Resume Help: How to Make a Long Story Short
There is an adaptation of a well-known expression that says, “He knows how to make a short story long.” That is a great way to describe today’s resume example. We’ll focus on just a few excerpts of the resume so we can dig deep and make big changes. This resume has a series of long bulleted statements that in addition to being too long, the statements often bury the lead. In some instances, the accomplishment is not clear when reading the bulleted statement. Each bulleted statement should be a strong accomplishment, complete with measured results whenever possible.
Let’s examine three of the bulleted statements taken from today’s example resume.
- Identified the need for the monthly booking of accruals for IT expenses, which previously were accounted for on a cash-basis intra-year. Developed a process to collect details of unpaid invoices from the IT department in an orderly fashion to allow for efficient journal entry creation and analysis of expenses. Improved the accuracy of expense reporting by correctly applying the matching principal and reducing the volatility of reported IT expenses.
If a resume is packed full of these very lengthy statements, the reader is likely to lose interest. To rectify the situation, we need to trim the bullet to the essential details. We want to communicate the accomplishment in a concise manner. One way to achieve this is to focus less on the details of how it was done and instead feature the actual accomplishment. In this case, the big result is an improvement in the accuracy and timeliness of expense reporting.
- Spearheaded a multi-departmental project to automate the posting of trading results on a monthly basis. The project’s success reduced the journal entry preparation time from two days to less than an hour.
This bulleted statement is easier to improve. To improve the impact, the candidate can lead with the result and follow with what was done. Start with a punch, “Reduced journal entry preparation time from 2 days to less than an hour by spearheading…”
- Designed and oversaw a detailed monthly analysis and reconciliation of interest rate swap P&L for the Treasury desks comparing German GAAP and IAS P&L and Balance Sheet. Analysis included testing the valuation of the swaps against the source system, examining the supporting details to hedge accounting adjustments, and analyzing the trades’ interest rate sensitivities in conjunction with market interest rate movements to develop an expected P&L benchmark for comparison purposes.
This bulleted statement can benefit from lessons learned in the above two revisions. First, let’s start with the result. Next, let’s reduce the content so we can summarize what was done in two lines or less.
Today’s example resume is written for a highly-accomplished professional. His first long-winded draft was producing minimal results. With a new strategy and a rewrite, he has a much better chance of getting the results that someone of his caliber deserves. If you need help creating a new résumé, contact me. I would love to help you. For more articles on this subject, click on these links:
Resume Help: Creating a Compelling Profile