Advance Resume Writing

In this lecture, we discuss

1. The three sections of the Resume Template
2. The length of the Resume
3. The cardinal rule and exceptions to the rule.
4. The myths regarding the Resume length and where it started.
5. The density of words
6. We also discuss a brief of the three sections of the resume template

In this lecture we discuss all the aspects of the Resume Content. This is the core focus of the entire training. We discuss why the content of your Resume is significantly more important than the Resume Template.

We start with a discussion on the Covering letter

1. Why the covering letter does not matter in the age of emails and online forms.
2. What was the original purpose of the covering letter?
3. What replaced the covering letter after 2008?

Two aspects of the Resume Content

1. Narrative: The first aspect of the Resume Content,
2. Perspective: The Second key aspect of the Resume.

Narrative: The first aspect of the Resume Content,

1. Two reasons why I suggest the third person narrative.
2. Why do some prefer NOT to use the third person narrative. and why this is a bit outdated?
3. Examples for all the three types of narratives. You can choose any of them and you will be right.

What is Perspective? and why it is key to your success..

Your Resume has to convey that you are happy and feel fulfilled at work. It should not be boring and it should not be a dull report of what you had done in the past. This is not an obituary. It's your sales document and a prospectus for a valuable asset YOU. It must be interesting.

It has to show your role, experience and abilities in the proper perspective. What goes into your Resume will largely depend on how you see yourself.

One of the biggest mistake people make in the Resume is the way they communicate who they are. A good Resume MUST contain a positive tone and a subtle message that says you a happy person with a great attitude..

Employee engagement statistics

According to one study on employee engagement, only about 29% of employees are actively engaged with a positive attitude and strong commitment toward their job. Just 29%. 15% are miserable and openly dissatisfied while more than half, 55% are just plain disengaged – not only do they not actively contribute; they are there to simply collect their pay.

If you want to be hired, you have to be seen as part of the 29% who have a positive attitude.

Case Study: We discuss the following sample and deconstruct it for Perspective.

I am the Project Manager on the Alpha project. I lead a team of 20 technology specialists on an $5 million engagement aimed at increasing the market share of the company from 4% to 10%.

This is THE most important section of the training. We will discuss the first line of the Resume in this section. (It is called the 'Branding and Positioning Statement' )

But before we discuss the first line, I discuss the overall Summary section itself in this lecture.

1. For now, I just want you to understand the landscape of the Summary which we cover in this lecture.
2. Why the purpose of the Resume Summary is to position you as an expert and to build credibility in ONE area of expertise.
3. How the summary should be in bullet points and the rules regarding how these bullet points are to be structured.
4. We discuss the Structure of the Summary
5. Why the first sentence or the first bullet point of the summary is the most important sentence in a Resume. (It is called the 'Branding and Positioning Statement' )
6. Why the last bullet in your summary should be your 'Qualification line' and how that should be written.
7. How we use the space between the opening statement and the qualification line to build credibility. Each of these lines will elaborate on ONE aspect for which you will build credibility.

For now, don't worry about the credibility builders, I will walk you through these credibility builders once we have our Opening Statement ready.

Since you will be positioning yourself as an authority and expert in ONE area of specialization, our first step in building your resume would be identify this ONE area of specialization.

Exercise-1 will help you defining area of your expertise. This exercise comes in two parts.

1. Exercise 1a will help you answer the question – Which area do I want to be seen as an expert on? If you are starting out in your career, just complete Exercise 1a.
2. The Exercise 1b is for people in senior roles to help them re-evaluate if what they are pitching for is in keeping with other career and life parameters. I will discuss Exercise 1b in the next lecture.

If you have finished Exercise 1a you must be fairly sure of what roles can you play and who you want to be. Now that you have defined what role you want to play and what role your Resume is being pitched for, its time to put your Role selection to the Acid Test.

This acid test is more for those who are in the mid-career or want to re-look at their career. Unlike somebody who is just starting out in their career, any mistake in the selection of a role can send you in a downward spiral quite quickly.

So here is the test that I apply to myself and advice every senior executive to take.

Download the Exercise 1 from the resources area now. As mentioned earlier, this has two section 1a and 1b. You must do 1b only after you have completed 1a.

This test will help you re-evaluate what your selection.

Once you have clearly listed all the roles you can play, finish Exercise 1b. Answering these will help you get clarity on what you really should be doing with your career. There are about 6 simple questions.

I suggest you go someplace where you won't be disturbed to do this. You will need to research to answer some of these questions. You will need a laptop and internet. Don't rush. Take you time.

Here is a tip:

If you are approaching the mid-point in your career (say you already have over 15 years) try not to position yourself into an area that is prone to fast paced changes, unless you are passionate about it and are on top of all things that are happening there. Or are ready to put in the effort to stay ahead.

Complete the exercise now and I join me in the next lecture.

As mentioned earlier, the purpose of the Summary is to position you as an expert in ONE area. Before I proceed further, I want you to understand what positioning means.

1. We discuss what Positioning means
2. We discuss examples of people who are well positioned. (Steve Jobs, Nelson Mandela, Neil Armstrong, Mahatma Gandhi)

Positioning is what marketing and advertising companies do for their product. Every product is promoted to "own" a word in their consumer's mind. Positioning gives you increased visibility and desirability to a ring-fenced audience. It makes you want to ask for Coke when you are looking for a drink.

You have to be positioned properly to be ahead of the pack in an competitive employment market.

A mistake in your positioning will have significant negative impact on your career, finances and reputation. Which is why I wanted you to finish the first exercise before you came to this section. Exercise-1 helps you identify the word that you will own.

By now you have learnt what the Resume Template should be and how long your resume should be. You have learnt what positioning is. We learnt that the purpose of the Summary is to position you as an expert in ONE area.

You also should have identified that ONE area of your expertise if you have completed Exercise-1. It absolutely must for you to have your area of expertise to start this section.

You are now ready to start writing your Resume.

The first line of your Resume is the most important sentence in a Resume and your personal brand has to be communicated in the opening sentence. I call this the 'Branding and Positioning Statement'. It should be the first point in your Summary.

We discuss the following in this lecture

1. The purpose of the opening statement.
2. The three important messages Your opening statement has to effectively communicate.
3. The Six-Second test.
4. How recruiters look at your Resume?
5. In the new dispensation, the first line HAS to effectively tie you to the ONE word that the reader associates with you. We discuss what this word is.
6. Mistakes professionals make in the opening statement

In this lecture we discuss why the first line replaces the traditional “Objective", “Purpose"

Long back, when Resumes were printed and circulated, it used to open with a candidate's “objective”. The world was a different place where people genuinely had the ambition of joining a company and spending their entire lifetime in one company. So when somebody wrote that their objective was to join such a company, they meant that. It meant something.

The objective was relevant during the times when you could join a company at the lowest rung and work yourself up through the ranks and retire from the company.

This is how job markets worked earlier, but not anymore.

Today, there is actually a risk in using the Objective. If you use it, you will be perceived as a person out of sync with the times.

The credibility of the Objective has come down because it's an established fact that we apply for several jobs all at once and it is normal human tendency to copy and paste the “Objective”, change the name of the company and send it to everyone.

Don't use it. The opening Branding and Positioning statement replaces this quite powerfully.

To find out the 5 components of a highly effective first line you have to answer these five questions first...

1. What is your brand identifier?
2. What roles you want to play?
3. What experience do you have? - How long have you been in this role?
4. What benefit do you deliver?
5. What is your domain expertise or industry speciality?

In this lecture we discuss the five components of the resume opening statement.

We also walk through two examples of effective first lines for experienced professionals to help you understand this better:

Each of these components is individually explained in the following lectures.

Your most important asset is your name. Nothing can ever take it away from you. It distinguishes you from others.

It is your Brand identifier. It is the capstone on which you will build your brand and credibility.

And since the recruiting company is looking for an “expert", an “authority", unless you are as famous and an expert like Einstein, you have to follow a certain rule when it comes to establishing your name as a personal brand identifier.

So, in this lecture we discuss how should your name be presented if it has to be your "Brand Identifier". We discuss how you must stand apart and resist becoming a part of the crowd.

At the end of the lecture, you are encouraged to complete Exercise-2 which will help you select the name for your personal branding.

It is important that you finish the keyword research we discussed in the earlier section. If you have not done the keyword research, please do it now and come back to this section. You should have also completed Exercise-1 &2 from the earlier lectures.

Now that we have your Brand Identifier ready, we will now work at positioning in this lecture.

We discuss the following two roles each of us play in our professional life

1. skill-based role and
2. hierarchical role

To make it easy to understand, we walk through a few examples and deconstruct it in this lecture.

We also discuss a mistake professional's make that keeps them away from success.

You are encouraged to finish Exercise-3 which will help you affirm the two roles you can play. You will select ONE skill-based role and ONE hierarchical role you can play.

If you had done all the exercises till now, you will have your role & your brand identifier ready.

In this lecture I show you how you should showcase your experience in the Branding and Positioning Statement.

Your experience has to be appropriate to the role, plus, it has to send the right signal to the recruiter. From a positioning point of view, this is very important.

WE discuss the following

1. Three ways how experience is defined
2. How the best of professionals either “over" position or “under" position themselves out of an opportunity.
3. Why your lower experience will not undermine you.
4. The danger of showing yourself as overtly experienced. We discuss how you are perceived and how to handle that in the Resume and the exception to the rule.

You are encouraged to complete Exercise 4 after you go through the lecture. It has 4 simple questions to help you get your experience sorted in a way that will support your branding and positioning in the opening statement.

Here is an important fact - A company is NOT looking to hire you for your talent, skill or experience. They are hiring you for the result that you will help them achieve. They are looking for a certain end-outcome.

So don't sell your skills, sell what your skill can do for them. In other words - “'Don't sell what you do, sell what you're doing does”.

If you have done all your exercises so far, you will have the brand identifier, the role and the experience sorted. We will now focus on the benefit you deliver in this lecture

Now you are selling. And there is only one rule when it comes to selling yourself as a brand. You have to be absolutely crystal clear on how the hiring company perceives the benefits you bring to the table.

This is true, whether it is selling your personal brand or selling a Ferrari. People don't buy a Ferrari for Ferrari's sake. What they are actually buying is the “feeling" or “emotion" that owning a Ferrari brings. They are buying the pride, the exclusivity, the thrill and of course their neighbours envy that owning a Ferrari brings them.

Ferrari salesmen don't sell the Ferrari, they sell the feeling the Ferrari brings. So don't sell your experience, sell the benefit you will bring to the hiring company.

Because your Resume is selling the outcome you bring to their business, you have to clearly tell the hiring company, the benefit they get when they hire you.

Once you finish the lecture, move to Exercise 5 where we will define the benefit you bring to your employer.

In this lecture we discuss how our domain specialty is to be handled.

You have to clearly and precisely define the industry or domain you operate in. We are living in a time of super specialization. If you say you sell art, it is not enough. You have to specify which kind of art work you specialize in selling.

You have to take this to a lower level, but not so low that you miss the spectrum of opportunity. I do not recommend that you drive yourself into a super-niche corner unless you have a reason to. I would suggest that you stay one step above this

You purpose is not to have the best Resume in town. Your ultimate purpose is to make profitable career progression.

Ensure that your Resume gives you access to as many opportunities as possible today and in the same time gives you elbow room to leverage your experience to access a larger, broader market without diluting your brand.

Getting yourself in a super niche has both advantages and disadvantages. For one, you get paid more for the super specialty. However, on the flip side, you could paint yourself into a small super-specialty corner. Super niches tend to disappear and give way to other newer niches and that is real danger to your career. If the demand disappears, you are left out in the cold. It's always good to be slightly generic, just a notch up from a super specialization.

You are encouraged to do Exercise 6. It has two simple questions that help you define the domain you want to operate in.

Once you complete this exercise, we will be moving into the final exercise in this section where we tie all this together to finalize your own Branding and Positioning Statement.

If you have done all the exercises till now, you will now have all the 5 components of a highly effective first line.

Congrats! You are now ready to write your own Branding and Positioning statement.

Let's recap.

1. You have firmed up the Name that is going to be your Brand Identifier
2. You are clear about the roles you want to play. You have evaluated each role; evaluated the pros and cons of each role using the "Role Profile" Worksheet and have decided on what role(s) you are going to target.
3. You have clear view of your experience that you bring to this role.
4. Crystal clear list of benefit you will deliver to the hiring company. You also know the benefits you bring to your audience.
5. Your domain expertise or industry specialty

You are now ready for your final exercise. Your final exercise is to combine all this and write your final Branding and Positioning Statement that clearly defines the role you want to play in the industry you want.

Download Exercise-7 from the resources area and complete it. This may be an iterative exercise. In other words you may have to write a few versions till it feels right.

You may also want to run it past a few friends to get their feedback for fine tuning it. I suggest you post your Branding and Positioning Statement in the discussion area and share it with all of us.

You have now crossed a very critical milestone in creating a well-positioned Resume that properly communicates your brand and positions you as an expert and authority in your domain. This is sure to grab the attention of the recruiter.

Now that you have your Branding and Positioning Statement ready, you can now start writing the rest of your Resume. Once you complete this, I look forward to seeing you in the next section.

Congrats again !!

Recap of what you learnt in this section

Now that your Branding and Positioning Statement is ready, we will move on to finish the rest of the Resume summary.

In this lecture we discuss the second and third line of the summary

In the first line you introduced and positioned yourself. You will use the second line to emphasize your area of specialization. If you are a senior executive and a specialist in any area, you must use the second line to emphasis this.

The third line is what I call the 'Association line'. Again it exists to support the first bullet. You will include all the names of the companies you were associated with in this line. In this bullet point, list out all the companies you had been associated with “in the domain you are pitching for".

I will show you my Resume in a moment and you will understand this better.

Once you finish the lecture, download Exercise 8 from the Resources area and complete it. It has two parts. One to help you capture your Specialization line and the other to help you get your Association line ready.

Finish this exercise before you move to the next lecture on the rest of the Credibility builders.

We discuss the rest of your summary's “credibility builder points” in this lecture.

These credibility builders should showcase your skills and areas of expertise. If you have more than one area of expertise within the domain, you can have multiple bullet points, one for each area of expertise.

These could include

1. Stakeholder management,
2. Project implementation experience,
3. Expertise or proficiency in specific areas within your domain,
4. Methodologies
5. Regulations you have built expertise,
6. Any media mentions.

If you are a senior executive, there are two specific points that I insist on including in a Resume. One is Stakeholder Management and another is your ability to Communicate.

As you go up the corporate ladder, some terms like “stakeholder management" and “communication skills" take on additional importance and have different meaning than what they have in the Resume for a junior role. We discuss why in this lecture.

Once you complete the lecture, please download Exercise 9 from the resources area and complete it. In this exercise you will list out all the credibility builders that you feel you can boast of. Go ahead and complete it now.

We are almost finished with the Summary.In the next lecture, we will cover the Academic and Education line, the last sentence in your Summary.

WE discuss the Qualification line, the last line of the Resume Summary in this Lecture.

Academic qualification has to be mentioned prominently and separately in the summary part of your Resume. It should be the last line in you summary.

From a branding and positioning perspective, mentioning your academic qualification in your Resume has an immensely high value. It shows you had invested time and money to gain a higher level of learning. It shows you have a stretched mind, a broader outlook and a wider experience that goes beyond work related skills.

It also shows that you stand apart from others who do not have any academic qualification.

Yet, professionals sometimes don't mention their academic qualification in the Resume at all. Or even if they do, it appears as an after-note in the Resume. I find this appalling.

People don't mention their academic qualification in their Resume, either because the subjects they majored in is no more relevant to the role they are applying for or because they feel mentioning academic qualification is only for those who are fresh out of college. Both are not true.

There are four types of qualification that you will need to be aware of -

1. Academic qualification,
2. Technical certification,
3. Professional membership and
4. Skill training.

You can club all the qualifications & professional memberships in one bullet point. Here are a couple of examples:

Mention all the academic qualifications you hold, irrespective of whether it is in a subject related to your role or not.

You don't need to mention the year when you got the qualification or the grades but clearly mention the University where you got the qualification from. Explain what you majored in for each qualification

As for technical qualifications or skill level certifications, mention only those technical qualifications that is relevant to the role you are applying.

Mention all the industry bodies or societies you are a member of. One exception here – If you are a member of a premium society or body say the Royal Society, you must mention it as a separate bullet point.

Download exercise 10 and complete it. That will help you firm up your qualification line.

We discuss how the skill summary is to be showcased in your Resume.

In terms of real estate on your Resume, the Experience section clearly uses the most.

The presentation is likely to occupy the entire second page of the Resume and possibly a third or quarter of the first page as well.

The Experience section broadly has three parts.

1. The Section Header
2. The Content of the Experiences Section
3. And finally, if required, a sentence or a short table in the end of the experience section to show engagements and experiences beyond the content elaborated in the body of the experience.

In this lecture we discuss how your Experience is to be showcased.

The content of your Work experience section will contain a chronological listing of your “relevant" experience, with the latest experience appearing first accompanied by a short summary for each engagement.

In this section, for each company you were engaged with, you will detail out 4 key elements

1. Name of the company
2. Your role within the company
3. The date or duration of engagement
4. Summary of each engagement / Employment

You also need to limit the list to either a time period of say 5 to 10 years or to a maximum of 5 or 6 relevant engagements. Determine what fits nicely and positions you properly.

The purpose of the showing your experience is to convince the recruiting company that you have “relevant experience to support the role you want to play". Do not showcase any experience that does not support the role, even if it was recent.

In this lecture, I analyze a real resume - mine !! I show you how your resume should look and explain each component. This will help you make your resume.

Congrats !!

If you have followed all the exercises so far, you must have your Resume ready by now, one that communicates instant credibility and authority. I am sure you found this simple.

If you had followed all the exercises till now, You will have a razor sharp, well researched, well structured and usable resume ready. And the best part, this works, THIS REALLY WORKS..

Thanks for completing this course. I would love you feedback.It will help me update the course and in return help others.

Lets summarize what we done so far.

• In section 3 you learnt the 5 components of an effective "Branding and Positioning statement" and if you had done the exercises, You will have your "Branding and Positioning statement" ready.
• You also learnt about Positioning.
• You learnt Why the Objective is NOT to be used and how the Opening Branding and Positioning Statement replaces it.
• You learnt the right way to present yourself, when writing a resume. (Most Professionals miss this and they stay at the bottom.)
• You learnt how to bring the reader's focus to the benefits of hiring you. (Recruiters love this).
• You learnt how to effectively position yourself as an authority and expert in your area. Remember, Companies love to hire experts, not just employees.
• You also learnt the right narrative to use when writing a Resume. Should you use the first person or third?
• You learnt to pack the right emotion in the opening statement. (They say, facts tell, but emotions sell.)
• And finally, you will learn what you must NOT say in the first sentence of you Resume.
• In Section 4 we learnt to develop the rest of the summary.
• We learnt what goes in the first line of your summary and what goes last, and the order of credibility builders in between. We learnt about the importance of the association line, the specialization line and the qualification line. And the specifics of how each of them are written.
• In section 5 we handled the Skill summary. And in Section 6, the last section of this resume builder, we learnt how to showcase your experience.
• But even before we went through the exercises, we learnt about keywords and the research we have to complete. We learnt to analyse the data we have
• Earlier, I had walked you through my own Resume as a case study to help you understand how the resume should look.

If you had followed all my instruction, you will have a very powerful resume ready, one that will brand and position you and put you head and shoulders over others in a competitive arena.

Before I finish this course formally, I want to share two important aspects.

• Your resume is like a sword. By itself it can do nothing. You can win a battle, only if you wield it. So your next step after you have your resume ready, is to make your Resume available in every reputed job-portal possible. The more places it is seen, or is searchable, the more your chances are to be invited by recruiters.

Which brings me to the final point.

• This is a changing world. And your resume's usability is temporary. If you want to be have a continued successful run in your career, you have to update your resume regularly. I would suggest you revisit this training every 6 months and rebuild your resume based on the reality that exists then. Do all the exercises again. You will be glad you did it.

You can contact me through Udemy or connect with me on LinkedIn.

Warm regards and best wishes..

Nara Kaveripatnam