S3 Group

How to Write a Great Resume

Advice & Tips on how to maximize your chances of an interview by writing an attention grabbing CV

There are numerous companies offering services of resume writing and many will provide you will a very aesthetically pleasing 3-pager, with pretty fonts, and all the paragraphs neatly aligned. Unfortunately, very few actually focus on the content, what your key achievements have been, or getting you an interview.

A resume is a tool. More specifically it is a sales tool. It should be designed specifically to get you an interview, so that you can have a face to face meeting and continue to sell yourself.

It should NOT, contrary to popular belief, just be a chronological history of your employment.

It should NOT list every single job you have held since you left school

It should NOT be one page if you are a senior executive, nor should it be 20 pages. A resume on one page is a Bio, a resume on 20 pages is a waste of trees and time.

A great resume needs to do or be, the following:-

• Grab attention.
• Be designed to be read from start to finish.
• Easily tailored to specific opportunities.
• Showcase your abilities, achievements.
• Project your capabilities to prospective employers

Differentiate

If a sales person is looking for new business, after the cold calling stage they would send out a company brochure. Within that brochure you would normally find information about the products or services provided, the unique qualities and USP’s of what the vendor can offer. You would NOT necessarily get a complete history of the vendor’s existence since it was founded, nor would you get a blow by blow account of how they grew to be a multi-million dollar company.

A resume should be no different.

Introduction

Any resume that you send out directly to an employer should be tailored for success. If you are looking to secure an MD APAC role, or VP Sales APAC with an emerging company, you will need to design a resume that attracts the attention of such companies.

If you have applied to a specific job and you are lucky to have a well written, detailed job advertisement then the task will be much easier. You will be able to identify what is of key importance to the company, whether this be growth, entrepreneurial expertise, regional management experience across several diverse cultural areas, etc. Whatever the overriding theme of the job ad is, you need to build this into your tailored resume – starting with the
summary

Summary

This should be a short, sharp, and focused statement about who you are, what defines you in terms of achievements, and why an employer should hire you. It’s an opportunity to telegraph a few of your sterling qualities. It’s your first and most important opportunity to grab an employer’s attention. You should note that;

• This may be the only part of your resume that is read fully by an employer.
• It is a great place to put professional characteristics.
• It is the most important part to tailor towards a specific opportunity.
• If you have grown a business from nothing to $50,000,000 per annum, THIS is a great place to advertise the fact.
• Think about that the employer will want to hear.
• Avoid clichéd statements.
• Include your objective. What are YOU looking for? What do YOU want to be doing next?
• Don’t forget to end with WHY and employer would want to consider you for the role.
• Think about Features, Benefits, and Achievements

Achievements

There are two schools of thought on where to include your achievements. Should they be in a section directly under the Summary, or should they be written under the positions you have held with various companies throughout your career. Both are correct providing they get the attention of the employer.

I find that highlighting them in a section immediately after the Summary has a greater impact, holds better attention, and compels employers to read more of your resume. As soon as your resume is opened and the employer starts to scan through, they will be thinking “What can this person do for me? How can this person improve the business?” This is the section where you tell them.
Don’t give them all the information here, just provide “headings”. You can give further information later when you
are describing the various positions you have held in the last 2-3 roles.

Examples:-
“X” has over 10 years selling IT Hardware solutions across 15 countries within Asia. For the past 5 years “X” has been awarded with the “Platinum Sales Award” for over achievement.

“Y” has over 15 years managing enterprise sales team in North Asia. During 2006, 2007, and 2008, his sales team won the Highest Performing Enterprise Sales team in Asia, generating over $27M USD in new revenue.

I hope that you would agree that this is significantly more compelling than:-
15 years sales experience in selling network solutions.

Lastly, where you have referred to achievements in this section, you need to reiterate these achievements in whatever role you were in at the time under the chronological part of the resume. Here, you can give more detail whether this is on revenue, profit, team members you managed, etc.

This leads us on to detailing your current and past positions.

The Reverse Chronological Resume

There are varying formats for writing a resume, but in my opinion the standard reverse chronological one is the best. It’s easy to read and understand, it’s clear to the employer where you have been working and what you have been doing. If a resume is confusing, and an employer cannot find the information they need because you are using a funky format, there is little chance they will want to interview you.

If you have had 6 different positions in the last 15 years the detail should be on the last two or three most recent roles you have held, for the other remaining roles a short paragraph will suffice along with one or two highlighted achievements. All 6 roles could have been with the same company, if this is the case you still only highlight the last 3 positions.

For the most recent positions you need to do the following:-

• State your company and job title along with the dates you have held this title, including the month.
• Describe your role, responsibilities, what challenges you were set by the company, and if pertinent or possible what sales targets you were given
• List key achievements, along with more detail. If you achieved 145% of your target, how did you do this? If you were awarded top sales person, how many people did you compete with?
• If you managed a large sales team, how many people were there? How did you motivate them to over achieve? What made you successful as a sales manager?
• Finally, if relevant / appropriate, mention why you moved on from an opportunity under a heading “Reason for Leaving

Example

Job Title – Region. Company Dates

Description of company
Description of your role and responsibilities
Detail your remit, or challenges set by the company
Detail how you performed against these challenges
Bullet point achievements
Awarded Gold Sales Excellence for the year 2007.

Out of 243 sales managers within company “x” I was selected for the Gold award for over achieving my target by
155%. Only 9 other sales professionals at my level achieved this award.

Closed the largest recorded deal in North Asia with ABC Steel.

A deal worth $30M USD, which would generate “X” revenue for the company over 5 years. ( If you were the one
that opened the door, developed the account, and got the deal signed make sure you mention this

Built the enterprise sale team from 5 to 45 over two years, spanning 5 countries.

On joining, company “x” only had 5 sales managers and they mainly focused on the Hong Kong market. By further developing their sales skills and helping them break open new regional markets I was able to quickly double potential client base and the size of the team within 6 months. Etc……

Continue with this format for your next two positions.

Finishing Touches

After you have fully detailed your working experience, you need to list your education under a separate heading. Here you can include any professional qualifications you have gained, whether this is a Masters, MBA, PhD, or CISSP, CISM, etc.

Other sections you could add after this would include Hobbies / Interests, any publications you have written, and
References.

Final Tips

Be consistent. Whether it is the font you are using, using italics, or bold make sure it is uniform throughout your resume

DON’T add a photo. Why give an employer another reason to discriminate when you don’t need to.

No typos – check, check again, get someone else to proof read. Check for grammar.

Use power words. Remember, you are selling yourself.

If you start your resume referring to yourself in the first person or the third person, this should be the case throughout the resume. DON’T change half way through.

The benchmark for length is 2-3 pages. I suggest you write everything down first, then cut what you don’t need.

THINK back to the last time you read a resume. Did you read it all? If you did, you are the exception to the rule. At all times, when writing your resume, have in mind what attracted your attention as an employer, what did you like, what didn’t you like? What areas of the resume caught your attention?

References

• Resume Advice – PDF
• Interview Tips – PDF
• Ten steps to getting your next opportunity – PDF