Delete Your Old Resume!
The cutting-edge software project I have been working on for the past couple of years is being axed. Accordingly, I have turned my attention towards finding an exciting new software development opportunity. As you know, I put 110% into everything I do. When I’m looking for a new job, the search gets 110% of my creative energy, my personal improvement efforts, and my ground-breaking practical experimentation. This time, I learned one simple thing that will radically alter the entire process.
Delete Your Old Resume!
Go do it right now. I’ll wait for you. Literally, just throw your pdf or doc file into the Recycle Bin. Empty it. You’re doing yourself a huge favor!
The traditions, common advice, and templates that are readily available are doing you a terrible disservice. Most of the techniques and suggestions that you’ve been taught or seen in articles are completely counter-productive.
What your resume should not be:
- Boring
- Verbose
- Cookie-Cutter
- Black and White
- Trivial
- Lengthy
- Irrelevant
What your resume should be:
- Exciting
- Succinct
- Personalized
- Unique
- Colorful
- Value-Centric
- Focused
- Polished
The purpose of your resume is to market yourself. Someone who reads your resume should feel excited about even the possibility of hiring you! Your resume should represent you.
It should not consist of simply your history, or your accomplishments, or trivial facts about you. History is dead. Past accomplishments are simply a proxy. Trivial facts are merely noise. Education has nothing to do with your practical capabilities. Minimize the amount of dead junk in your resume.
Instead, your resume should feel alive! It should highlight your best qualities (perhaps even non-verbally). The layout should be interesting and fresh. You should use as few words and sections as possible to communicate the things that offer the highest value. Visual graphs and images form a much more powerful impression than text. Your resume should radiate positivity and proactive energy. A few concrete details about job and accomplishments are needed, but choose them very carefully! Dedicate as few words to them as possible. Your resume should be a teaser brochure of your highlights. The goal is to whet the appetites of those companies that interest you. Capture their attention, and leave them wanting more!
When you are actually creating your resume, don’t use a text or document editor. Use professional art or layout tools like Adobe Photoshop or InDesign. Create a layout that looks visually appealing to you, and conveys something about your essence in a vivid manner. Make sure you have a great professional headshot to put on your resume. You should physically look like a great fit for the job. Those who look at your resume should be mentally picturing you performing your (future) job task. This will favorably prime the conversations and interviews, such that people will be working to make it a reality.
If you do this, by crafting an exciting and succinct new resume, you will give yourself a large competitive advantage. The job search process will be extremely easy and fun. The companies that you are interested in, will also be very interested in hiring you. In my job search, I was shocked by the incredible effectiveness of this technique! Every single company I contacted expressed unsolicited compliments on my new resume.
Give your resume the rebirth it craves!
You will enjoy a ridiculously unfair advantage the next time you seek a job!