A TURKEY SENT ME THEIR RESUME. SO I WAS OBLIGED TO COMMENT.
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May I make some observations?
Thanks, (I would anyway, but I’m working on my pushy image!)
For a project manager to be in a time bind, isn’t such a good admission. I try to answer every email or phone call in 24 hours. It might be just a quick response, but never never ever let them see you sweat.
:-)
I know I know easier said than done.
Now about your resume.
Sorry, but it “screams” I did it myself from a book.
I don’t have a slot free in my turkey farm http://tinyurl.com/lxu93 currently (I have five slots for my “turkeys” (i.e., people in job search) where I dedicate a short block of time to work with them 1on1 about their search.) but let me steal a few minutes from my morning coffee to give you some ideas. (Actually the ideas are precanned snippets of advice that I can use a macro to put up at a moment notice. Didn’t want you to think I was feeding you a load of “barbara streisand”.)
Here’s what I saw when I opened your resume and some thoughts.
* A resume’s only purpose is to get read and motivate the reader to action.
* You have to break the 15 second barrier and the 60 second barrier. You have 15 seconds to make the reader invest the next minute. Then, you have one minute to make the reader put your resume on the “keep stack”.
* Name address block takes far too much of the top real estate. Get it all on one line in unbolded ten point font. If you’re the right candidate, the hunter will break out a magnifying glass to read your contact info if needed.
* “summary” doesn’t summarize. Should be “objective”; and it’s not your objective it’s the reader’s.
* Upon further review “highly effective” should have been stroked out as well.
The balance of the resume is far too wordy. You need to make it easy to read. Think movie cliff hanger. Think “how’s she do that?”. Think “Wow!”.
You want to play par golf. In resume land, that is PaaR! Problem, analysis, action, results. Write down in each position what are the three major problems I was handed, what analysis did I do, what actions did I take, and what results I achieve. Then you throw out the Analysis and Action (They get that when they hire you.) and put in the Problem and Results.
So, for example, I found that the whatchamacallit project was late, over budget, and under functional. So I did an resource analysis and found that there were no left handed paper hangers assigned! Since fifty percent of the wall were right handed and the rest left handed, there were right handed paper hangers struggling to paper the left handed walls where they had to reach over their bodies to paper. I fired half the right handed ones and hired an equal number of left ones. Then you write: “The whatchamacallit project was late, over budget, and under functional. The project was back with in spec in 4 months at no additional cost after I was hired.”
See the diff! I can hear the recruiter getting on the phone know. “How did you do that?” “Hire me and I’ll tell you. I’m not a free consultant that can be had for an interview.”
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People are enamored by their own name. That block of text can easily occupy 100% of that incalculably valuable resume real estate. When I see a resume like that I cringe. Because I know what is coming. I, I, eye, I, I, eye. Everything will be about them. When it should be about the hiring manager who’s reading it.
fwiw
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Reinke Faces Life 
I don’t have time for “interesting”.
That’s why I counsel “my” turkeys to use that piece of very valuable resume real estate to answer the question “what are you going to do for me as the hiring manager”.
It’s not the job seeker’s objective that should be front and center; it’s the hiring manager’s objective that you the job seeker will be satisfying.
It’s so hard to get turkeys to change their view point. Personally, when they are reoriented to the hiring manager’s view, the resumes become so much better. They go on a “resume diet”; they play PaaR resume “golf”; they get laser-like on what they want. It’s amazing how many break thru on that point alone. Also interesting to see how their collateral stuff and interviewing prep changes. I then have less trouble “selling” them on the idea of creating a “brag book”.
Sigh, but then what do I know. I’m just the big fat old turkey hisself. :-)
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The objective/summary debate is interesting. Several large firms I work with disregard “objective” statements since many resumes simply reiterate the job the applicant is applying for, i.e. Highly motivated programmer seeks a VB postion with a multi-national corporation. Company X knows they are multi-national and knows there is a job posted for a VB programmer so simply restating the obvious is mundane to a hiring manger. A good, brief and descriptive objective statement can incorporate an objective while capturing a hiring managers attention. It is imperative to know the likes and dislikes of the company you are applying to.
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