5) Optimize Your Resume: The Four Phases of Optimization

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The Four Phases of Resume Optimization

A fully optimized resume takes hard work and dedication. I have seen people spend hours every week for 4 weeks straight and still manage to only reach around 55% of their capacity. This is because they do not have a systematic approach to improving their resume, and as a result, they work on the wrong things and spend more time than they have to on the resume. If a student or professional does not build her resume correctly from the beginning, he or she could spend weeks on it and still need to start from scratch to obtain all of the interviews that he or she deserves. In order to fully optimize your resume, you need to go through the four phases of resume optimizations:

Phase I: Formatting

Remember, a recruiter only takes 10 – 25 seconds to quickly look over a resume and decide whether this person is worth reading more about.

In those precious few seconds, your formatting is extremely important in giving them the right “feel” about you. Bullet points are the most efficient way to present what you have done in each experience in a clear and organized manner. Each bullet point should cover an entire line. If your bullet point goes to two lines, make sure there is not just one word taking up that second line because it is a big waste of space.

Your most recent experiences and most recent leadership positions should have the most bullet points while the less recent experiences should have less bullet points. Each sections of your resume should look like a rectangle. You can easily find resumes and templates online, so make sure that these key points differentiate you from others.

Phase II: Strategy

Strategy is often the most ignored part of resume building, but also the most important.

To fully optimize your resume, you must first come up with a list of the skills and traits that the company is looking for.

Next, you must list all of the Ins and Outs from your experiences that show you have these characteristics. Lastly, you should strategically plan out which experiences convey which characteristics. This is where you should apply DMI. You must decide which experiences are the best at conveying which qualities, and make sure they are in the order that builds value in the recruiter’s mind.

I assume that most of the people reading this are interested in business and are interviewing with a corporate company. Here are some industry specific qualities that companies are looking for in an applicant (If the industry you’re interviewing with is not listed, feel free to send your questions to Jun.Loayza@fdcareer.com):

Universal: Team-oriented, leadership, communication

Accounting: Organization skills, technical, detailed oriented, analytical

Consulting: Analytical, creative, quantitative, problem-solving, adaptable, innovative

Investment Banking: Quantitative, perseverance, hard-working, technical

Marketing/PR: Creative, personable, artistic, writer, speaker, researcher

Engineering: Researcher, analytical, technical, organized

Phase III: Wording

Wording is the most technical part of the resume and is what most resume building sites cover. However, they do not provide the full picture of what is the most effective use of wording. When writing your resume, use action verbs, focus on results, and use quantitative examples. There are four things you can include in each bullet point: what it is, method, result, and impact. Most people rush to write about what they did at their job. In actuality, it is not what you did that is important; but rather, it is the value that you created that is most important.
The Order of Importance:

1. Result
2. Method
3. Impact
4. What it is

Examples

Results: “Doubled company revenues, increased traffic by 40%, and resolved customer crisis”

Method: “Spearheaded an online viral marketing campaign by building company thought leadership”

Impact: “Created excel databases in proposal for a $50,000 grant”

What it is: “Responsible for managing data, copying, and handling customer emails and calls.”

Phase IV: Optimization

An Optimized resume is a completely refined resume that becomes a holistic image of who you are. At this final phase, you will not need to make any major changes to your resume. Most of the work will be tweaking a word within a bullet point, rewording some of your sentences, or rearranging the order of your bullet points. These refinements are usually company specific, as every firm looks for different and specific things in each applicant. If you have effectively implemented steps one through three, then your resume should be around 90%.

Optimization is the “special” edge that takes you from 90% to 95% – 100%.

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Creating a resume is a journey. You will learn more about yourself, what you have done, the values you have created, and will also help you do better in an interview due to stronger stories. You already spent so much money and time in college just to get a good career. Why get lazy when it comes to actually applying for one?

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