What Is Your Resume Saying? Do the Resume Reel
From Dan DeMaioNewton's Blog:
Recently I
was looking over a resume of an entry-level job seeker looking to
launch a great career in marketing. Her resume had about 2 inches of
text tied a telesales position in insurance, 1/2 inch tied to a sales
position with the Vermont Teddy Bear Company, and 1/2 inch for a
marketing position for a Wind Surfing company. I scanned it as a
recruiter, and told her, "Your resume says to me that you want a
marketing position in insurance." She was shocked and told me that she
hated that job and was almost destitute because she made no money at
it. What she really wanted was an exciting marketing job at a cool
company.
We spent the next half hour talking about her cool positions in more
detail. The Vermont Teddy Bear company calls their telesales reps
"Bear Care Representatives." How cool is that? Everyone wants to know
what the VTB company does for marketing because they've done it so
extraordinarily well. Marketing for a Wind Surfing company... How cool
is that? She has much more potential than her resume showed.
As a job seeker, it's hard to see your resume from the eyes of a
recruiter. It's your story, your pride, your work. It has to tell so
much more than words could ever capture. So how can a job seeker see
their eyes through a different lense? At a recent presentation I gave
to a group of about 100 job seekers in Manchester, New Hampshire as
part of the Dynamic Networking Group,
I planned to do a group activity called the "Resume Reel," based on
an activity called the "Networking Reel," taught to me by Doug Hardy
(author of the Monster Career Books, especially Monster Careers: Networking). The activity goes like this:
Resume Reel Exercise for Job Seekers
Preliminary Set Up:
- All job seekers must have one copy of their resume, a pen and something to write on
- There must be enough space for job seekers to form 2 lines.
Method
- Say: "Recruiters do not read resumes, they scan
them. It's been said that a recruiter spends less than 30 seconds
looking at each resume before they reach a conclusion. Recruiters are
also actively looking for reasons to reject your resume. Resumes are
not, however, written for scanning. They are written to convey a
complex summary of what value you offer. So, we're going to do an
exercise to help you improve your resume for what a recruiter will see,
and in doing so, help you compete more effectively.We are going to go through an exercise to help you see what your
resume says. Because you are closely tied to it, it's difficult often
to see what your resume is really saying to recruiters. This exercise
is meant to reveal that and to do it quickly. To do this we are going
to line up in 2 lines facing each other holding your resume. Everyone
take out a resume, flip it over and draw a line all the way down the
long side to divide the back into 2 columns. Label column 1: 3
Observations and column 2: 3 Rejections" - Do: Line Jobseekers up in two lines of equal length and face each other.
- Say: "One person hold up your resume. Other
person, drop your resume down. Person who put your resume down, take
the person-holding-up-their-resume's resume. You have 30 seconds to
look at it and then answer these 2 questions: What 3 things did you notice about the resume? and What 3 reasons for rejection could you find? That's all. No comment, no advice, and no judgement. Any questions?" - Do: Answer any questions. Tell the group to start. Keep time. After 30 seconds...
- Say: "Stop reading, and no talking. Now flip the
resume over and write on the back 3 things you noticed and 3 reasons
for rejection. You have one minute. Go." - Do: Let the group write and complete their observations. At the end of 1 minute...
- Say: "Stop. No talking. Wherever you are, hand
the resume back to the owner. Person now holding their resume, drop
it. Don't look at it. " - Say: "Other person, now give the first person your resume, and they're going to get the chance to try this exercise."
- Do: Repeat the instructions from Step 3 above, and repeat steps 3-7.
- Say: "Now we're going to do the reel part. The
last person in the line that went first raise your hand. You'll move
to the other end of the line. Everyone else in that line move down one
space so they can fit in. Everyone should now be in front of someone
new. Now we're going to do it again, so one person hand your resume to
the other. Other person, you'll have 30 seconds to scan it and then
one minute to comment. Ready?" - Do: Be sure the lines are all set and answer any questions. Repeat steps 3-10 several more times.
- Do: After having had at least 4 people comment on each resume, instruct participants to return to their seats.
- Say: "Now, flip over and look at the back of your
resumes. Scan what was written. Let's look at Column 1: Observations
first. Is what you see consistent with what you WANT? If it is,
great. If it's not, then there's work to do. Now look at column 2:
Rejections. These may show you ways to prevent your resume from being
overlooked and left out." - Ask: "What did you notice? Was this helpful to you? What will you do differently?
- Do: Listen to participants and debrief appropriately.
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Marie Schulmann posted the following response
Re: What Is Your Resume Saying? Do the Resume Reel
Hi Dan and group.
I took your lead and ran a "Resume Reel" today in Nashua, NH. First - the
turnout was amazing - especially since this was a "trial run". We had something
like 40 attendees. I kind of ran out of room! I made a modification to your
process. I did not want reviewers to see others comments - so had them write on
index cards instead of the resume itself. But --- well, more on that later. I
ran 10 "rounds". Could have done more and I will in future.
Feedback, I ran a "feedback session" after the 10 rounds - and very
interesting and informative information came back from it! I highly recommend
adding that to the process. Positive feedback: Attendees got some good input
on their resumes - and in very different ways (some analyzed the resume - some
analyzed the "person represented" - i.e. "you are very analytical - you should
be playing that up"!). Another piece of feedback - "it was good to see so many
other people's resumes - it gave me ideas for my own". There were lots of
insights and suggestions - one was to always hold a group feedback session as
people have alot of observations and guidance that help one another after seeing
a broad range of resumes.
Improvement ideas ranged in breadth --- but I walked away with several things
- first, NAIL the instructions --- because people wanted to talk to each other
about their resumes rather than sticking to the 60 seconds of writing feedback.
Also, there was some feedback that wasn't helpful (reduce your resume to 2
pages, etc. - so feedback like fonts, etc. wasn't what attendees were looking
for). Also, people got so engaged in providing and receiving feedback that I
had to use force to get them to rotate to the next slot. - I had inputs on how
to manage that - and am evolving a strategy for that.
I don't want to get too verbose - so I didn't put EVERY input in this
message. I'm happy to help anyone else who is thinking of running one - and I'll
be running another one in the next several weeks - I'd love to hear inputs from
others experiences
Dan - Thank you for the inspiration - and guidance!
Marie Schulmann
Marie,
Thank you for your great feedback and for trying the resume reel.
I've had similar problems at first running this with any sizable number
of people. It seems to work best with groups of 20 or less. With really
large crowds, it truly requires a facilitator who is very good at
controlling a crowd. The opportunity for chaos to break out increases
exponentially, as your message attests.
I'd like to ask you to do me 2 favors:
1. Would you modify the instructions above to include better "Say"
around what you found to be effective and paste your modifications in
this thread, and
2. Would you be able to follow up with folks after 2 weeks (or more)
and ask them for their feedback on how the resume reel was to them in
terms of answering these 2 questions: 1. Did they do anything different
to their resume as a result? and 2. Did it teach them anything they
didn't already know about themselves and/or their resume.
If it doesn't change behavior, improve knowledge and skills, or
condition improved habits then it's just entertainment. Our mission in
BetterJobsFaster is to assertively exam what works, why, and to improve
upon it.
I'll look forward to your ideas and inspirations on other exercises
and tools that work effectively, and will soon create a discussion
forum solely for networking group facilitators.
Marie, keep up the great work. You are an inspiration to us all!
Best,
Dan.
Certainly Dan - I am working on a re-design based on inputs. I can put that re-design in here along with the rationale behind the changes. And I'd be happy to poll the attendees as you asked in two weeks.
Also, keep in mind that this will most probably evolve as we use the concept of "continuous improvement" to modify and get better each time.
The BIGGEST piece of feedback I got was that people wanted to talk to each other and provide feedback (and there was some really good discussions that I had to break up) - so, we need to incorporate a way to get that level of interaction into the process as well...and yes, the group had some ideas for how to do that.
I would like input from the group on measuring success of the process. Keeping in mind the simplest process will get the most participation.
1) Did you make any changes to your resume as a result of this process? (i.e. measuring if they got anything out of the reel that they felt was worth implementing)
2) Did you re-examine you resume afterward and does it now better describe who you are? (Hmmm.... this is meant to measure if it was a effective change --- anyone have ideas how best to do that?).
and then a comments to section.
Help would be appreciated.
Marie
The results are in ---
To measure the effectivity of the first resume reel, I polled the attendees and asked them to answer 5 questions -
Please answer yes, no or "neutral" to the following questions:
I made changes to the format of my resume after the resume reel
I made changes to the content of my resume after the resume reel
I received feedback that was actionable
I would recommend this process to someone else.
I was surprised by feedback I received
I had 19 respondents out of an attendance of 40 (not bad!) with the following results:
I made changes to the format of my resume after the resume reel Y: 7. nO: 11 ?:1
I made changes to the content of my resume after the resume reel Y:9 No:8 ?:2
I received feedback that was actionable Y:11 No:3 ?:5
I would recommend this process to someone else.Y:15, No:2 ?:2
I was surprised by feedback I received Y:4, No:7, ?:8
I also received one email by someone who didn't like the process but didn't want to "sour" the responses...
I made changes as indicated above to the process and held another resume reel last week with a smaller group. I'll share that when I get more time to type it up but thought you all should have this data to work with. Feel free to contact me if you would like more info.
Marie Schulmann
Marie,
Fantastic write-up. This is exactly the kind of research and evaluation I was looking for. It clearly shows that what you did with the resume reel was effective. Great job!
Hi all,
I'm continuing to deliver the modified program across the Southern NH/NorthernMA area. I've modified the process as I've received feedback from attendees. At this point approximately 200 people have attended. So far, I have not received 200 survey respondents, but I've talked with many attendees who show me their before/after resumes with pleasure. Between surveys and personal inputs I believe we're getting around a 90% effectivity rating (did you make a change to your resume as a result of the workshop).
I'm getting ready for another "round" - a small/private group the first week in August and then a larger group in Northwestern Mas. in mid-August. I'll keep you all posted.
Marie