small company | Robin's Resumes (r)

Resume Q&A: What Are Employers Looking For?

Feb 25 2018

Q. Everyone tells me that my resume has to stress accomplishments—but what about skills? What about education and years of experience? Doesn’t anyone value those anymore?

A. Skills, education, and experience are still highly valued. For example, no one would hire a CPA, lawyer, or software engineer without the proper skills, education, licenses, and certificates. But your resume will be competing against dozens of applicants with the same credentials and often with the same length of experience. The only way you can make yourself stand out is to show how you used your skills, education, and experience. You need to put them into the context of solving a company problem, adding to the company bottom line, or improving your job performance. Those are examples of accomplishments, and that’s why accomplishments are so important: they help to separate you from the pack.

Q. You give great advice, Robin, but the more I read about resumes, the more confused I get about what employers want. What is the most important thing my resume should tell them?

A. On a basic level, the most important thing your resume should tell employers is how to reach you! Surprisingly, over 25% of the resumes people send me for professional review and re-writing have critical contact information wrong, missing, or hard to read. On a deeper level, your resume should show employers that you are the person they are looking for. Your resume must align with the job requirements listed in the job posting or advertisement—it has to show that you have the right skills, experience, and education and that your past accomplishments have brought value to former employers. Finally, the resume has to do all this concisely and neatly: no rambling paragraphs, no grammatical or spelling mistakes. If you feel overwhelmed, please contact me. My job is to take the “overwhelm” out of resume writing!

Q. I want to move from a small company to a large one with more opportunities for career advancement. How do I present my small company experience as a plus?

A. Experience in a small company is broad-based experience. You are more likely to interact with individuals across levels, functions, and even borders. You are more likely to take on (and succeed in) projects that would not be part of your mandate in a larger company. That breadth of experience, ability to communicate, and flexibility are all traits that employers are looking for when they hire. So your resume should stress, not the size of your current company, but what you accomplished while you were there. You should also let go of your expectations for a title. A vice-president in a small company might be a division manager in a larger company, and yet have far more potential for growth.

Contact Robin’s Resumes® today for a resume that gives employers—and job seekers—what they are looking for.

Applying to Small vs. Large Companies: What Are the Differences?

Nov 23 2014

Before I list the differences between small companies and large companies from the job applicant’s viewpoint, let me list a couple of similarities:

Both small and large companies use applicant tracking systems these days. About the only companies that don’t use electronic systems to weed out resumes are sole proprietorships!
Both small and large companies expect to see a professional, clearly written, focused resume, not a generic “I can do anything; please hire me” appeal.
Both small and large companies go online to check out job applicants they are interested in.

The differences in applying to a small company vs. a large one include:

A small company generally has a tighter organizational structure. Your job responsibilities may be much broader than your job title. If you want to move from a small company to a large company or vice versa, your resume should reflect this difference in job titles and responsibilities.
A small company will have a simpler internal structure. You should be able to address your cover letter and resume to a specific person. A larger company may have an anonymous Human Resources Department or “info@” email address. However, through networking and online research, you may still be able to identify the hiring manager or department head.
A small company is likely to have a shorter interview process, if only because there are fewer people who need to interview you. When applying to a large company, be prepared for a telephone interview, several in person interviews and a longer time between the interviews and a job offer.
A small company is likely to be based in one geographic area. Unless you are applying for an outside sales position or for a position requiring contact with a specific non-English speaking group, your willingness to travel and your foreign language skills may not be relevant. But they could be critical information on a resume for a large company with many locations and an international staff and customer base.

Contact Robin’s Resumes® for a resume that shows your value to potential employers, whether large company or small.

Fitting Small Company Experience into Large Company Opportunities

Feb 12 2011

Small companies have different structures from large companies. When you are looking to enter a large company, you may find that your job description is associated with a less impressive title. You may find yourself reporting to someone who holds the title you used to have in a smaller company.

This is not a demotion; it reflects the difference in complexity working for a small company versus a large company. A difficulty may also arise in presenting yourself as a candidate to a large company. Suppose the large company needs someone to supervise 80 people. From their perspective, if your last position was with a company of 20 employees total, you could easily be overshadowed by candidates from larger companies.

So what can you do if you want to move from a small company to a large one? These four strategies may help:

First, relax your requirements for a title. Concentrate on what is really important to you, such as opportunities for advancement.
Second, seek advice about positioning yourself correctly. When I counsel clients transitioning from a civilian role to the federal government, for example, I can determine their “level” based on the amount of control they had in their previous jobs (not just the title).
Third, make sure your resume highlights the breadth of your experience. Instead of worrying over the size of your current company, stress the size of your achievements.
Fourth, when you interview, carry yourself with confidence. If you know you can do the job, you will go far toward convincing interviewers.

You want the big guys to realize that your small company experience is exactly what they need.