" If your education is not your strong point you obviously don't want it in a prominent position in your resume. In fact, there is no rule that says you must list your education at all on your resume if you don't feel it's relevant. If your education is clearly too limited for the level of position you seek, try to build up your practical experience as much as possible. Draw the reader into your work experience, absorbing his attention in that area. Concentrate on achievements or specific projects that highlight your valuable real-world experience. If you do a good job, the reader may never notice your lack of education. Or the reader may say to himself: "Well, I don't see a degree here, but he sure has valuable on-the-job background."
If you've received specialized training, attended industry seminars, or received certificates, you might want to put this under a category called Professional Development or Specialized Training. By avoiding the category Education, you don't remind the reader to look for formal education, but instead keep him focused on your specialized background.
When Peter Bartlett wanted to switch firms in his field of construction management, he knew he was up against professionals with bachelor's degrees and even some M.B.A.s. He didn't want to draw attention to his education, so he concentrated on his direct field experience, drawing the reader's attention toward his specific projects to exemplify his abilities.
In this earlier version Peter's readers had no choice but to learn he had only one year of college. But in the resume he successfully used, he didn't have to deal with that question until he got into the interview, and at that point he and the interviewer were well into a productive, harmonious meeting. After meeting with Peter, the interviewer decided Peter's lack of education was more than compensated for by his professional track record and ability to think on his feet.
You Work or Worked for a Company with a Poor or Bad Reputation
Don't accept guilt by association unless you have to. At times your employer's negative reputation may be completely out of your control, and it would be a shame to lose an interview opportunity because of an employer's bad name.
There are three possible ways to get around this, at least on paper:
- If the company has a parent corporation, it may be possible to use that name on your resume. Many companies function under one DBA (doing business as) which is well known to the public, but the actual paychecks come from a parent company with an unknown (untarnished) name. Technically, that parent company is the employer. Getting the reader to focus on your job within an organization rather than your association with an unsavory employer will give your resume a better chance to communicate its message.
- If your company also sometimes refers to itself by its initials and the initials are less recognizable, using initials may be an option.
- If your job titles have as much or more value than the names of the companies for which you’ve worked, try visually highlighting your titles rather than the names of your employers. This will encourage the reader to concentrate on what you are, rather than where you are or were.
- If you can rearrange the order of your employer listings without jeopardizing the integrity of your resume, you may want to do so. Perhaps by labeling another job as Primary Experience you can move the employer with the bad reputation to a less-obvious place.
Simply apply this formula: If your title is more impressive and persuasive to the reader, lead with the title in bold capital letters. Put your company on the next line under your job title in plain letters without any stylistic emphasis.
A Company You Worked for or a School You Attended Is Not a Name Likely to Be Recognized by Your Reader
When this is the situation you want to build a case for the unknown place. If you know your company or school is a quality organization, ask yourself why that is so. Then qualify it the way you would qualify yourself. Educate the reader. What does the company or school have to be proud of? If you were writing a one-line descriptive marketing blurb about the organization, what would you say?
When George Metcalfs wife's job was moved from Boston to Cleveland, George knew he'd have to dust off his resume and seek another job in his industry in Ohio. When he developed his resume, the part about the job he was leaving behind looked like this:
George got little response from his resume. It wasn’t until he showed it to a friend at Suburban that he realized what he was doing wrong: He was not qualifying his company. No one in Ohio had heard of his company. More importantly, no one had any way of knowing how good a firm it was. Was it a mom-and-pop or a professional firm serving high-level industries and corporations?
George went back to the drawing board. Here's what he came up with: George's new resume downplays the name of his employer (since that name will mean nothing in Ohio) and highlights his title, which is much more important. Then it qualifies his company for the reader by listing Suburban's accounts and industry recognition.
Suburban is obviously no mom-and-pop operation. George's new resume actually educates the reader to realize that advancing to Lead Technician at Suburban must be quite an accomplishment. What company would entrust anyone other than a highly competent technician with such valuable and major corporate accounts?
Furthermore, George mentions Suburbans award, demonstrating that he is a Lead Technician who is proud of what his company has achieved. Finally, he shows progressive experience, saying he was promoted from among a staff of 40 technicians. All in all, he now appears to be an attractive package!
You Are Looking for an Out-of-State Job
George Metcalf (see Winning Move #27) made one mistake he didn’t know about when he sent his new, improved resume from Boston to the Cleveland area. This mistake was the primary cause of his lack of response.
His Cleveland readers saw a guy from Boston who wanted to head their way. That filled them with all sorts of skeptical thoughts: Why was he leaving his area? Would an Easterner like the Midwest? Would the Midwest like an Easterner? Could he possibly have any contacts in their locale? Would he be able to find his way around a new territory? Could he think like Midwesterners think? Would it cost them money to get him out here? What if his spouse didn't like it here?
Though George covered as many of these points as he could in his cover letter, he still didn't get the response he expected. He figured it had to be because, as an out-of-stater, he was perceived as a greater risk than in-state candidates. George needed to look local.
And that was when his Aunt Sophie came into the picture. She was as Cleveland as you could get, and even had a street address in a prosperous suburb. George's third and final resume looked like this: George was able to get his Aunt Sophie equipped with an answering machine with a message, recorded in her voice (as if she might be George's wife) that said: "Thank you for calling. We’re away from the phone at the moment. Please leave a message for either George or me, and we'll get back to you as soon as possible."
It worked beautifully. Sophie would retrieve the message, call George in Boston right away, and he would return the call as if he were in the next county. At that point, if the issue came up, George had the company's ear and could explain how the move west would cause no problems. He even mentioned that he had family in the area.
Even Aunt Sophie enjoyed this process. It amused her to no end to raise a few eyebrows from friends when they heard her new taped message about this George fellow who seemed to be living with her!
Your Job Title Is Not Representative of What You Are
Job titles mean a lot to the reader. They are loaded with connotation, and you need to be careful that your title actually conveys the right message. For example, Executive Housekeeper for a hotel is a management position, not someone who makes beds. If an Executive Housekeeper were to try to promote his skills out of the hotel industry, his title would give the wrong impression.
If at all possible, manipulate your title to convey the proper message or connotation. Many companies give titles that don’t accurately or fairly describe the scope of responsibility or technical capability of the employee. Check with your company to see if there would be any problem if you altered your official title to be more accurate or descriptive of your position. Make sure they will go along with the new title when a prospective employer calls to check references.
Another option is to list your official title and then, in parenthesis, to put your own, more descriptive and/or accurate title. Sean Casper was an electronic engineer who specialized in design and design-modification work. He wanted to promote himself as a design engineer. His official title, however, was Electronic Technician-Level 2. It made him sound like a test technician rather than a design engineer, despite the fact that he did an enormous amount of design-engineering work. His company was large, and he was fearful their human resources department would simply "go by the book" and state only his official title.
You Have Several Job Objectives but Want Only One Resume
Over the past 15 years, David Gabriella had used several professional skills and capabilities in three different environments. Now he was interested in developing a resume that would be effective for any number of positions: Architect, Developer, Construction Project Manager, or a blend of all three. His problem was that his job history was not consistently in one of these areas. Some of his positions were with architectural firms, some with real estate developers, and some with construction firms. He didn't want a construction firm, for example, to read his resume and label him as an architect. And he didn't want the architectural firm to label him as a construction project manager. Finally, he didn’t want to develop several resume versions because he felt that would be too confusing.
David felt strongly that his blend of talents would be an asset, so he developed a summary section in the beginning of his resume that was in a menu format. It allowed his readers to understand his valuable blend of experience, and then to choose from the summary menu a particular area of interest, whether in architecture, construction and development, or project management.
This format allowed David to use the benefits of both the functional (skills-oriented) and chronological (job history-oriented) resume formats. It listed his skills in summary form, and then went on to job history to show the reader just where he got his particular experience. It allowed his readers to pick from the summary menu the particular experience they were looking for, and then it led them into his professional experience section to deliver more details.
Despite the fact that David's new resume lacked an Objective section, he made it clear in the first two lines of his summary section that he was focused on applying his professional capabilities in the building industry in any or all of the three specific areas he'd listed. This effectively communicated his objective, yet gave him the flexibility of offering himself for any number of building industry positions. Further, he always wrote a focused cover letter that accompanied his resume when he responded to specific opportunities.
