4) Optimize Your Resume: The Ins and Outs

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Build a Holistic Image of Yourself

The company recruiter’s goal is to determine if you are an excellent candidate to be on the company team. As a result, your resume must reflect you as a person, not just a brain.

“You must show that you are a well rounded, qualified individual as an employee, coworker, leader, and a fun person to hang out with.”

One of the most important concepts that you must adhere to while writing your resume is the rule of Diminishing Marginal Image (DMI). DMI means that if seven lines on your resume say that you are a great finance person, the eighth line that says you are a great finance person would mean very little in the mind of the recruiter. Instead, you should write a bullet point that shows you are a great team player, that you’re organized, or that you have done something creative. Even if all of your experiences deal with finance, you should always find a way to demonstrate a different characteristic and quality through your resume.

Example of a finance quality bullet point:

• Researched information on comparable companies and created 5 year projection plan regarding revenue can cost

Same “finance quality” bullet point changed to represent creative quality:

• Initiated and constructed a 5 year projection plan based on comparable companies using 3 scenarios based on pricing strategy

The Ins and Outs of Your Experience

Many people make the mistake of writing a resume that says, “I am impressive because I have had X and Y experience with these responsibilities.” This is not what companies are looking for. Your goal in writing a resume is to say, “I am impressive because while I had these experiences, I did X and Y that others in the same position would not have done.”

In essence, ten other people could have the same position, in the same company, with the same responsibilities as you, but your resume stands out because you went above and beyond your daily duties and accomplished great things.

This brings us to the topic of Ins and Outs:

The Ins of your experiences are what you learned and absorbed through your experiences such as financial modeling, software skills, and coding abilities. The Outs of your experiences are what you did that created value in the organization or company. Companies are more interested in Outs because it clearly reflects you as an individual. Ins simply demonstrate the job title and the responsibilities of the position. Ins are often reflected within your position, such as “treasurer” or “web developer,” but it is your Outs that ultimately define you as a person.

Example of an In:

• Learned the communication systems of high level management

Example of an Out:

• Created new operating system that saved 35% transaction fees for every order

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