Create a resume for a job application at a multination company for a position in marketing and communication.
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Answer:
Market Yourself with Quantified, Achievement-Focused Bullet Points
The bulk of a resume’s substance is in the bullet points—that is, the brief descriptions you write under your past jobs (or activities or education) that explain what you did and what you accomplished. For a marketing resume, crafting these is especially important because it tells future employers how well you can come up with a brief, specific, and easily digestible statement that gets the reader interested.
Marketers “have to be able to tell a story and a lot of that starts with your writing and communication skills,” says Maureen Joseph, Chief People Officer at GoodVets, who has recruited marketers in a variety of fields including professional services, retail, financial services, and healthcare. When she’s hiring marketers, she’s not only looking at the content of applicants’ bullet points, but also “how you word things and how you craft that story around the specific job or experience.”
When writing your bullet points, “don’t just list duties, say what you accomplished,” Ryan says. In your last job, did you increase return on ad spend (ROAS)? Did you grow your user base? Were you recognized by your company in some way? Focusing on your achievements in your bullet points tells hiring managers and recruiters not only what you’ve done, but also how well you did it.
In order to show just how much of an effect your work has had, you should quantify your bullets whenever possible. Ask yourself how much, how many, how often, what percent, says Muse career coach Tina Wascovich. Joseph suggests thinking about metrics like followers, readership, and click-through rate, among others. Key performance indicators (KPIs) change from company to company, Ryan says, but if you’re specific about the growth you achieved, a hiring manager won’t need to have an intimate knowledge of the company or space you worked in to understand what you’ve done.
You can put these ideas together in an achievement-oriented bullet point that leads with an action verb, Wascovich says. If that action word ties back to a skill that’s mentioned in the job description, even better (though you should avoid repeating the same verb over and over).
Here’s a simple formula to follow:
Action verb + description of work (quantified if possible) + outcome including any available metrics
Tailor Your Message
You wouldn’t come up with a marketing campaign without taking into account the audience you’re trying to reach and persuade, would you? For the same reason, you shouldn’t be submitting the same marketing resume for every job application. Instead, you should tailor your resume to each posting and company.
“The first thing is understanding who you are, what your value is, and how that’s relevant to a particular employer,” Wascovich says. From there, you can decide what info to include for each job. This is especially important in a wide field like marketing. If you’re a generalist looking to move into a specialist role in social media, for example, you might devote more resume space to the social media aspects of your past jobs over the content or email aspects. You can also research the company to see what their values are and incorporate that into your resume. If a company values teamwork and collaboration, you can mention times you’ve succeeded as part of a team.
It might seem tedious to tailor your resume for every application, but it will pay off. If you don’t clearly emphasize why you’re the right person for this job, why would a recruiter give your resume a second look? Would you buy a product if you didn’t know how it would improve your life or solve the problem you’re having?