4 Ways Your Resume Keeps You Small

If you’re feeling underwhelmed by your own resume, you’re probably not excited about submitting it for potential opportunities.

(Especially opportunities that will set you on the growth trajectory that you’re looking for!)

When it’s time to make a meaningful career change, my clients often tell me that the resume that got them to this point in their career, won’t get them to where they want to be. 

And they’re right!

But figuring out what changes you need to make can be daunting.

Here are four ways that your resume could be holding you back from communicating your true impact and keep you playing and looking small in your career.

Sharing too much content about your company 

You’ll often see a bit of text that describes an applicant’s company underneath or near their title and dates of employment.

There’s no doubt that can be helpful, especially if you’re making a transition to a new industry or you’re coming from a different location and want to share more context. 

But sometimes my clients include so much content on their company or clients that it takes away valuable space that we can use to describe YOU and your achievements! 

An entire paragraph that describes your company is rarely necessary. I try to keep it to just a line or two so I can focus on that most compelling part of your resume - YOU and your qualifications for the job.

Re-Using the Same Bullet Points in Multiple Jobs 

In general, we want your resume to reflect your growth, as well as the breadth of your experience. Even if some of your responsibilities repeat in terms of your work history, you don’t need to repeat them on your resume.

Your resume does not a comprehensive list of everything you’ve ever done.

It’s a marketing tool for your career.

That means eliminating duplicate bullet points when necessary and leaving room to highlight new achievements.

(This seems to be most common when people have stayed at a company for a while and acquired more and more responsibilities - while not necessarily giving much up.)

Using your job description bullet points on your resume

There may be times when some of these will work, but let’s be honest: most of us work above and beyond what’s included in our job description. 

Take the time to document what you actually do and how that impacts your team and company.

Think about the work and projects that you’re most proud of – and make sure there’s room to share that.

 We also want to be sure that we’re sharing results and not just descriptions of your work.

If you don’t have metrics for your work (and honestly, a lot of my clients don’t - don’t panic!), please do consider your impact.

What have you improved, increased, or reduced? What does your work enable?

Positioning your bullet points to convey impact can really help a resume stand out.

(You can also hire us to do this - check out our Resonate services here).

Not giving yourself credit for leadership

I often hear, “But I don’t have management experience!” from clients looking to move into their first leadership role.

But with further questioning, I typically find that is not the case!

Even if you haven’t had direct reports, you almost certainly have demonstrated management and leadership experience.

Consider projects you’ve taken the lead on where you had to influence and collaborate or supervision experience that has come from interns, research assistants, or temporary workers. 

If that’s what you have, it’s a relevant and transferable experience that should be shared!

There are many ways your resume can undersell your experience and keep you looking – and feeling – like you don’t have much to offer.

When you understand how to properly reflect on, curate, and communicate your experience for different kinds of roles, you’ll have a resume that stands out from the crowd.

And most importantly, you’ll feel way more confident putting yourself out there for roles that feel exciting and challenging, in all of the right ways.