Once you
have the recruiter’s attention from your profile, she will next take a look at
your job titles and length of employment. When I first learned this was the
next place the recruiter’s eyes traveled to, my heart dropped. I have been the
unwilling participant of several layoffs over my career, impacting the length of time on several jobs.
I’m here to
tell you that if you have a strong profile and your resume is well structured
(I will help you with this, too), recruiters will not automatically dismiss you
due to a few short tenures. Layoffs, unfortunately, are a way of life for us,
especially in the technical industries. If you have strong stories to share and
use these stories to build a great resume, you will do just fine in getting
past a few short tenures. I do! And you can, too, by crafting great stories to
help you land your dream job.
I like to
entitle the description section of my resume “Relevant Experience,” capturing
successes that apply to my dream job. One tip is not to abuse this section of
your resume. Do not list every success you have had. No one cares,
unless the success relates to the job you are applying for. Once again, you
will leverage those great stories you crafted earlier to identify the successes
to add to this section.
There are
two basic layouts I like to use for the Relevant Experience section of my
resume:
1) Paragraphs
2) Introductory sentence with 3-5 bullets, supporting the
successes implied in the introductory sentence.
I’m going
to share the same basic content with you in my two examples below. I use both
layouts when submitting resumes, depending upon the company and industry. See
which one you prefer. Then stick with it as you build out this section of your
resume. Remember to add spaces between
the jobs so that the interviewers can quickly track your job history.
Paragraph:
Company X September 2015 – Present
Senior Executive
Communications Manager
Engage and execute strategic communications for
Chief Operations Officer, supporting ten global, integrated, cross-functional
groups. Identify and coordinate critical communications and change campaigns,
along with documenting integrated communication plans. Deliverables include
internal and external executive communications, employee engagement,
informational videos, all-hands presentations, posters, scripts, decks and
social media. Coordinate corporate
events, celebrations and town halls, including recent global celebration for
retirement of senior executive. Quickly engaged and ramped communications
program in technical environment.
Introductory sentence, followed by
supporting bullets:
Company X September 2015 – Present
Senior Executive
Communications Manager
Engage and execute strategic communications for Chief
Executive Officer and her staff, supporting ten global, integrated,
cross-functional organizations.
- Identify and coordinate critical communications and change campaigns, along with documenting integrated communication plans.
- Responsible for internal and external executive communications, employee engagement, informational videos, all-hands presentations, intranets, posters, scripts, decks and various social media platforms.
- Coordinate corporate events, celebrations and town halls, including recent global celebration for retirement of senior executive.
- Quickly engaged and ramped communications program in telecommunications environment.
Once you
have your relevant experience section completed on your resume, the rest will
be easy! My next article will share a layout that works extremely well in
getting interviews with recruiters. Just ask my clients!
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