I dread the phone call that begins, "I showed my résumé to some friends, and they say . . ." Even if our company didn't write the résumé, I know that I'm in for an exasperating conversation.
The frustration doesn't come from a sense of ownership. More than most people, professional résumé-writers recognize that résumés are living documents, subject to frequent change. We don't take personally the suggestions of others, and we can distinguish pretty easily between the good ideas and the bad ones.
Unfortunately, the same can't always be said for the owners of the résumés. At what can be a vulnerable point in their careers, they are getting advice from people whom they trust but who may know very little about the subject. So my frustration is really empathy for job-seekers whose best friends suddenly have become authorities on things like font sizes and grammar.
If you are this best friend, I also have empathy for you. It's not an easy moment when someone thrusts a résumé at you and asks for feedback. Such a difficult balance between saying nothing (and looking unsupportive) and saying the wrong thing!
Let me help. The following is an easy-to-use process for critiquing résumés. I have relied on these steps for more than 20 years.
1. Establish these three points before looking at the résumé: the work this person hopes to get; the intended recipients of the résumé (recruiters, human resources personnel, presidents of small companies); and the method he or she will use to send it (e-mail, attachment, printed copy in the mail).
2. Ask the job-seeker, "What are your top three strengths for the work you are seeking?"
3. Now, with this information in mind, read the résumé. Look specifically at these points:
Format and presentation
• Is the résumé clean and easy to read?
• Are the fonts easy to read without being distracting?
• What's highlighted by the white space? (For example, are the dates of employment sitting by themselves in the left or right margin? If so, remember that what we surround with white space is what our eyes go to first. Maybe employment dates don't deserve such premium placement.)
• Are bullets used sensibly? A few bulleted phrases or sections can highlight key information; too many can be distracting.
• Are category headers used strategically? For example, if the goal is a job in health care and the candidate has related experience, Health Care Experience is a more powerful header than Work History.
• Is the length appropriate? If there's a lot of relevant data to convey, it's better to have a long résumé than to abridge the information too much.
• Check the paper and ink density if the candidate is using printed copies; otherwise, ask for an electronic version so you can see how it looks on the screen.
Content and strategy
• Is the information clearly written, in a natural-sounding voice?
• Is the résumé "front-loaded," with the top third devoted to items of interest to the intended readers? This information might include relevant work experience, education or volunteer experience.
• Are the candidate's three strengths for the job clearly communicated, preferably near the top of the page?
• Is it obvious why this person would be good for the desired job?
History of success
Is this résumé bringing interviews? You might want to ask this question first, because, if the answer is "yes," all the other points are academic. Tell your friend to do more of whatever he or she is doing and to concentrate on succeeding in the interview.
Which brings us to the real point of the critique.
When someone asks you to look over a résumé, ask yourself why. If you have industry experience in the targeted job area, your friend wants to know whether the résumé shows appropriate experience; if you're a grammarian, he or she wants a critique of the writing.
If you stick to your strengths and limit comments about topics that aren't in your area of expertise, you will be doing your friend an immense favor. Your expertise is valuable; mostly, your opinions aren't.
Here's something that will help you to hold your tongue when you're tempted to opine about someone else's résumé: People get jobs all the time with résumés that look awful, believe it or not. But no one gets a job from the résumé that's sitting in the hard drive, waiting for its fifth revision.
If you really want to be a pal, help your friend find more people to whom he or she can send the résumé, and encourage him or her to get it sent.
- Amy Lindgren owns Prototype Career Service, a career consulting firm in St. Paul, Minn. She can be reached at alindgren@prototypecare rservice.com or at 1071 W. Seventh St., St. Paul, MN 55102.