Anatomy of a resume that gets you noticed
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Clear value proposition for the potential employer
Two – four bulleted summaries of your most relevant successes
Succinct summary of most relevant skills
High level description of positions you’ve held that support your claim of those skills
Is one to two pages only
Does NOT include
1. Photo
2. “References available upon request”
More Tips
1. Don’t worry about explaining gaps in employment. It’s common to have gaps and you
can handle that if they ask. Tip: Create a one sentence summary that you can say and
then stop speaking. Potential employers are looking for reasons to weed out the
candidates and all you have to do is stay in the conversation. A quick and reasonable
answer will suffice, e.g., “I took time out to help an ailing family member or a
sabbatical”.
2. You have about six seconds to grab the potential employer’s attention, so the top part
of your resume is the most valuable real estate. Your value proposition and skills get
that position.
3. If you have many years of work experience and can’t fit it all on two pages, don’t sweat
it. Just include the most relevant-to-your-value-proposition jobs.
4. Make sure you use action verbs rather than passive ones to describe the work you’ve
done. An example, an active verb is “managed” vs. a passive verb “was responsible for”.
Other good action verbs to consider using: Created, developed, pioneered, executed.
5. Volunteer experience counts, so list it if you need to show specific work experience
that you don’t have from an employer. You still did the work! How much or whether
you got paid isn’t relevant to the you did the work and skills you have.
6. List the city where you plan to work as your address, even if you don’t yet live there – if
you’re willing to move to that city on your own dime, then put the destination city on
the resume. The potential employer isn’t interested in how you get there, as long as you
do.
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Copyright Margo Wickersham Coaching 2016
Value proposition builder
1. Brief description of job you would love to have
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
2. List you most valuable strengths, skills and experience
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
3. List the most valuable results and benefits that an employer gets from your strengths and
skills (If you can quantify with $ saved or earned, % reduction in cost or productivity
improvement, even better – but if not, don’t worry about it. Kept the office running like a welloiled machine or ensured project launched on time and on budget are very valuable too.)
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
4. Describe your ideal employer – the type of organization you know you thrive. (non-profit,
start-up, technology, fortune 500, finance, marketing agency) Also list adjectives that describe
the work environment.
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
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5. Create your value proposition or mission statement. This functions as your elevator pitch for
letting the world know what you want.
I (deliver this value or these benefits – insert answer from #3)
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
for (description of ideal employer – insert answer from #4)
___________________________________________________________________________
using my (expertise, skills, strengths – insert answer from #2)
___________________________________________________________________________
Now you have your personal value proposition to tell contacts and prospective employers what
you can do for them. This is the foundation for your job search. As you network, use this to
explain the benefits you deliver for others.
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Copyright Margo Wickersham Coaching 2016
Name
City, state phone
email
Value proposition – the results that the person with this resume gets for an employer
Successes

List of accomplishments

Use the ones most relevant to the job to which you’re applying

Two to four bullets are great
Highlights of skills

Skill 1 most important for this job

Skill 5

Skill 2 list can be adapted to each job applied for

Skill 6

Skill 3

Skill 7

Skill 4

Skill 8
Experience
Position Title, Employer Name
Finished
Year Started – Year
One paragraph summary of the work you did that’s most applicable to the job for which you are applying. Use
keywords from the job description, but ONLY if they are accurate for your experience. Describe the most relevant
experience here and don’t include details about jobs you did a long time ago.
Position Title, Employer Name
Year Started – Year Finished
Describe the work you did at each job using those job requirement keywords – again truth is key. Avoid repeating
the same set of experiences and call out the different ones instead.
Community
Organizations want to hire people who will fit with their culture. Research the potential employers on Facebook,
Twitter and LinkedIn to understand what social causes are important to them. If you have volunteered or donated
to any of those, list them at the top.
Education
Your degree, University where you earned degree
You can include major obstacles you overcame, like paying 100% of your college expense while working full time.
But don’t worry if you don’t have anything specific to say here
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Continuing education course name, Company name who taught it
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