A resume is your personal story to an interviewer. It should be carefully crafted to tell them the story you want them to read.
Many people just put facts together and let the interviewer make up their own story. Don't you want to control your own ending?
Like writing a book or a persuasive essay, start your resume with an outline.
What is the overall picture you want to explain? What points get the interviewer there? What details can you provide?
Here are 6 fast tips for writing your resume outline:
1. Start w/ brainstorming.
Put down everything you can say. Business names, job titles, responsibilities. It is important to capture them all now so you know what you have to work with. Start organizing them into groups based on what kind of role you had - or what level position you were in. This will help with the next step.
2. Focus on the big picture.
Once everything is down - scan through everything. Is there a big picture you can paint about yourself w/ all your experiences? What kind of job are you applying to? What kind of traits are they looking for? What kind of experience? Are you the trustworthy manager who hits the numbers or are you the innovative wildcat that can overdeliver multiple folds? Who's the main character in this story?
3. Pick appropriate jobs and responsibilities.
Once you have a story you're trying to tell - pick jobs and responsibilities appropriately. Each position should play a part in your story. They're important examples of character development. Skip over things that don't add credibility to the story. Extraneous info can hurt.
4. Watch organization.
How should the story reveal itself? Resumes don't have to be in chronological order if you can organize everything in a better manner. As long as it's not too much a stretch - you should be fine.
5. Be prepared for transitions.
How will talking about one job lead to the other? What's the connection. As you're interviewing, you need to guide the interviewer through your resume - so you can tell them the story you've carefully laid out.
6. Worry about details later.
Don't forget that this is outlining. This is about the big picture and how the story weaves itself. Fill in the details later.
