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What about resumes?
I'm asked a lot of times about resumes, and
I probably pay less attention to resumes than most people do.
You got to have one?
Maybe.
I mean, frankly today, your LinkedIn profile may be good enough for
most of the things that you've got to do.
If you don't have a LinkedIn profile, you got to get one, and do that quick,
make sure it's always current, and make sure it's always accurate.
Beyond a resume, this is a document that helps you tell your story.
And it will help you, if you have a good story to tell, and if you tell it right.
So what makes a good story?
Well, in my opinion, good choices,
because you're going to have to be explaining them with logical explanations.
Because in your career, you're going to be faced with a number of times, where you're
going to be sitting down across the table, from somebody that you want to convince,
they ought to do something positive for you.
And they're probably going to look at your background, and look at your resume, and
start asking you questions like, well, why did you do that?
Why did you make that choice?
Why did you go here instead of there?
Why didn't you stay and get promoted in this job, if, in fact,
you were doing as good as you tell me you were?
Company and people over product in compensation,
I generally advise people to go work for the best people they can work for, and
for the best companies they can work for.
If the products not right, and it's a good company and you're working for
great people, that'll get fixed over time.
If it's a greatest product in the world and you're working for lousy people,
they'll find a way to mess it up, and you'll be on the outs.
A venture capitalists understand this all too well.
I mean, one of the oldest sayings in the venture capital world is an A management
team with a B product will find a way to make their investors money.
And a B management team with an A product will find a way to mess it up.
I mean, and that's how they invest.
You look at their record, and you'll see it it's people.
Measurable accomplishments and promotions.
If you can focus on anything when you're putting your story together,
focus on what you have accomplished that you can legitimately take credit for,
or at least, partial credit for.
And be clear which is which when you're explaining it,
that's measurable with facts and figures and things that people will recognise and
ideally, which got you promoted.
Credible transitions and moves as I said, you're going to be explaining
your moves over time to people who are not going to take bullshit or
fluffy answers and pay much attention to them.
So, think about that before you make a transition or a move,
and certainly as you're making and how you're going to be explaining it 10,
15, 20 years down the road.
And when I scan resumes, I talk to people about their background, the first thing
and the last thing and almost everything in between that I looked at was, where and
when did this person get promoted?
Because you get promoted when the people or the company that you work for thought
you did a good enough job and what the job they gave you, they give you a bigger one.
And it's amazing when I looked at careers, would see backgrounds
of somebody that starts out, probably not a Stanford MBA, but
they start out as a district sales manager of company A.
And then a regional sales leader of company B, and then a sales and
marketing director of company C and a VP of sales and marketing, a company, and
a chief operating officer of company F.
It looks like a great progression of titles.
They never got promoted, never once.
So it makes you wonder where they just get out of town just before the axe fell on
them, and getting lucky to use their background to get promoted to
another company that would buy their story and give them a bigger job.
When you look around, you'll see people like this all the time, and they're not
the people you want to go work for it for one thing, they're going to be splitting.
They are not going to take care of you because they're only
concerned about themselves.
And you don't want to be one of those people.
So think about if you're close, if you've got an opportunity, or
you're thinking about leaving and you're close to finishing a project you
can take credit for, and getting a promotion, I would urge you think long and
hard before you leave anywhere just short of a promotion.
Because somebody like me is going to ask you,
why did you leave just shorter when you should have probably gotten promoted?
Where you're going to get promoted?
And finally, what makes a good story when you're telling it to somebody is at
the end of the day, at the end of the conversation, you've got to be able to
convince them that you can be successful doing something that in fact,
they want done.
Because if you can convince them that you can do it, but
it isn't anything that they need to have done, then you won't go anywhere.
Or if they have something that they need to have done and
you can't convince them that you can do it.
It doesn't go anywhere.
It's only when you put those two things together,
that telling your story to somebody that matters and
can do something positive with it, will get you a good outcome.
How do you tell it? Well, we've touched on some of this.
Clarity of goals and accomplishments.
I'm basically an advocate of a simple chronological resume that says,
what you did, when you did it, who you did it for, what the results were,
and what happened to you as a result.
I mean, if you think about those things, that's what I'm always looking for.
I don't like a lot of fluffy explanations of things that don't matter.
Facts are good if they're true.
Promotions are better.
Accurate facts and dates, easy to pick out successes.
Keep in mind that you want somebody who's looking at your resume, or
looking at your LinkedIn profile to look at something on there and
say, I can use that, that fits here.
That's interesting.
Logical transitions, no misrepresentations or
vague claims, and a clear incredible path to what you seek.
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