Is your resume 'too oversized' to fit anywhere?

Have you heard the news on Kevin Smith ‘ejected’ from a Southwest Airlines' airplane due to his size? It is everywhere. CNN, Yahoo News, BBC and almost everyone else is talking about it. He planned his trip by booking two seats on the airplane but there was only one available and when he took it, he sat properly getting his seat belt on as required, but still the flight attendants did not consider it met the airline regulations to sit on it, reason why he was ‘ejected’.

What if they were talking about your resume? Is it oversized? Is it being rejected by the corporate job boards’ screening systems? There are two perspectives I can think of when figuring an ‘oversized’ resume.

1. TMI: How much detail are you putting into it? I wonder if you would invite someone on a second date if getting TOO MUCH INFORMATION on the first one. Same thing happens to resumes. Yes, there is such a thing as TMI on them. A recruiter does not need to know every single thing you’ve done but what relates to the job opening. Even better, what about using your resume to actually advertise the best that your professional brand has to offer? When we are watching TV commercials we just get a snapshot of a product based on what the advertiser has defined the interest of the audience may be. Be Creative. Do not copy and paste your friend’s resume. Do you want to be an ‘ACME’ Resume or the real deal?
2. Length: How many pages are we talking about? I’ve got clients that come to me worrying that the ‘resume’ seems to be 5 pages too long. What do you think?

A recruiter does not give generally more than 5-10 seconds attention spam by resume once it gets to her hands. What can you placed at the beginning of that resume to catch the recruiter’s attention even more than that?

1. A clear objective, summary and career highlights would do you a favor. Do not tell me what anyone else does but what your brand is all about. What makes you different from the competition? What makes you not just right for the job but the best there is out there to be found?
2. Please make it relevant. I do not want to know all the tasks performed on each job but the outcomes, added value you provided due to your performance to the organizations you’ve worked for.
3. Keep it simple. Be mindful to what the market is looking for and what you’ve got to sell to it. Get that reality check. It may be you need an upgrade. I had a client whose profile was fantastic but after I performed a job market analysis on her case, we realized she was missing key software knowledge to get that ‘dream job’. She was disciplined enough to get certified. She highlighted that element properly on her newer resume version. No much later, she landed the kind of job she was truly looking for.

You can actually be strategic about your resume once it is aligned to your Brand values and distinctive elements. If you nail what’s best in yourself, by working not just on a snapshot you can reflect on that piece of paper, but in the unique positioning statement you’ll sell to your network, then the chances are you won’t be oversized but perfect to a market that is just waiting for you to grab the opportunity.

 
“You've got to be success minded. You've got to feel that things are coming your way when you're out selling; otherwise, you won't be able to sell anything.”
Benjamin Jowett (British Scholar)