This guest post by Erica Seidel is part of a regular column she writes, Ask the Martech Recruiter. Erica runs The Connective Good, a retained executive recruiting firm that helps companies land leaders in martech, marketing, digital strategy, analytics, and market research.
Dear Erica,
What’s the best resume you ever saw?
Thanks,
Sue, San Francisco
Dear Sue,
That’s easy. Rick Larkin’s. Here it is (click for the full-scale PDF):
I’ve seen thousands of resumes for marketers, marketing technologists, and marketing analytics leaders. This is the one that has stuck in my mind the most. I may be biased, because I know Rick, and I like him. (Rick is now VP of Analytics for a company called Engagement Labs.)
Here’s what made Rick’s resume stick in my mind:
- He not only says that he is good at storytelling, but he shows it. When you read the bullet points under his most recent roles, they form an arc.
- He is comfortable writing as if he’s talking. For instance: “In 15 years of marketing consulting, I have learned that successfully implementing integrated marketing analytics solutions requires a practiced balance of relationship building, technical expertise, business strategy, storytelling and selling.” This approach makes it easy to picture the next step of sitting down and talking to him.
- He shows scale and scope with numbers: “All told, I worked with over 30+ major clients, deployed hundreds of models, led large, diverse teams and had influence over $1.5 billion in advertising spending per year.”
- He clearly indicates his “Promotion Pathway.” This explicitly shows that he moved up, while elegantly conserving space.
- He shows the logos for the schools he attended — a nice graphical touch. As we all know, images catch the eye more than words do. You could even go further and try using logos for all the names of the companies on your resume.
- He includes something interesting — and innocuous — about his personal interests. Rick is a volunteer firefighter. For people like me who always read resumes from the bottom up, it’s always interesting to see what someone does in their spare time. Some people avoid any mention of personal interests on their resume, for fear of turning off readers. But I think most of us would agree that being a firefighter has either neutral or positive valence.
I asked Rick about how he approached his resume. He says, “People love stories, from TV shows to books and of course in our conversations. I thought that style of narration would keep someone motivated to read beyond the first couple of sentences and, even if they didn’t think I was a fit, feel like they both learned about me and enjoyed my resume.”
Of course, there are many, many ways to have a good resume. This is just one sample. And remember that your resume is just one part of the recruiting process.
I encourage you to look at others’ resumes and LinkedIn profiles for inspiration.
Have a question on recruiting or career transitions to propose for this column? Please email erica@theconnectivegood.com. Don’t worry, we’ll keep your name and company confidential.
Readers: Erica is on the board of advisors of the MarTech conference. She will be leading an executive session at our upcoming event San Francisco, May 9-11, with a panel of CMOs: How Today’s Chief Marketers Are Transforming Their Teams and Talent to Meet New Customer Demands. Register today for the lowest “alpha” rate on tickets to guarantee your seat.
