Advertising Resume Makeovers: Part 3

John Quebec*, Canada

Before/After:

Why:

John is worried about what comes after his current gig. How does he rally the experience he's had so far into a meaningful next step? Something with a strategic flair and some flexibility.

And, I've got to say - John had the best problem of the bunch.  Turns out, he's a very savvy interactive AE. Who not only gets the development process, but also gets the consumer mindset. In short, he's the guy everyone wants. And, perfectly positioned to go into a traditional agency or client-side gig and take the place by storm. BUT, you'd never know it from his resume. So, first rule: Make sure you know what you have that The Big World wants.

Here are the changes we made:

• Kicked it off with a chatty little profile that reflects a lot of the ways John talked about himself in his email. That replaced a list called 'summary' that basically covered business skills that we would consider tablestakes - stuff like teamwork, education, etc.
  
  One extra note on this profile - In the region John lives in, being bilingual is an important differentiator for candidates. So, we left that in the profile, but  also made it relevant to his specialist skills by adding a little something Webby: "Fluent communicator in English, French and social media." If he's applying to a traditional agency, that could also be "Bilingual: English/French, Traditional/Interactive."


• Simplified his career narrative and made the descriptions more parallel. That change added a lot of voice and confidence. From "Development of creative briefs and briefing the creative team" to "Writer of meaningful creative briefs."


• Again, removed a lot of the college jobs. Same reasons as Kate's.


• Moved the education down. Unless it's Harvard or the New School, I think most people want to know - what have you done lately?


• Turned his "other experience" section into a new element aimed at building relevance. One of the toughest things in online marketing is keeping up-to-date on what's changing. Armano's written a few good posts on the horrors of interviewing someone for an interactive role and finding out they never interact. So, in this section, we brought together some of his online and offline passions - things that keep him fresh in his role at the agency. (And, heck, frankly add a ton of interest and affinity for the reader)

This resume is my absolute favorite makeover. Both from the strategy of positioning John and the visual impact of the change. So, I'm choosing this post to share a few savvy resume design tips from Adverboyfriend (Lance Dooley, Creative Director, SBC Advertising).

How to perform a Resume Facelift:

• Don't over do it. Visually, keep it relatively simple. I could have taken this 8.5 x 11 real estate and created poster art. That would be a mistake of galactic (I just wanted to use that word) proportions. If you have the luxury of knowing a designer that will help you, make sure they know that this is still a business communication tool. It can not overwhelm or confuse it's audience. It still has to resemble a resume.


• Hierarchy. You have ONE THING you want to say about yourself. And then you have 12 things to support that point. Make sure that that ONE THING is clear and visible.


• Break through. Your audience looks at dozens of these a day. Traditional resumes are just Word docs that are all prosaic, all the same point size, and all of the content ends up having the same presence. The same resume that would get you in the door to be a Barista at Starbucks is sometimes used for your dream job at Crispin. There's no customization to the audience - to the creative people you're really talking to. If you are starting a conversation with a person in a creative environment (account service or creative) make sure your resume is not antithetical to their culture or state of mind.
  
  Be different. Be unique. Be relevant. Do it visually. Do it with content.
  
  Or do it with the follow-up. I interview intriguing candidates all the time. Whether I'm hiring or not. A candidate I was interested in, but not sold on, made it her mission to stay in front of me (and be my first choice) from the day I met her until I had approval to hire. To get my attention, she sent me a Joke Of The Day every day for 64 days. She is now one of my most valuable employees.

More Getting Started Content:

If you're trying out an interactive AE role for the first time, check out these two great worksheets for diving in and exceeding expectations:

And, look for our last resume makeover on Wednesday.

*Not his real name, in case you didn't guess!

Comments

[Gautam]

Absolutely wonderful. This is of so much help!!! Although, I can't seem to view the 'before' CV - can you re-upload it?

[Advergirl]

Hey Ross and S - sorry I didn't post the answer sooner. I thought Lance had this one. He designed them in Quark. Most of it could be faked in Word though with some patience and clever text boxing. Let me know if you need help.

[S]

Hi Advergirl, did you ever respond to Ross P Walker above? I'd love to know what you used as well! :)

[Ross P Walker]

Wow, what a transformation!! What did you use for your redesign of these resumes? I'm inspired to redo mine now!!! Looks like another late night for me :-/

[Chris Posey]

I've loved both makeovers so far. One problem with John Quebec's: there is a noun/pronoun agreement error in the "Who I am" section. "Client" is singular and "their" is plural. Technically, they should either be both singular or both plural. I know that this is becoming commonplace these days, but just to make sure that it is completely error-free for potentially anal-retentive hiring managers, you might consider a simple revision like "I'm a passionate advocate for my clients and their customers." Grammatically correct without having a negative effect on the "feel" of the section.

[Jim Bunzol]

Great post! I have a few friends that could benefit from these ideas.

Your John Quebec resume actually gave me an idea for a "tag cloud" section to add as well.