Case Study #1:
How to Tell a Career Story That Shows Progress When You’ve Held the Same Role for Many Years
The Story
My client, a Project Manager, sent me a resume that was 5 PAGES LONG and contained a history of 16 different projects he’d worked on over the course of the past 15 years.
The Challenge
He knew his resume was tough to read and knew people might get lost of skip it.
The Strategy
To make it easy to skim, make it a compelling read and get it down to a more manageable 2 pages, I followed this 3-step process:
#1 Added a Summary Section:
By adding this section above his experience and below his headline, I explained how he’d been pulled onto high-profile projects every 12 months of so, because of his talent for putting tech skills to work to:
- put out regulatory fires
- fix messes to save money
- build things that saved time and helped people do their jobs better
#2 Bundled Projects Together
I condensed 5 different roles (in reality projects) into 1 by grouping them according to project type. Here’s an example:
𝘐𝘛 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘔𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘳 – 𝘚𝘰𝘧𝘵𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘐𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 & 𝘜𝘱𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘴 (2016–2021)
#3 Described How He’d Left His Mark
In addition to showing the scope by including a range of the budget and talent resources critical to each job title, I listed each project as a bullet and used the bullet to explain the problem he solved and the tech solution he led to fix it.
Case Study #2:
How to Address and Correct Pre-Conceived Notions
The Story
Megan had worked with the same company for 16 years and was a go-to for challenges and hot messes, ground-up builds, M&A growth plans and divisional turnarounds.
For her next move, she wanted to join a Private Equity (PE) firm or PE-backed organization in a CEO/COO capacity.
The Challenge
While recognized as a huge disruptor internally, her company wasn’t known for being innovative. In fact, the reverse was true.
Additionally, she faced a stigma of sorts because the resume she was circulating only contained accomplishments from this same company, giving the impression she wasn’t open to change.
The Strategy
#1 Used the summary and “additional experience” sections of her resume to highlight earlier work showing growth achievements from 2 organizations known for innovation.
#2 Included a “Growth Snapshot” for each role within her current company to show she’d had big wins facing several new challenges and succeeded.
#3 Addressed her 15-year tenure with the same company by describing her as someone motivated by challenges that were too good to pass up.
Case Study #3:
How to Write a Resume to Make an Industry Pivot
The Case
Like so many, the pandemic was a wake-up call for Clara. After years of volunteering for causes near and dear, she came to me looking to make a leap from Corporate America to Nonprofit.
The Challenge
Clara needed a resume that appealed to a completely new audience.
The Strategy
Translating the Lingo
Every industry has a different way of expressing itself, and the nonprofit world is no exception.
In Clara’s case, this meant swapping out terms to show wins. For instance, we replaced terms like “margin enhancement” with “cost savings” and “accounts served” with “clients served.”
There were many more.
Translating the Goals
Every industry has different end goals. Where revenues were the ultimate measure of success in her corporate roles, in the nonprofit world, donations and fundraising ruled.
Translating Painpoints
At the end of the day, companies face similar struggles (from using $$ and resources wisely to managing projects on-time and on-budget to elevating their brands or reputations), regardless of industry.
The resume bullets we included showed the reader that Clara had solved problems similar to those faced by the nonprofits she was targeting. Here’s an example of a bullet point we included to show how her corporate leadership style was well-suited for a nonprofit.
- Earned top survey results amongst 5-peer team for fostering culture of inclusivity, ensuring teams had resources necessary to feel engaged and empowered, and to operate without business disruption.
Case Study #4:
How to Present a Tough Year on Your Resume
The Case
Mark had been a top account manager for 10+ years at his company, with a history of “Hail Mary” saves and triple-digit account growth.
When his SVP of Sales left for another company, his replacement began bringing on direct reports from his previous company – at the same time his industry was hurt by supply chain challenges.
After 12 months, the new SVP restructured the team and moved Mark to a role overseeing a portfolio of “dead in the water” accounts (many of whom faced bankruptcy long ago or were no longer in business).
When he failed to hit his quotas/targets two years in a row, his name was on the chopping block, and his role was eliminated during the first round of layoffs.
The Challenge
Mark was concerned that the past 2 years would impact his ability to get hired and wasn’t sure how to describe both his lackluster results and his layoff.
The Strategy
During Year One, even though Mark’s sales numbers weren’t strong, his client satisfaction scores were noteworthy. In fact, they exceeded both industry and company benchmarks. Moreover, he managed to retain 100% of his customers where his competitors hadn’t. This is the story we told.
During the second year, even though he didn’t meet an ambitious quota, he successfully recaptured more than half of the accounts in his portfolio. Here’s the bullet we wrote:
“Launched strategy that recaptured >50% (25 of 44) “dead in water” accounts. many of whom had faced bankruptcy long ago or were no longer in business. Role eliminated as part of module closure impacting 90% of organization.”
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