How to Get Honest Feedback on Your Resume

 

If you are fortunate enough to get honest feedback on your resume, take it, run with it and apply it. This is no time to let your feelings get hurt. It may be good to know and bad to hear feedback but it is likely feedback you need.

Put Your Resume to the Test

  • Ask someone who does not understand what you do to review your resume for 15 seconds.
  • At the 15 second mark, take your resume away and ask the reviewer to tell you what they learned about you in 15 seconds.
  • If the reviewer of your resume cannot tell you who you are, how to communicate with you, how you are educated, how you are certified or credentialed and what you do today, you didn’t build your resume in a way that makes it easy for the human eyeball to visually scan your resume.
  • If your resume reviewer didn’t pick up a basic understanding of what you do in 10-15 seconds, it is likely that a recruiter or a hiring authority will have the same experience. 

Resume writing is a mix of business writing, technical writing and a little bit of creative writing mixed together. If you are a gifted engineer or a gifted number cruncher, chances are very high that you are not naturally gifted at packaging and marketing yourself in the most effective way.

How to Write a Great Resume

  • A great resume will speak to anyone and everyone in your resume’s audience without anyone in the audience having to interpret what they see.
  • A great resume can be scanned by an Applicant Tracking System without throwing up roadblocks.
  • A great resume can be visually scanned in 10-15 seconds.
  • A great resume will not present long paragraphs.  It will have white space separating thoughts and ideas.
  • Great resumes communicate effectively.  Short choppy bullets that do not adequately explain one's accomplishments, contributions and the value they have created in past jobs are ineffective.
  • Great resumes don't have to be interpreted.  They don't overuse acronyms and abbreviations that others do not understand.

A great resume is written in a Clean, Clear and Logical manner that aligns with the order in which people in the resume's audience need to pick up information to get to know the resume owner.

While your resume is always about you, it is always for someone else. A great resume is always written with the resume’s audience in mind. 

Jeff Snyder Coaching

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Quickly…Somebody Push the “Great” Button

 

A Resume Landed in my Inbox

“It was kind of you to offer to take a look at my resume…I have attached my resume to this document and would like to hear your feedback and suggestions. I appreciate your time and offer of help.”

Confession

I am a “Maximizer”.  Seriously, one of my top strengths is called Maximizer.  It essentially means that it is in my DNA to take “Good to Great” anytime I have the opportunity.

My Response

I let the resume owner know that his resume could be better.  How do I know this resume could be better?  I know because I have reviewed resumes nearly every day of my life for the past 25.5 years.

The Resume Owner's Response

"Thanks for frank assessment of my resume.  Good luck with your marketing campaign."

Conclusio

If you ask others for feedback, sometimes you're going to hear what you don't want to hear. What you hear just might be worth listening to because other people's perspectives can sometimes help you to stretch and grow.  

In the words of one of my mentors when I sought his advice after a defeat, Dan told me one time to put on my helmet, goggles and shoulder pads.  He suggested that I should get back on my horse and ride.  

I didn't like what Dan had to say at that moment but I got the point and very soon I was back on that horse so to speak.  Dan was right!

Jeff Snyder Coaching

 

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What Does Aligning One’s Resume, LinkedIn and Interview Message Mean?

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The other day, I created a simple message because I know that most people don’t like to read long blog articles.  On one hand, my effort worked for those who would rather scan than read but on the other hand, someone commented because they didn’t know what I was talking about.

Here you go.  As a recruiter for 25+ years, I have had significant experience in listening to job candidate’s stories on the phone.  Then they send their resume and their resume tells a different story than the one I heard on the phone. 

Next, I’ll look this person up on LinkedIn (as many employers do) and I’ll find yet another story.  You get one chance to make a first impression.  I suggest aligning the message you create on LinkedIn with the message you send in your resume.  Ultimately, make sure both of those messages align with the way you’ll communicate when you have an opportunity to interview.

My coaching clients who have put these three topics in alignment have had significant success all over the world.  Communication that is delivered in a clean, clear and logical manner works for your resume, for LinkedIn and for your interviews.

Jeff Snyder Coaching, 719.686.8810

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What to Do When Your IQ Alone Will No Longer Carry You

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Coaching

This mattered to one technology executive so maybe it will matter to you too. 

StrengthsFinder

This technology leader (I’ll call him John) had taken a Gallup StrengthsFinder assessment years ago but like most people who don’t receive coaching around their StrengthsFinder results, he put the report in a drawer and it never again saw the light of day.

Strengths

That was until someone asked John if he knew his unique personal Strengths.  He dug out the report and made time to read about his unique Traits and Strengths.  At this point in his life he wanted to know more.  He went to Google and searched for Strengths Coaches and found Jeff Snyder.

A Colleague Suggested

It was also suggested to John that he might want to look into emotional intelligence coaching along with gaining an understanding of what his StrengthsFinder report stated.  While he was in a searching mood, he searched Google for Certified Emotional Intelligence Coaches and again he found Jeff Snyder.

Jeff Snyder Coaching

When he arrived at JeffSnyderCoaching.com, he discovered that he’d found a one stop shop for everything that matters to his personal branding in addition to the other coaching he set out to find.  Specifically, he found Resume Coaching and LinkedIn Coaching services.  Then John explored the Leadership Coaching Services that were built for people precisely like him that include StrengthsFinder Coaching and Emotional Intelligence Coaching.

A Career Crossroads

What this means is that John had progressed to his current role pretty much based on his intelligence.  We’ll call this his IQ.  Now that he was working at the Director level, he discovered that the IQ that got him to where he was would not necessarily push him to the next level.  He really wanted to be a “C” level technology leader and he didn't know what to do to get there.

Career Progression

It was a discussion that John shared with one of his colleagues that caused John to seek out a career coach who could help him to understand his unique strengths and his emotional intelligence.  John invested in himself and he has never looked back. 

He is now a “C” level executive and he has measurable and quantifiable results connected to the coaching he invested in to go along with his easy-to-see career progression.  He achieved exactly what his colleague suggested he might achieve if he were to find the right coach.

Jeff Snyder Coaching found at www.jeffsnydercoaching.com

 

 

 

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You Are Unique: What Does Your Personal Brand Say About You?

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Personal Branding

 

What are Your Gifts?

If you’re a gifted technologist for example, odds are pretty good that you’re not gifted in sales and marketing. This is not to say that a technologist is never gifted in sales and marketing but this skill mix is an anomaly rather than the norm.

Marketing and Packaging

When it comes to packaging and marketing yourself, if you can blend technical writing, business writing and a little bit of creative writing simultaneously, you’re in good shape.  However, if you are not sure how to blend technical writing, business writing and creative writing, this activity is probably not your gift.  You might want to seek help from someone who understands your giftedness and who also possesses the gift of writing, sales and marketing and has a results-filled track record.

First Impressions and Personal Branding

If you have a LinkedIn profile, you are making first impressions whether you’ve strategically thought about it or not.  LinkedIn offers a tremendous opportunity for personal brand building.  If you haven’t invested time to strategically build your personal brand on LinkedIn; consider doing so soon.

Consider this when you think about personal branding and how to package and market yourself. 

1.       LinkedIn and Resume Audience: Always build your Resume and your LinkedIn profile for the benefit of other people who make up your audience.  While your Resume and your LinkedIn profile are about you, they are not for you.  It is always someone in your audience who will be forming a first impression when they review your Resume or your LinkedIn profile for the first time.

2.      Align Your Communication: Be sure that the message on your Resume aligns with the message on your LinkedIn profile. Your audience may see your Resume first and then look you up on LinkedIn.  Or, a recruiter who is searching for your skill set may find you on LinkedIn and then ask for your resume.  These two modes of packaging and marketing your background should project the same message and a similar first impression.

3.      Clean, Clear and Logical: Write your resume in a clean, clear logical manner that can be visually scanned in a matter of seconds.  Because your resume is about you and not for you, it is important that your resume not require any interpretation from your audience.  You can apply these same ideas to the building of your LinkedIn Profile.

4.      Align Your LinkedIn Message, Resume and Interview Approach: Start with the end in mind.  If your purpose in building a resume is to get to the next step in your career, think about what message you need to project in order to attract the next step in your career.  What you plan to say in an interview should align with what you wrote on your Resume and the message you projected on LinkedIn.

No matter who you are, you have the potential to deliver a great performance.  Find out how you’re able to deliver your best performance and then build your personal brand around your unique giftedness.

 

Jeff Snyder Coaching, Recruiting and Public Speaking

 

 

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Life Happens: Stop, Ask and Listen

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The nature of all of my work dictates that I deal with lots of people all around the world.  People in different cultures, situations and circumstances. 

This morning, I communicated with someone in Ecuador.  This afternoon, I’ll be communicating with someone in Guatemala and someone else in Colombia.  Yesterday, my global communication led me to Chile, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.  My domestic communication led me to people in Dallas, Los Angeles, New York and Seattle yesterday.

Every person I communicated with was in a different environment, had different circumstances and faced different challenges and/or opportunities.  The experiences I have working with people around the world are fascinating and sometimes challenging.  One thing is for sure. I’m never bored!

While some communication experiences are fascinating, others are puzzling.  The older I get, the more I’m learning to stop, ask and listen before processing what I think is happening. I want to get the reality of the situation right.

Over the past couple of years, I’ve frequently applied this stop, ask and listen approach to many people who had gone silent on me for reasons I did not understand.  Here’s what I learned when I listened.

  • I went through a brutal divorce and other personal stuff. Doing well now…how have you been
  • My son in another state from my first marriage drowned trying to save his friend who fell into a fast running river.
  • My husband died from a heart attack.  Nobody is monitoring that account any longer.
  • I don’t have time to communicate.  I’m up to my eyeballs in problems.  (Unfortunately, this person created his own problems and was now operating in crisis mode…not a pretty picture)
  • My husband fell off a ladder.  I’ve been trying to juggle the pressures of a new job, regular life stuff and the added burden of helping my husband get back on his feet.
  • We lost one of our children to Leukemia. 

Wow!  This is some serious information that I would not have known if I hadn’t asked and listened.  Stopping, asking and listening allowed me to process my response more carefully. In many cases, relationships were saved.

One of the skills we measure in Emotional Intelligence Coaching is called Reality Testing.  Reality Testing means seeing things as they really are rather than seeing things the way we think they are. Possessing strong Reality Testing skills can pay dividends for anyone whose work focuses on people and relationships.

In all of the above cases, I had ideas in my mind to explain why one person or another went silent for period of time. It wasn’t until I stopped, asked and listened that I found out what was really happening. 

Try slowing down or even stopping, asking for answers and listening.  You might be surprised by what you’ll learn.

Jeff Snyder Coachin

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