Tell me a Story
- by Geoff N. Hiten
I recently had a friend ask me to review his resume. He is a very experienced DBA with excellent skills. If I had an opening I would have hired him myself. But not because of the resume. I know his skill set and skill levels, but there is no way his standard resume can convey that. A bare bones list of job titles and skills does not set you apart from your competition, nor does it convey whether you have junior or senior level skills and experience. The solution is to not use the standard format. Tell me a story. I want to know what you were responsible for. Describe a tough project and how you saved time/money/personnel on that project. Link your work activity to business value. Drop some technical bits in there since we do work in a technical field, but show me what you can do to add value to my business well above what I would pay you. That will get my attention. The resume exists for one primary and one secondary reason. The primary reason is to get the interview. A Resume won’t get you a job, so don’t expect it to. The secondary reason is to give you and the interviewer a starting point for conversations. If I can say “Tell me more about when….” and reference an item from your resume, then that is great for both of us. Of course, you better be able to tell me more, both from the technical and the business side, at least if I am hiring a senior or higher level position. As for the junior DBAs, go ahead and tell your story too. Don’t worry about how simple or basic your projects or solutions seem. It is how you solved the problem and what you learned that I am looking for. If you learn rapidly and think like a DBA, I can work with that, regardless of you current skill level.
