EditorialsBy Matt Bud, Chairman, The FENG

It isn’t often that I get a great resume, but I got one recently.

I guess I wasn’t surprised given who sent it to me. Although it was three pages, it was still crisp and concise. Perhaps it could have been shaved down to two pages, but it really didn’t bother me that it was a little longer than the “standard.”

Here are a few of the things that made it near perfection:

1. It had a well written summary. There were no fluff words like “dynamic” or “born leader,” only prose that served to highlight the accomplishments that followed.

2. The names of all of the firms at which he worked appeared at the beginning of each section in bold, with the years of service at the right hand margin, also in bold. It was therefore easy to see his career track.

3. There was a short “definition” on the line below each firm, even for firms that are well known. (Hey, even if I had been living under a rock or something I would now know what they did!)

4. His titles appeared in bold. I didn’t have to hunt for them.

5. The accomplishments or bullet points were well written and fewer in number as you got further back into his work history, until for his first jobs where there were none.

6. His education included his years of graduation so I didn’t have to guess on that either. It was interesting to see that he finished his MBA immediately after completing his BA. (If you are going to list your first job dates, you may as well put in your graduation dates. It is easy enough to figure out how old you are from your first job.)

7. The type font he selected was easy to read and he didn’t go to 8-point type to try to squeeze in just a few more accomplishments. I guess he used a sharp electronic pencil to great advantage.

The moral is that it really isn’t impossible to put your work history in good order after all. All it requires is taking the time to write and rewrite this most important document.

The framework approach to writing your resume is the one I recommend. If you initially ignore the number of pages you have in your resume, you can build it on a frame and slowly and carefully edit and delete all the unnecessary information.

Try it with your own resume and see if it helps.

Regards, Matt

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