By Janice Worthington
Janice Worthington, known as America’s coach of champions, has been advising industry leaders for three decades. A 14-year former executive recruiter, Janice began empowering candidates in 1987. Her insights have garnered offers for C-level candidates in the most competitive arenas. With Master and Bachelor degrees in Journalism and multiple certifications, her career column is currently featured in American City Business Journals; she has been quoted in the Washington Post, Kiplinger’s and Business Week. Her presentations appear in numerous career anthologies. She serves as “Your Career Coach” on CareerBoard·com. Web Site: www·worthingtoncareers·com
I am befuddled at what happens to bright and talented executives when it comes time to create their résumés. They appear to go into a hypnotic trance and lose all sense of business acumen. This top-tier group directs corporations, divisions, regions and operations. Whatever are they thinking when job search time comes?
The marketers puzzle me most. With high-dollar budgets and well-paid creative staffs they lead the way in promoting the features and benefits of medical nutritionals, commercial office space and industrial fasteners. The sales executives also leave me in a quandary. Especially today, these folks know how hard they must work to get the customer to spend his precious dollar. They know their customers; they have analyzed their needs and appeal to the fact that their customers will be more than a step ahead if they buy. So they sell, sell, sell to capture long term customer commitment with full knowledge that if their marketing tools are not top notch, God forbid, the customer will buy from someone else.
It is from this strong product marketing hall of fame that unforgettable tag lines such as “Things Go Better With Coke,” “You Asked For It You Got It, Toyota,” and “Fair & Balanced News” have emerged. So forgive me if I ask, what happens to strategic selling and competitive marketing genius when it’s time for these executives and professionals to market themselves?
Make no mistake; if hundreds of thousands of job offers totaling millions of dollars have been lost because of free falling on interviews, the number of missed opportunities due to weak, pointless résumés is unfathomable. Something mystical and unknowingly self-defeating happens when Thomas Huddington, Executive Vice President becomes Joe candidate. As he leaves his element and thus his comfort zone, his sense and sensibility also stay behind. Here’s what he does to his résumé that sabotages his odds of response.
Joe candidate seeks the “fill in the blanks” approach. This is accomplished by using the Windows template or purchasing software online or at the local computer retailer. And Joe does, by the millions. He simply uses a canned form and inserts his information. With no regard to highlighting features and benefits like the good old days at the industrial fastener marketing department, he just adopts a herd mentality and fills in the blanks. He would never wear his neighbors’ contact lenses or take their prescription medication. What is he thinking?
Joe candidate employs inflexible rules of engagement. After 3 decades in the careers industry, I have yet to trace the source of several archaic urban legends including the one-page-only rule. This is the biggest nemesis résumé practitioners face. Each candidate’s level and amount of experience differs. We know that demonstrating candidate features and benefits is paramount in giving an employer a reason to take action. My firm produces no one-page résumés at the executive or six-figure income-level because we know employers will not be motivated to respond to so little information in a candidate who has accomplished and requires so much.
Today’s résumés must be more than hors’ oeuvres to entice an employer. Employers invite fewer candidates to interview and will not call folks in to get to know them. Only after the getting-to-know-you content is provided on the résumé will a candidate receive an invitation. How does one accomplish that one page? We do more fat-free two and three-page résumés than ever. The secret is to win the employer’s attention with keywords within the first thirty seconds while providing the option to read a history of revenue generating, profit enhancing, cost cutting achievements.
Joe candidate is oblivious to visual and verbal impressions. His Armani suit and designer leather briefcase demonstrate his impeccable taste. His watch and even his pen reflect the image he wishes to project. But for some reason his attention to detail precludes his print résumé. Before the reading begins, what does the employer see when he looks at an executive résumé? Is it visually symmetrical and well put together or is the information displayed in a helter-skelter fashion? Does it draw the employer’s eye or is it just another piece of white, gray or ivory paper?
Many résumés scream “amateur,” lacking focus and not providing any clue as to what the candidate is seeking or has to offer. They bore the reader with a “does this/does that” presentation and expect to impress an employer as distinctive. CEOs run companies and CPAs do financial statements. A résumé without achievements is like a report card without grades.
Joe candidate doesn’t target his audience. The marketing strategies of a Kia Rio priced at $9,455 are far different from Corvette Z06 starting at $52,235. They both have transmissions, tires and steering wheels but because the priorities of their prospective buyers differ so greatly the tone of their ads are nothing alike.
Major corporations spend millions on advertising agencies to assure the intensive delivery of their competitive messages. Job search candidates need to pay far more attention to the competitive nature of this challenge when preparing to deliver the qualifications they have worked so long and hard to achieve. It’s nothing less than tragic when a star performer suffers a first round elimination due to a weak presentation.