Optimizing Your Content Development Resume

By Andrew Davis

I’m often asked to review and comment on content-developers’ resumes. As the job market heats up, I’ve got less time to do that. I hope you’ll consider the following advice a helpful compromise.

1. FORMAT — Please submit your resume in MS Word format (any version). It’s much faster for me to work with, and results in your getting faster consideration by my hiring managers. If you’re worried I won’t have the fonts you used, include a PDF version, but Word is what I’ll open first. One reason: you’d be surprised what I can learn by displaying Word’s ruler (Alt-V, L), paragraph and tab symbols, real-time spell/grammar checker, and even Track Changes. Take the time to learn the tool so that you make a good first impression.

2. CONTACT INFO — At the top of your Word resume (but not in the document’s header) include your name, city, state, daytime phone number, email address, your private portfolio URL, if any, and – if you’ve populated it with your clients/employers, dates, experience, and recommendations – your LinkedIn profile URL. Ensure your email address is professional (i.e., not “cute-n-cuddly@aol.com”), never include a picture, and if you include a portfolio URL make sure the entire site’s content is purely professional (i.e., no candids, opinions, or humor).

3. PROFILE — Begin with a statement that distils your relevance for a given opportunity to a maximum of three lines. DO summarize your applicable skills (e.g., 20 years’ experience writing API reference documentation for software developers, with strong understanding of databases, virtualization, and mobile application development”). DON’T cite irrelevant skills and experience (e.g., “acclaimed horticulturalist, D&D player, Society for Creative Anachronism regular”). Omit vapid Objective statements. Your goal: efficiently answer the question “why hire me?” If you’re serious about getting hired, customize your Profile for every job description — feel free to quote the posting — and ensure your entire resume supports this statement.

Next, include either your Technology/Tools or your Professional Experience sections, depending on how significant you feel their contents will be to the hiring organization.

4. SKILLS — Under Technology/Tools, cite the Operating Systems, Authoring Tools, Graphics Applications, Databases, Networking Protocols, Programming Languages, and any other relevant environments, applications, or tools with which you have experience (on-the-job or through classes and your own research). If you’re a content creator, consider including separate categories for Audiences, Deliverables, Industries, and Natural Languages. For bonus points, arrange all these as a table (with or without borders).

For example:

Operating Systems	Windows 7, UNIX/Linux, Mac OS X, Cisco IOS, Apple iOS, Symbian, webOS
Authoring	Adobe FrameMaker 9, InDesign, Dreamweaver; XMetaL, Arbortext Editor, Author-it, Oxygen, MS Word 2010, HTML 5, MediaWiki, Confluence, WebWorks ePublisher, Doxygen, Javadoc
Graphics	Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, CorelDRAW, Snag-It
Databases	Oracle 9i, MySQL, SQL, MS Access, dBase, Paradox
Networking	TCP/IP, IF-MAP, SNMP, NMS,RIP, OSPF, BGP, CLI
Programming	C++, Java, csh, XML:FO, XSLT, Python, JSON, Ruby, JavaScript, LISP, Jing, PHP
Other Tools	VMware, Parallels, Documentum, JIRA, Perforce, Subversion, Eclipse, MS PowerPoint, WordPress, Acrobat Pro, WebLogic, DITA, Quicken, QuickBooks Pro, Acrolinx IQ
Content Audiences	Small business owners, consumers, CTOs, database administrators, financial analysts, academics, Perl programmers
Content Deliverables	API references, developer tutorials, HTML help, PDF, ePUB, hardcopy, user’s guides, system/network administration guides, tuning guides, operator’s guides, Getting Started guides, indexes, glossaries, doc plans, style guides, blogs, wikis, RSS feeds, white papers, press releases, brochures, logos, websites, data books, functional specs
Industries	IT analytics, IT infrastructure (esp. virtualization), data security, mobile networking, storage, consumer appliances, EDA, financial, insurance, medical, bioinformatics, legal, education, content localization
Natural Languages	Speak and read French, Spanish, and Mandarin; translate all to US English
Related Skills	Project management, localization, quality assurance, Agile team leadership, editing, proofreading, structured-content authoring

Note: 1) only citing tools and technologies in this section, and failing to make clear elsewhere how or where you used them, gives these terms substantially less weight — beware the context-free catalog; 2) Omit obsolete technologies (e.g., Interleaf, Ventura Publisher, WordPerfect, DEC VAX/VMS) unless you’ve used nothing more recent; 3) Omit everyday tools such as browsers, Google, social media (Facebook, Twitter, Meebo, LinkedIn), photo services, and Craigslist.

5. WORK HISTORY — Under Professional Experience, present your work history beginning with the most recent job or contract engagement. Don’t separate contract employment into its own section; hiring managers want to see professional progress over time as well as employment gaps.

6. COMPANY + DATES — For each job or contract engagement, cite (in this order) the company name, city, state, and your dates (month and year, not just year) of employment or engagement. Mention any promotions and contract extensions or call-backs. If the company has since been acquired, include the name of the acquiring company in parentheses (e.g., “Compaq (now Hewlett-Packard)”). If the company is obscure, outline (in no more than 10 words) what it does/did. Specifically, how did it make money and who are/were its clients and partners? If the company is vast, indicate in which division you work(ed) and, very briefly, what it does/did (e.g., “Oracle Corp, Minicomputer Products / support RDBMS on proprietary operating systems and networks”). On the next line, state your title (e.g., “Contract Instructional Designer”).

7. ACCOMPLISHMENTS — In a bullet list, or a short (three lines maximum) paragraph, present your accomplishments — not your responsibilities. If your efforts generated income for your client or employer, or reduced expenses, cite that information first. Dollar signs, percentage, and even very short quotations (e.g., “beyond my expectations”) are priceless. Acronyms grab readers’ attention too. Restrict bullet lists to fewer than seven (7) items; if necessary, group them by categories (e.g., project, role, deliverable, dates).

In general, draw attention to any (or, if you have lots, the top 2 or 3) achievement in which you met goals, completed projects, solved problems, positively impacted your department or team, generated new ideas or projects, fulfilled tasks, gained knowledge, exceeded expectations, or received kudos from clients or co-workers. The only exception: responsibilities you never want again. Omit these entirely. If you include them, it’ll look like you seek recognition for them or, even worse, that you’ll be a flight risk if you don’t get it. That’s the main reason to customize every resume.

8. BE DYNAMIC — For all entries, begin with an action verb such as led, earned, built, created, developed, delivered, directed, conceived, and managed. Avoid or bury weak verbs such as helped, coordinated, facilitated, participated, represented, communicated, worked, planned, provided, served, acted, and assisted. Remember parallelism; every entry must start with a hard-hitting verb. No limp “Responsible for…” or “As a member of…” entries. And no verbatim repetition, anywhere. Also, don’t forget to put these verbs in the past tense when the job’s over.

9. BE SUCCINCT — Highlight the essence of each accomplishment within the first five (5) words of each entry. Otherwise your reader will skip the rest and scan for the next acronym, number, or heading (e.g., good: “Delivered original 200-page API reference manual ahead of schedule” bad: “Assisted colleagues with diverse projects including arranging holiday events, team offsite”). Crystalizing your value requires you to know what matters to your audience; if you don’t, you can’t. And if you can’t, you’ll starve. To avoid natural selection, re-read that job ad.

Tighten your prose; omit pronouns and articles. Specifically, strike instances of “I”, “me”, “my”, “their”, “our”, “a”, “an”, and “the” whenever possible. Italicize document names. Don’t write complete sentences. Also, unless your entries include multiple sentences — e.g., “Rebranded main product. Company later acquired for $200M profit.”) — they shouldn’t end with a period.

10. CITE RESULTS — Even if you don’t know the related numbers (profits, savings, percentage improvements), stress the results of your efforts (e.g., “improvements saved money and reduced time to market”, “new features dramatically improved customer satisfaction”). That “how can I help you?” mindset is invaluable, especially with those who don’t truly understand what you do. Those who get into content development because they love to write or love to learn often overlook this, but your audience doesn’t care about your craft — just your impact.

11. TOOT YOUR HORN — Include Awards, Affiliations, and Professional Development sections if you can populate them. Include details of formal training (workshops, seminars, even webinars) and any self-study that’s relevant to your goal. It gives you the chance to include buzzwords, and can demonstrate that you’re current even if you’ve not used the skill(s) on the job. Draw attention to any leadership roles you’ve held; as self-sufficiency, resourcefulness, and goal-orientation are key intangible traits any hiring manager prizes.

12. EDUCATION — Conclude with an Education section that cites degree(s) and relevant degree-related coursework, major (if undergraduate), institution, and state. For all but post-graduate education, always omit dates. Your goal: avoid hinting at your age. Only if you know your degree is the most valuable aspect of your candidacy should you move it above your Professional Experience section. Don’t forget internships and group/individual projects, if you’re just starting out.

13. WHAT ELSE TO OMIT — Skip the “references/portfolio available on request” statement. And don’t include a References section; disclosing these people’s identities and contact info results in their being contacted by less-scrupulous recruiters and getting burnt out. Skip the Personal Interests section — they’re irrelevant at best, a liability at worse — and always omit marital status, family, ethnic, age, citizenship, or location-related data. This is none of the hiring organization’s business but, if you volunteer it, they can and will use it against you. Finally, a Keywords section (especially if it’s tiny text or set to white/invisible) is a big no-no; it’s a blatant attempt to mislead those searching for relevant content, and suggests that you’re out of touch with the current nomenclature for what is marketable.

14. LENGTH — As long as it’s all directly relevant, a long resume does no harm, whereas a short resume that skips crucial details does. The cardinal sin of most experienced candidates’ resumes — even worse than typos — is making your reader think. If they have to guess what you’ve done, they almost certainly won’t call. If your concern is making yourself look too old relative to the average applicant, exclude professional experience older than ten (10) years unless it’s directly relevant — and when it is, put it under Additional Experience and cite only your role, client/employer, location, and dates along with no more than a line about the relevant activity.

15. APPEARANCE — Before you send your resume anywhere, view it in Print Layout format and tidy up page breaks (Control-Enter, not Enter-Enter-Enter…), misaligned text (left-justify all body text except perhaps your contact info, and use Word’s ruler to set indents, exdents, and tabs), inconsistent inter-line and inter-word spacing, chaotic use of bold, italics, and underlining (please, avoid the latter), page numbering, and margin settings. Then spell-check it, and proofread it one more time — when you’re fresh.

When you’re done, please send me the result. I’m at andrewd@contentrules.com, ready to deliver ROI.

PS: If you’d like to boost the impact of your resume on your job search, check out the online resume presentation tools discussed here.