List all/most of your prior jobs; use actionoriented metrics
• Don’t forget awards, articles, speeches,
certifications, skills
• Make sure your photos are professional and
businesslike – no ballgowns, no T shirts!
Gamechanger Resumes
Your
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Your
Headline
• Results-driven financial leader with global experience in
transition
• Environmental professional combining a spectrum of
hands-on skills with sound analytical practice
• Strategic Manufacturing Engineering Leader seeking
next opportunity
• Freelance Copywriter that makes cash registers ring!
• Dynamic sales leader that drives top line margin, reach
and reputation
Gamechanger Resumes
• Headlines are critical – write one that Search
Engines and HR recruiters can find
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Building Connections
• LinkedIn recommends minimum of 50-75 connections
• Personalize your invite message
• Always, only, send invites to people you know – just do a
search for their name
Don’t Do
This! Bad
Stuff Lives in
your Contacts
and Inbox
Gamechanger Resumes
• “great to see you on here – I’d like to stay in touch”
• “hoping your summer is off to a great start”
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Don’t Want to Connect?
“Dear Bob: I only connect with
individuals I’ve met personally
and worked with professionally.
Perhaps our paths will cross in
the future. Thanks for
understanding.”
Gamechanger Resumes
- Do nothing – this leaves the other person guessing
- Click IGNORE option (and “I Don’t Know This Person” if wished)
- Select REPLY drop down under ACCEPT, and write:
• Forced to connect - but wish to drop them later?
Contacts>My Connections>Remove Connections
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• Building a profile takes a few sessions – be
patient
• Tackle summary, current job and education first
• Then, launch your first round of invitations
• Backfill later for prior jobs, certifications, key
words
• Once a week, go in and look at connection
requests, and respond
Rule of Thumb: Your connections are a personal
recommendation – be cautious with your reputation!
Gamechanger Resumes
Get on Board with
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Resources
CareerBoard.com – best local site
Indeed.com – great aggregator of listings
Gamechanger Resumes
Microsoft Resume Templates at:
http://office.microsoft.com
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•- Available for resume review consultations
•- Speaker on resumes and LinkedIn
•- AOL/Patch.com blogger on job search advice
•- Blogger at http://kellyblazek.wordpress.com/
Gamechanger Resumes
Kelly Blazek kblazek@nls.net
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