Example Resume: Consultant Seeks in-House Work Experience

John Doe, the winner of this month’s Does My Resume Stink contest, has director-level experience in a variety of marketing strategies and brand management.

Because of his expertise, he has built a solid consulting clientele. Clearly, there is real expertise to work with, but resume writing is not John’s strong suit. Using Leet Resumes would allow him to match real resume writing expertise with his own, resulting in an optimized career advertisement created for free – tips appreciated.

Now for this month’s examples of before and after resumes:

Attempting to persuade an employer and a freelance client

The first step in the writing process was to devise a strategy for distinguishing himself from similarly qualified professional peers. This can be difficult for someone like John, who is looking for multiple job opportunities in different fields. It had to be appealing to both a prospective employer and a prospective client.

John wanted to return to a corporate environment after two years of independent consulting in 2020 and 2021. He was considering two career paths: working for a large or global corporation or a smaller, regional firm. He hoped to wear multiple hats and contribute significantly to an organization.

As a result, I decided to present his last two years of consulting work in the same way he had presented his previous corporate employment – emphasizing skills, knowledge, and experience to leverage his strong background in various capacities. Finally, because there was no information about previous employers on the original resume, we added context for those who were not “name brand.”

Streamlining a busy format

John attempted to distinguish his original resume by including a prominent red square at the top left edge of the document. A resume, on the other hand, must be written for computer scanning as part of an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). Because I wasn’t sure how a keyword scanner would read the box, I decided it was too risky.

There was no easy way for a reader (or an ATS) to extract areas of expertise from the job content in the original resume. This section of the new resume now allows for a quick visual review by separating these into a simple table format. It also contains keywords that a computer can scan. Each of these items is a placeholder that can be changed to accommodate different opportunities.

Nothing stood out to attract the reader because the content was crowded, with no spaces between bullets. Furthermore, the document had a very wide left margin, which gave it a lopsided appearance and did not make full use of the available writing space.

We made formatting changes to allow the information to breathe and tell the story.

John’s original profile detailed much of his work history, but nothing stood out. The following are included on the new resume:

A headline that elevates him to the level of director

He makes a strong claim that he provides marketing strategies and brand management, with specific subsets.

A brief paragraph that corresponds to how he describes himself

A separate paragraph listing industry experience

These are all critical selling points.

Choosing what to compress and what to expand

Instead of multiple bullets, the duties for individual jobs are condensed into the first two lines of the new resume.

Marketing roles are not always quantifiable, such as sales figures and quotas. We needed to find other ways to demonstrate that John gets things done that benefit the organization. Instead of inserting bullets, I decided to bold general categories.

Each position has four to six sections, some of which include a list of high-profile clients. It increases the resume’s length from two to three pages, but I thought a two-page resume would understate what he has to offer. A quick review of the bolded words summarizes John’s career progression into areas of greater responsibility and impact.

We combined education, training, and publication into one section to further condense the dense information because there was only one listing under each. The publication was included because it distinguishes him from other marketing professionals. Most of the award listings on the original resume were outdated or no longer relevant, so I removed them. The 2015 President’s Club Award, on the other hand, is listed as a separate bullet. It is unusual for a marketing professional to be recognized by the President’s Club, so this can be a good talking point in an interview.

Summary

Even if you are an expert in brand management, it is difficult to step back from your own professional background and objectively convey what you have to offer. A resume writer has been trained and has experience in this role in the collaborative writing process.

John now has a “master resume” that clearly portrays him as a senior executive with extensive experience in all aspects of marketing strategy and brand management. As a key member of an executive team, he can make a significant contribution by providing strategic planning and expertise. He has a proven track record of creating and managing profitable initiatives.

His new resume is clean, professional, and simple to read, and it can be tailored to different opportunities.