Unhelpful Experience

By Soozy G. Miller, CPRW, CDCC, CDP

CIO.com ran an article that was supposed to help executives with their resume. Here is an excerpt of that help:

“In an effort to streamline her executive resume, Jones worked to condense Smith's experience and accomplishments into more digestible pieces, making it easier for recruiters to quickly get a picture of who Smith is as a leader in two pages.”

I find it very interesting when articles boil down ideas that are supposed to be helpful into information that isn’t helpful at all.

I guarantee you that anyone who read this article does not know what “digestible pieces” means, or how to create “digestible pieces.”

Does she mean shorter sentences? In which case, what do you leave in and what do you omit?

Do “digestible pieces” mean simpler ideas? If so, how much detail should you include, and does that mean dumbing down the words?

My executive clients never know how to do use the information in public sources like this. That’s why they come to me. I offer specific ideas and methodology that they can actually implement.

The article also states:

“Together, Jones and Smith worked to identify the most relevant career experience for Smith's resume, shifting its focus to resonate with industries … and creating a separate executive biography document to highlight her accomplishments as a leader.”

So, according to this article, only your experience goes in your resume, but you should highlight your accomplishments in your executive biography? Why can’t you put both in both documents?

Then there’s this:

“Jones's timeline graphic at the top of the page, complete with logos for Smith's employers at each stage, not only shows her career progression visually, but helps demonstrate that, having made the shift from the private to public sector, she’s capable of making the transition back again.”

Um … since when do recruiters need a visual timeline? And graphics demonstrate her career progression? Graphics help to show she can transition between the public and private sector? Huh. I thought impact does that.

And, finally, does the coach know that all ATS systems and emails systems (even gmail to gmail) do not necessarily do well with logos and graphics? This coach is actually basing her statements on ideas that have been proven unreliable?

So much for helpful information. I have more questions than answers here. So would most of you if you read the article.

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