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How to identify and embed your company culture to grow your business

Do you know what makes your company tick and what makes it unique? Do you and your team truly live the culture and values of your business? Is your team working smoothly, without having conflicts? If the answer’s a ‘’No’’ to any of these questions, it’s a good idea to think about what to change in order to answer ‘’Yes’’. In his study, Professor Noam Wasserman looked at 6500 failed businesses. 65% of those failed as a result of co-founder conflict or a bad company culture. But don’t worry, not everything’s lost!
We had a chat with Bretton Putter, an entrepreneur and company culture geneticist, who’s been helping companies to identify, embed and reinforce their company culture to become more successful. After he studied 300+ companies, he found that businesses that scale quickly and successfully have one thing in common. A well defined, implemented and strong culture. So if you’re a startup, a small company that’s been running for many years or a big corporation, here’s an advice on how to identify and embed a good company culture to scale your business effectively.
1. Brett, what is company culture?
It’s a combination of values, mission, beliefs, and purpose. Values are the DNA of a culture and then the mission, vision, beliefs, and philosophy are laid on top of that. [clickToTweet tweet=”#CompanyCulture is ”the way we do things around here”. #definition by @BrettonPutter. ” quote=”It’s ”the way we do things around here.””]
2. How can startups define their company culture?
Once 2 people get together and start thinking about an idea, they already have the beginnings of a culture. The company culture evolves from their values and the initial people they hire to join the company. The best case scenario is to start defining and working on company culture right at the start of the journey because your culture is formed directly from your values. And your values then define you and your team’s behaviors. 
The first thing that founders should do when they start a business together is to define and understand their own personal values. The next step is then to understand where the mismatches are between the individual’s values and how bad those mismatches are. If one co-founder says ‘’I want to earn a lot of money’’ and the other says ‘’I want to save the world’’, there’s potential for a disaster because they will be making business decisions based on these values. 
Once they define how much their values overlap, they can move on to the next step and start thinking about what the aspirational values for the business are. 
To start the process of outlining your values, answer the following.

If you were to explain to a friend who you hadn’t seen for a while why you joined the company, what would you say?
What are the reasons you’re working in this company?
What’s important to you about working there? 
What are the values that you are proud of?
What makes us different from the competition?
Why are we succeeding now?
What values make us unique?
Why do our customers choose to work with us?
Why do you love coming to work?

This will start the process towards identifying your company culture. 
In an early stage startup, where in the beginning you might be focused on getting to MVP or raising your seed round, the initial values may be focused on the immediate needs of the business. Because the business is at such an early stage the values and expected behaviors against those values could potentially change over time. So you need to be able to understand what your aspirational values are for the business, and then you need to test whether you and your team are living them. A lot of startups stop thinking about their values once they have written them down, they don’t invest in embedding and reinforcing those values on an ongoing basis and that’s where issues will arise later down the line.
3. How can small companies that have existed for over 20 years and never thought of company culture identify it?
Startups and small companies have the advantage of small teams where it will be easier to work and implement the process of defining, embedding and reinforcing the culture. First, the founders of the company should define what they believe the current values of the company are. They should then ask the team to list the values of the company, compare, and discuss the list of values with the team. If there is a major mismatch between the founders and the team, then it is vital to clear it up because it will only get worse over time. It will eventually go wrong if there is a significant mismatch between team’s values and one of the founder’s values and it is crucial that alignment is achieved, if possible, to ensure the business can grow and scale effectively.
Often, founders define certain values, and the team recognizes different values. That’s because the founders’ aspirational values don’t match their actual behavior. The team is looking at the founders and watching their actual behaviors, versus what the aspirational values the founders claim they want the business to have. It’s important for the founders to take the team’s point of view into account and to create a set of values for the company that matches the leadership and the team. Once you know what the values of your business are, you can start building them into your reward structures, communication, and other processes and functions of the business.
4. After companies identify their culture, how can they embed it?
There are 6 ways to embed company culture:

What the CEO, executive team, or founders measure and control? 
How they invest or allocate funds? 
How they coach teach, educate or mentor? 
What they reward and give status to? 
How they promote, hire or fire? 
How they react in a disaster or crisis situations?

Here are 2 examples of how you can see whether your company culture is embedded: 

If you say: ‘’Customer service is our No. 1 priority’’. Then, the customer service team comes and says ‘’We need to buy a software for this service’’. If your answer is ‘’No, we need to buy a CRM tool for sales!’’ Essentially you verbalized that customer service is important but your behavior demonstrated that sales are actually more important.
One of your values is ‘’teamwork’’, but you reward the individual. Rewarding somebody against what you claim to be one of your values builds a disconnect with the values and mistrust in the organization. It also means your values and culture are not embedded properly.

5. How can companies that scale fast keep a great company culture?"?
Once the values are in place it is all about the hiring process. [clickToTweet tweet=”To ensure the #CompanyCulture stays consistent, each new hire needs to be a good #CultureFit. #hiring @BrettonPutter” quote=”To ensure the company culture stays consistent, each new hire needs to be a good culture fit.”] To do that, companies need to switch to values based hiring process, which involves understanding the values and understanding the expected behaviors against those values. And then creating interview questions against those expected behaviors. 
For Example: 
Our value is ‘’teamwork’’, then the expected behavior is – the team always comes first. The interview question is: ‘’When last did you take one for the team?, How did it feel and what happened?’’ When you ask each candidate this question, you’ll be able to score them against those answers afterwards. 
The values based hiring process is the missing piece in many companies at the moment. And it’s the best way to ensure that candidate matches your values. 
Another thing that most companies don’t do very well is the onboarding process. After the candidate joins the company, it’s important to help them hit the ground running and be productive from day one. Some companies invest in training and dump a lot of information on the new hires. The best companies, help the new joiner develop relationships within the company as the first step. They have a buddy system which helps the new joiner work out what the real issues in the company and in their role are, and who are the most important people. So they use a bit of training, but the focus is on relationships, because relationships create trust. And trust allows teammates to work well together.
6. How can companies measure their company culture?
Measuring company culture is quite hard because for most companies it is an invisible and subconscious liability versus a tangible measurable asset. You can do surveys on employee engagement but this is a snapshot of time and employee engagement is only a small piece of the culture puzzle. Ask yourselves the following questions to evaluate the strength of your company culture.

   Are we able to hire the right A+ candidates who fit with the company’s culture?
  Are those candidates approaching us?
  Do we have low staff turnover?
   Does the leadership team have more energy and time available to work on the business rather than in the business?
   How strong are the bonds between team members?
   Do we have a happier workplace environment, with fewer sick days, lower stress levels and more respectful communication?
   Do our people take personal responsibility for results?
   Is there more autonomy, healthier intra- and inter-team dynamics, less conflict, less need for mediation in our company?
   Does everyone pull in the same direction during times of hardship for the company?
   Do we have highly engaged employees who happily invest their discretionary energy back into the company?
   Is there a values match, meaning that for our people, it is more than “just a job”: it is self-development?
  Can we demonstrate that we have improved happiness and job satisfaction?

Back to you!
Defining your company values and then company culture is something that can’t happen overnight. Investing the time into it, though, can have a positive impact on both employees and the future of your company. As the co-founder and CEO of Airbnb said: [clickToTweet tweet=”#CompanyCulture is the foundation for future innovation. An #entrepreneur’s job is to build the foundation. @bchesky” quote=”A company’s culture is the foundation for future innovation. An entrepreneur’s job is to build the foundation. “] 
Keep it in mind.
In case you have any more questions, let us know in the comments below. You can also follow Brett or his company Culture Gene on Twitter for more info. 


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500 Irish Created A Resume For Saint Patrick. Here It Is!

This post was updated on 17th March
It’s here! The best day of the year for anyone who has at least a little bit of Irish blood running through their veins. Everything and everyone turns green and you meet all the friends you haven’t seen in donkey’s ears! And hey, you can have that pint of Guinness at 10:30 am and nobody will give you the judgy eye! The best part for many is finally getting lucky with the girl who wears ‘’Kiss me, I’m Irish’’ T-shirt!
To celebrate this joyful tradition in a non-traditional way, around two weeks ago we gave you a chance to join the process of crafting Saint Patrick’s resume. Why did we need your help? Well, nobody knows Saint Patrick better than you – the Irish!


How did it end up?
First of all, do you celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day? If yes, you’re smack-dab in the right place to see how others prep themselves!
We announced the campaign 2 weeks ago. We wanted to give all the Irish the opportunity to contribute and create the very first community-generated resume for their patron saint. After the announcement, comments and suggestions started rolling in instantly.
People were leaving their suggestions by clicking on sections they thought needed to be changed. After leaving a comment, everyone could share the resume with their friends via Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter or Messenger.
We reviewed the comments and made the proposed changes on a daily basis. Here is the final version of Saint Patrick’s resume! Let me repeat myself here – it was created by more than 500 Irish!

Thank you for your feedback!
Now gather ‘round ye lads and lasses, set ye for a while! And tell us your own mournful tale about the Emerald Isle!
We want to thank you for your input! Finally, Saint Patrick has a resume created by over 500 Irish. It really shows the world why the history behind this man binds your nation.
Sláinte!


Previous popular resumes created by EnhancvMarissa Mayer’s featured in Business InsiderBarack Obama’s featured in The Hill

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How to present your informal education to employers

Job hunting is a tricky business. In many cases, you are judged as an applicant from one or two pieces of A4 (i.e. your resume and cover letter). Talk about high stakes!

This trickiness is compounded when you have informal experiences and informal education that could give you a leg up, but don’t necessarily fit into a typical resume or cover letter template.
Knowing how to present your unconventionally-acquired skills and experiences can make all the difference when job hunting. Most companies want employees who are passionate and take initiative, traits that are exemplified by those who do things like spend their weekends organizing events for charity, take online courses, or attend industry conferences.
This is particularly handy for those who have recently graduated, are changing careers, or are returning to the workforce. In the first two cases above, it can showcase the informal steps you have taken to ready yourself for the workplace or a different career path. For the later, it highlights that you have kept your skills sharp and will not miss a beat upon returning. 
Here are some guidelines to make your informal education and experiences shine.
Include it on your resume
When listing online courses, ensure that the ones you list are taught by a well-known instructor or institution. Include any tangible qualifications, certificates, or metrics (for example, your final exam score or time spent learning) where possible. If this is a tailored resume for a specific position, ensure your courses are relevant for that exact job.
Below you can see two ways a program manager and data scientist showed their non-university courses.

You can also mention instances where you’ve applied the skills and knowledge learned in a course. Perhaps you do freelance number crunching after completing a course in Excel or have competed in Kaggle competitions after completing a course in Python. A short sentence or a quick metric can lend weight to your skillset. Kevin demonstrated this by applying his finance education towards paying off his student loans.

Volunteer or charity work can be added to the ‘experience’ section of your resume if it’s relevant to the job you’re applying for. Ensure that you flesh out the transferable skills you learned, include any metrics, and perhaps get a recommendation letter too. 
If the volunteer or charity work you undertook does not relate to the job you’re applying for, you can include your experience in a separate ‘volunteer’ section on your resume. Steffany demonstrates a variety of skills and passions in her volunteering:

If you have attended industry-related conferences you can also include that in a separate section on your resume entitled ‘Conferences Attended’. 
Connect the dots on your cover letter
Your cover letter is like a conversation you want to have with the hiring manager. Use this opportunity to highlight the skills you gained through your informal education or experience, as long as they are relevant to the job description. 
For example, Simon is a fresh grad applying for a job in programming but he doesn’t have any formal work experience he can share just yet. In his cover letter, he can write about his experience participating at hackathons and the chrome add-in he programmed. 
Leveraging your cover letter is particularly important if the connection between your informal education or experience and the job you’re applying for isn’t immediately apparent. 
For example, Paula wants to apply to a role in marketing and she is a formally trained graphic designer who has spent the last two years creating commissioned work on her online store. In the past two years, she has taught herself how to SEO optimize her listing, reach out to influencers, and use online analytics tools. Sharing this in her cover letter will show that she is not only a qualified candidate, but she is one who takes initiative. 
Tailor your LinkedIn profile
According to MarketWatch, 93% of recruiters scour LinkedIn for potential recruits. Which is why it’s vital to optimize your profile page to showcase both your formal and informal education and experiences. 
There are four sections on your LinkedIn profile you can utilize to do that – the summary, accomplishments, and volunteer experience.
The summary is where your personal brand should shine. There are many ways you can go about this, but for the most part, it should convey what you’re passionate about and any experience you have relating to that passion. 
The accomplishment and volunteer experience section is fairly straightforward. The accomplishment portion breaks down into multiple sections, including certifications, courses, projects, test scores, and languages.
You can also leverage LinkedIn to post announcements that highlight your projects and achievements.
Show rather than tell
For most, seeing is believing. If you completed an online web development course, use your newfound skills to build a website. If you illustrate in your free time, compile your work into a portfolio – either offline or online. 
Having your accomplishments at the ready is not only motivating but allows you to easily share your skills and knowledge with hiring managers easily. 
Some candidates have received job offers by going the extra mile to showcase their skills. Should you decide to do something like this, ensure it stays relevant to the job and in line with your personal brand.

This article was brought to you by Krystal Tolani:
Krystal does all things Marketing at GoSkills. She’s a recent Boston University graduate with a B.A. in international relations and a minor in communications. When she’s not at work, you can find her listening to podcasts or watching comedy specials on Netflix.


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Follow-up emails that will get you hired

When I first started working, I was never a big fan of sending follow-up emails. Instead, I used to spend hours polishing my resume and practicing for the interview. I never really knew how to write a follow-up email; so I just didn’t do it. What I didn’t realise was, I was letting opportunities pass me by by not closing the deal.
After years of struggling with what content I should include and how long I should wait before sending the email, I’ve got it figured out. Below, I’ll share what I’ve learned along with examples to illustrate the points.
Why are follow-up emails important?
A follow-up email is your way of showing that you care about what you and the person in question had previously spoken about and proves you weren’t just making small talk. A good example is when people contact us because they’d like to write for our blog. 90% of them don’t send a follow-up email – they never do it. This makes me question whether they really want to work with us, or they’re just trying their luck. The ones that keep “bothering” us with follow-up emails get our attention.
A follow-up email is the difference between someone throwing resumes at the wall to see what sticks and the person who is genuinely interested in working with you.

When do I send a follow-up email?
The amount of time that should pass before sending the email depends on why you’re sending it. For example, after an interview, a job fair or a networking event, it’s good to send it within 24 hours. This way, you’ll be able to remind the person about who you are or what you talked about. When sending your resume to the CEO of your dream company, you could give it at least 48 hours. As they are one of the busiest in the company, it might take them longer to read your initial message.

What to write in a follow-up email?
Again, it depends on the context of your situation. You’d write a slightly different one after an interview or a networking event. Let’s look at these 4 different scenarios.

1. Job interviews

I know, the only thing you want to do after an exhausting interview is to drink a bottle of wine. Get rid of that annoying voice in your head reminding you of what you could have said better.
Before you do that, though, sit down for just 15 more minutes and write up a good follow-up email. Don’t let them forget about you. Reiterate your interest in the job position and the company. To remind the recruiter why you are the ONE for the job, highlight your skills and experience that are relevant to the job you applied for. Use the same keywords they did in the job spec. After an interview, there’s always something you forgot to mention. The follow-up email is your way of adding something important you wanted to mention but forgot because you don’t deal well with stress.
Example:
Hi [Name],
Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to talk to me about the [Position] with [Company].
After speaking with you, I believe that I would be a perfect candidate for this position. I’d offer the [Your top skill] and [Another top skill] that you need for such a diversified position.
In addition to my enthusiasm for performing well, I would bring the [Your experience in the required field] necessary to get the job done.
I look forward to hearing from you once the final decisions are made regarding this position.
Please feel free to contact me at any time if further information is needed.
Thank you again for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
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2. Networking events

If you just attended a networking event, it was because you wanted to meet new people and get new contacts, right? Remember to collect emails or business cards of anyone who you’d like to stay in touch with. Why? So you can send them a short message afterwards, to help them remember you. This can also help them remember who you are in a time when you have a project to work on with them. All you need to do is write your future e-mail as a reply to the old one. They will see you had a conversation before.
Your message to such people should be short and straight to the point. Also, try to tie it to what you two talked about. Preferably something more meaningful than the weather.
Like that, you will show your appreciation, willingness to stay in touch and develop a further relationship.
Example:
Hey [Name],
It’s [Your name] and we met on today’s [Name of the event]. It was great meeting you and I must say I totally agree with you on [The thing you talked about].
I’d love to chat with you in the near future about [The thing that connects you two and is of interest to both of you].
I enjoyed connecting with you and I look forward to engaging with you in the future!
All the best,
[Your name]
3. Job fairsA job fair is an exciting opportunity to meet your dream company or a potential employer to have a casual chat. It’s a chance to leave a good first impression together with your recently enhanced resume. 😉 The role of a follow-up email is quite important here. It could be your way of getting an interview, especially if it was a one where everyone’s trying to make a lasting impression.In the email, explain how excited you’d be to work for them. Mention the main reasons why you would be the right person for the job, emphasize your strengths and capabilities while demonstrating that you would be a good company fit. of your qualities as a candidate and why you think you’d be the right fit for them. Still, keep it short and straight to the point.This way you’ll reinforce their interest and show your recognition of their company.Example:Hi [Name],It’s [Your name] and we met on today’s [Name of the job fair]. I know your inbox is probably a busy place, but I just wanted to say Thank You for talking to me today.As I mentioned, I would be excited to get a chance for an interview for the position of [The position] you’re currently offering. I believe that both my soft and hard skills are strongly in line with your requirements.I think my experience in [Your special skill/experience] would come in handy when developing a new strategy for [the name of the company/project you discussed]we discussed. Let me know if you’d like any additional information.I also attached my resume, just in case.Thanks again and I hope to hearing from you soon.Best,[Your name]4. Follow-up email after sending your resume to a potential employerOne of the advice I give to students and other job-hunters on events is this. Instead of uploading your resume through the job-boards and general websites, contact the CEO or a manager of a department you’d like to work in. The question they ask me after that is: ”But what if they don’t reply? What do we do then?” The answer is – send them a follow-up email.Again, it’s your way of reminding them of how motivated you are why you’d be the right choice for them. Before drafting the email, check the person’s social media profiles. Have they recently posted anything that you find interesting? Consider mentioning that in the email to catch their attention. It’s good to wait at least 48 hours before you follow-up with them. (Use a similar example as the one in the first point.)Back to you!Yes, looking for a job is a difficult task. You need to research the company you’d like to work for and craft an amazing job-specific resume. Then, if you’re lucky enough, they give you a chance for an interview. After that, you even have to write a follow-up email! But once you do all that, the reward is sweeter than Swiss chocolate. Don’t give up and follow our advice. The finish line is close.*note, the original version of this article was published May 10th, 2017

How to make your resume stand out: “Focus on the paths you took and the decisions you made along the way”

“Show what makes you awesome, why are you a kick-ass candidate?”

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A recruiter explains how to make your resume unique

“Recruiting big thinkers with small egos in product, customer support, marketing, engineering & admin at Intercom.”
I stumbled upon this job description while doing research on Linkedin, looking for recruiters I could interview and talk about resumes. I read it out loud and thought, “Wow, I’d love to talk to this person.” Luckily, Ewa Zajac from Intercom was eager to chat about what a truly impactful resume should include and even what an “ATS friendly” resume is.
She’s been a part of Intercom’s recruitment team for over 3 years and has a long list of achievements. Aside from optimizing job descriptions, creating a full hiring cycle, and sourcing world-class engineers, she is actively reviewing applications, interviewing candidates and managing the hiring process for them right up to offer stage. It’s no surprise she has some strong opinions about what a great resume should be.
How Guns N’ Roses could get you hired
I kicked our chat off by admitting that I stalked her on Linkedin and Twitter, but as a recruiter who does that sometimes, Ewa didn’t mind. I discovered she has a background in psychology, which helps her with many tasks as a recruiter. The one thing that I loved about her profile was that she shared her passions. It appeared she plays guitar and sings in a band in her free time. They’re doing covers of classic and modern rock and as the biggest fan of Guns N’ Roses, I instantly knew we’d get on well.
Seeing her passions helped me relate to her and transform a typical interview into a friendly conversation. Her face lit up the moment she began talking about her band, much the way it later did when she discussed her work. If she was applying for a job at Enhancv, I’d definitely hire her. The fact that we shared the same passions wasn’t as important as the ways in which they manifested themselves.

 
“It demonstrates that this person has a learning attitude, they have a growth mindset, they want to experience new things and generally improve in some way,” she pointed out.
But the main focus of a top resume is the job and the company one’s applying for.

How to make your resume stand out: “Focus on the paths you took and the decisions you made along the way”
In Ewa’s eyes, a good resume means the other person is able to “see a career progression, get a general sense of what this person’s comfortable with, and what would be stepping outside of their comfort zone in terms of their experience.” In her opinion, job seekers don’t  focus on that enough. In case you’re about to craft a resume, Ewa’s advice is to think about the following:

What you can do or what you have done in the past that demonstrates that this is the right move for you? 
Add some embellishments to show your personality.
Don’t put your entire life on your resume.


Then ask yourself:

Why do I want to work there? 
Do I know anything about what they do? 
Do I know anything about their product?

As a recruiter, she wants to see:

Why did you go and work in a particular job?
What was the most interesting thing about it?
What was your biggest achievement in that particular job.?
When you decided to go and change it to a particular job, what did you bring with you?
What were the new things that you learned?  

“Show what makes you awesome, why are you a kick-ass candidate?”
To answer this I asked Ewa for an opinion of one of Enhancv’s signature sections, Most Proud    Of. It was great to hear from such a successful recruiter like herself that it’s a good idea to spice a resume up with this non-traditional section. She thinks that depending on the level of experience, people should focus on different things within their Most Proud Of. 

“I definitely think that once you have a few years of experience behind you, your Most Proud Of should be related to that career path. For example, if I was looking at a resume of someone who’s been a product manager for six years, I would expect their top three Most Proud Of to be related to that area. If they were unrelated, I’d be a bit dubious.” 
“A resume should be a positive thing.”
To the more junior candidates with no or little experience, she’d recommend sharing more personal things. It’s a way of advertising yourself to someone else. “Show what makes you awesome, why are you a kick-ass candidate,” she added enthusiastically. Demonstrating your motivation for the job is often key if you’re lacking in experience.
An “ATS friendly” resume
An Automated Tracking System (ATS) is a tool that helps many recruiters to organize their work and divide resumes into groups, depending on company’s needs. Chances are, every company uses their own specific way of grouping resumes through an ATS.
But Ewa has strong feelings about ATS: “it’s not a tool to review resumes. I review all incoming resumes, taking into account many other elements of the candidate’s profile, other than just the keywords.” However, all ATSs are searchable and your resume can be retrieved by a recruiter at a later time when a suitable role comes up, even if your application was rejected initially. Ewa recommended the following to ensure you come up in searches: 
“Instead of trying to guess specific keywords for each company, look at keywords that are specific to the profession or the role that you’re applying for.”

She thinks Linkedin is a great tool for that. With a simple search, you can find people who have the same profession that you’re applying for. What skills and competencies appear time and time again? Write them down and try to incorporate them into your resume. “It’s good to keep in mind that one profile is never enough, look at several people.” 
She also made a great point about job titles. Often, I see that people use creative job titles, especially in companies that promote equality. (Our COO calls himself a “Chief Harmonizer”, for example.) If you use an unusual job title for your previous positions, things become even more ATS un-friendly. “When you then search for other jobs, you get rejections. Nobody knows that you worked in a relevant position because you’re not calling it what it really is.” That’s why it’s a good idea to keep your job title the “old and boring” one, at least when applying to big companies which are more likely to use an ATS. “You can keep a creative and funky description of your responsibilities and achievements though,” Ewa pointed out.
Selling yourself to employers
Seth Godin says: “You are not your resume, you are your work.” As much as I’d like to believe he’s right, a resume is still one of the top tools that help you sell yourself to employers. And in Ewa’s eyes, a good resume has the perfect balance between the amount and depth of information you share. This allows her to make a good judgement of who you are as both professional and individual. It also helps her do what she loves: “help candidates to find the jobs that are really great for them and help the business and our hiring managers to find the right people. And that’s very satisfying.”
 
*note, this article was originally published in November of 2017


On personal resumes: “I wish this was accepted”

The difference between CEOs and recruiters

In the end, using a personal resume is all about the audience 

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Why we love (and hate) personal resumes

A year working in the resume business has taught me that there is no single perfect resume format. Sure, I’ve come to believe that a personal resume is best, with personality and passions right up there with your work experience, but plenty of people disagree.
To learn more about just who thinks resumes should stick to the way they’ve always been and why, I created an experiment. The response was far more polarizing than I expected. People loved it and people hated it, not a single response was indifferent. But what was truly revealing was just who those lovers and haters were.
I found love and hate in a safe space
I’ve always derived inspiration from women in tech, especially after joining the field myself. Because of my admiration of her, I created a resume for Sheryl Sandberg. One which represented her not just as COO of Facebook, but as a loving mother, and women’s rights advocate. I tried to make it personal and professional, with a powerful message about who Sandberg is as a human being.
Note: It’s best to create your own resume. I only did this to get feedback that could improve our format as well as this article.
Here’s Sandberg’s resume for you to judge for yourself.

Now for the experiment: I posted the resume in 6 closed Facebook groups for women in tech which I’m a member of. These are the kind of groups where women share honest advice and inspiration with each other without worrying about outside trolls. Within minutes, I had set off a firestorm. The comments varied from the harshly critical:
“A resume should be a professional document. It is not a place for sharing your life philosophy or what you do in your free time. It should be filled with active verbs and keywords. And it should definitely not have any cutesy icons, background or a profile picture!” (Professional Career Coach & Resume Writer)
To the strikingly positive:
“I love this. I commend the person that decides to keep it real and be themselves on a resume. I’d rather have that person on my team than the boring old resume with the same buzzwords.” (CEO and Co-founder)
What was happening here? Some professionals adored this more personal resume style while others detested it. Again, not a single comment seemed in the middle.
On personal resumes: “I wish this was accepted”
Two arguments caught my eye. First, that “[my] resume writer wouldn’t approve this type of resume,” or similarly that “I wish this was accepted amongst recruiters.” I was reminded of previous jobs and situations where I felt it wasn’t my place to point out things that could be done better, things I believed in. To be more specific, women were unsure about putting things like “proud mother” on a resume, while I’ve seen men writing “proud father” without any hesitation. I wondered if this was connected to the confidence gap between men and women. 
On the other side, there were women who were very excited that resumes are shifting from the traditional format to something that “reflects who you are as a person.” These women found it “visually appealing! I love how it incorporates more than just work experience and education.” They were eager to try this type of resume for themselves.
The main difference in opinion revolved around the personality revealing sections like “A day in my life” and “Life philosophy”. One group found them inspirational, they mentioned that this type of resume would help them choose the right candidate for their team. The other felt they were “childish and not professional,” arguing that employers don’t care about what you do in a day, they want to see your hard skills and achievements.
The difference between CEOs and recruiters
As I investigated, I found the greatest predictor of whether someone would love or hate this type of resume: their position. On one side, there were career coaches, professional resume writers, and recruiters. On the other side, there were CEOs, business owners, and more junior women. The negative comments came from the first group, positive from the second. I wanted to understand the root cause.
Then it hit me: the first group is responsible for helping candidates land interviews and get hired. To allow them experimenting with an unusual resume format can seem scary because one mistake can put their reputation at risk. Their customers’ success rate is the one thing that helps them build a prosperous career.
The second group, CEOs and business owners, have nothing to lose. All they want is to hire the perfect fit for the company, someone who has similar values to theirs. If they interview the wrong person, the result doesn’t have such a huge impact on their reputation. That’s why they were excited to see a different type of resume, something that stands out and presents who you are as a person. They found it “short, sweet, and straight to the point.” 
In the end, using a personal resume is all about the audience 
As an aspiring writer, I always think of my audience before jumping into a new project. It feels so natural that I can’t imagine doing otherwise. The experiment I performed with Sandberg’s resume revealed that writing a resume is like writing anything else. It’s all about the audience. Everything you do should be for your audience.
For a resume, that means tailoring it for the person who will read it and the job you want. If you want to hire a professional resume writer or career consultant, no doubt they have plenty of expertise, but ultimately they aren’t your audience. So if a CEO said they loved it and a career coach said they hated it, I’d listen to the CEO because they’re my audience when I want to get hired.
In the end, I learned a lot about who loves and who hates personalized resumes. But I came back to my belief in the power of a resume with personality. Especially when you’re as cool as Sheryl Sandberg.
How do you feel about this kind of resume (and more importantly, why)?
 
*note, this article was originally published in November 2017
