Re: Comment from a headhunting company

[John Fleming <johntwrl -at- hotmail -dot- com>]

On Mon, 29 Dec 2003 18:46:01 -0500, while chained to a desk in the
scriptorium, bgranat -at- granatedit -dot- com ("Bonnie Granat") wrote:
> $John Posada wrote:
> $| A resume IS a sales brochure. What else is it?
> $
> $I really do have a friend for whom this question is pertinent. It is
> $really not me. I would not hesitate to put questions that pertain to
> $me in the form of my own question.
> $
> $In a sense, yes, a resume is a sales brochure, but my friend was told
> $to rewrite his resume in terms of what he can do for the company. I
> $have not seen any such advice before and I have never seen such a
> $resume.
> $
> $Resumes don't say, "I can do this for you and that for you." They say,
> $"This is what I have done."

To an extent that is true.  They do tell the reader something about us
and help us establish our credibility and support our claims that we can
do what they want us to do.

If the work I am applying for involves managing a documentation team,
there is a definite benefit to being able to say that I have held a
position in the past where I was successfully managing a documentation
team.  It suggests to the potential employer that I *can* do the job.

In the absence of direct experience leading a documentation team,
documentation experience along with unrelated supervisory experience can
suggest to the potential employer that I might be capable of leading a
documentation team.  None of us are going to know until I actually fill
that particular role.  But the better my related experience, the more
weight my claim that I can do the job will have.

If I am going after this documentation team leader position, I will want
to emphasize everything on my resume that supports my contention that I
can do the job, that I can do it well, and (I hope) suggest that I am a
better person for that job than all but handful of the other 138 people
who applied.

By the same token, I will want to de-emphasize things that would suggest
I might *not* be the best candidate.  From an interview I had in the
past, I chose to leave my Chamber of Commerce membership off my resume.
I didn't want to raise the spectre in the employer's mind that I might
not stick around if business got really good.

I might do something similar with presentations I have made to the
Canadian Prairie SAS User Group.  If I am going after a position where
ability to program in SAS is a requirement, these are a gold mine.  (In
fact, a presentation at the grand daddy od all SAS user groups--SAS User
Group International--would be dynamite.)

When I'm going after technical writing work, I want to de-emphasize this
kind of experience, lest they think I am a code warrior who can't write.
Here I would be better emphasizing presentations I have done for the
local chapter of the STC.

I suppose, really, the only constraint on the material in a resume is
that it be factual and--somehow--verifiable.  What we share is what
helps us put our best foot forward.

John Fleming
Technical Writer
Edmonton, Alberta

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