17.2 Your Resume
Every applicant’s path to hiring is somewhat unique. Each company’s process comes with its own quirky idiosyncrasies, too – so much so, that even two people hired by the same company for the same role may describe considerably different steps along that path. The one common denominator shared by nearly all applicants, across nearly all firms and industries, however, is the resume.
For any job searching in the U.S., do not allow your resume to exceed one page. To meet the single-page constraint, you may have to cut down on some descriptive bullets. That’s okay! You should think of the resume as a conversation starter, rather than the full conversation.
As you consider your past experiences, do not be afraid to exercise some creative “framing” in the way you present them. After all, you are a marketing student! To be clear, we are not saying that you should lie. Of course, stick to the facts. However, sometimes those facts look better when they are cast in the right lighting.
You may have held a course Teaching Assistant position that felt like “no big deal” to you. Maybe you graded some homeworks, answered some emails, and helped students to troubleshoot their code. Perhaps you offered weekly help sessions, but they were sparsely attended. You could still truthfully say that you “offered optional, weekly recitations for two sections with 90 total students.” You might also mention that you “offered guidance and leadership to newer students within my Master’s program.” If you helped the course professor with editing/proofreading or “test driving” assignments before they were posted, you can say you had a hand in curriculum development.
Perhaps you grew up in Israel, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, or somewhere else that required you to perform some period of mandatory military service. To you, it might feel unremarkable. Perhaps you felt like you were really just marking your time, and wishing you were somewhere else. Still, nearly any military position involves some kind of leadership and management. Think about the number of soldiers who served under you, or even about the size of the budget for the equipment that you oversaw or maintained – when cast in that light, your experience takes on some additional gravitas.
All that said, we wish to reiterate that you should not deviate from the truth. We once saw the resume of a student who had performed some analysis on Airbnb data for a class project, but very explicitly described the experience as if he had been hired directly by Airbnb as an independent consultant. This kind of deliberate misrepresentation is not just unethical, but even dangerous – if the hiring process involves a background check, something like this could lead to an offer being rescinded.
Perhaps, you have heard the advice that you should be using different versions of your resume for each job to which you apply. While we see the wisdom in this, we have good news – this does NOT mean that you need to rebuild your resume from scratch for each job application! You can instead take a “mix and match” approach, building unique resume versions from a single common document.
To use an everyday analogy, think of your wardrobe – which pants, and which shirt, are you wearing right now? While we’re at it, what about shoes, socks, and any accessories? Chances are, your full head-to-toe outfit is unique; you have never worn it before, exactly. However, there is also a strong chance that you did not buy any of those items today.
You can think of your resume in the same way. Start with a “feeder” document whose length is unlimited. List everything on this – all of your past internships, part-time jobs, relevant coursework, etc. Load up every experience with as many bullet points as you can generate.
Now, you can build out separate versions of your resume, starting with the content in the feeder document. If you apply for a position focused on Marketing Analytics, and the company mentions A/B testing and consumer segmentation in the job description? If you have completed a project that involved those things, be sure to include that project on the version that goes to this firm. If you’re interested in a consulting role, for which the company seems to be emphasizing communication skills? Include a bullet point with your experience as a tour guide, or as an upperclassman volunteer to help incoming international students.
We advise you to remove any mission statements (e.g. “To find a position within the dynamic and exciting field of Marketing Analytics”) as your application to a company in the field already implies this. We also advise you to remove any descriptive statements of yourself, along the lines of “Motivated team player who seeks new challenges in a fast-paced environment.” While you may truly be all of those things, you can instead let those personality traits shine through during the interview process – use your resume to focus more on specific accomplishments and skills that would make you a good fit for the job.
Finally, you can use the very last line of your resume to showcase any special interests, hobbies, or talents of yours, unrelated to the world of work. These can often be a helpful ice-breaker during discussions with recruiters, HR personnel, and even the hiring team.