INFORMATION TECHNOLOGYLance B. Eliot, Feature Editor, Eliot & Associates THE RESUME OF CHAMPIONSby Lance Eliot, Eliot & Associates John was a successful Chief Information Officer (CIO) for a major manufacturing company. After 20 years of loyal service to the company, working his way from a beginning programmer in the 1970's to the top job in the Information Systems (I.S.) department, he was notified that his tenure was about to end. The company had merged with another firm, and the new takeover management decided that having two chiefs of I.S. was one too many. John had seen the same phenomena take place in previous acquisitions by his firm (wherein the CIO of the acquired firm was booted out). But John had never seriously contemplated that his firm would be the acquired entity and thus endanger his position as CIO of the combined organizations. After recovering from the initial shock, John realized that he would need to put together a resume. Sitting at home on a rainy weekend, John used his laptop to slowly piece together his accomplishments over the last 20 years. He noted all of the computer languages he knew, he proudly indicated that he had personally led the creation of a large data center for the firm, he described his friendly relationship with the Information Systems staff that he had hired over the many years, and so on. John gave copies of his resume to be reviewed by some colleagues and friends. Other than a few minor spelling corrections and rewordings, everyone agreed that his resume looked pretty good. John decided to start sending it out to potential employers and various executive recruiters. Printing the resume on nice bond paper, John finally sent out his prize and waited for the phone to start ringing. My phone call to John was one of the few that he received. It turns out that his resume had made its way to me via a recruiter that was doing a CIO search for a firm where I had once been a consultant. The recruiter wanted to know if I knew anything about the individual (John). The recruiter expressed concerns about John since the resume left a rather poor impression of John's capabilities, and yet the recruiter assumed that anyone who had risen so far in such a well-known firm must have a more impressive background than was revealed on the resume. I called John to discuss his resume with him. Like many CIO's, he was quite strong willed and immediately argued that his resume, which he had written himself, did a great job of portraying his accomplishments. In a tactful manner, I walked John through his own resume, showing him how the resume actually made him look out-of-touch and would likely not produce the results that he desired. He protested, arguing that since he had already had the resume reviewed, he believed that the resume was indeed acceptable. For those CIOs out there who are similarly trying to produce and distribute their own resume, let me share with you the weaknesses in John's resume. You might find the following remarks helpful in making your own resume more marketable. First, using friends and close colleagues to review a resume is unlikely to provide the kind of harsh, face-the-facts feedback that your resume really needs. Friends and colleagues are less apt to seriously criticize the resume, and they mentally fill in gaps in the resume because they already know you (therefore, they may not bring the gaps to your attention). Besides, they aren't scrutinizing the resume with the mindset of a stranger that does not know you, and is faced with the tough decision of considering you for hire. That's the kind of feedback you really need. Second, listing all of your favorite accomplishments may not be relevant to the current needs of the marketplace. For example, CIOs who have proudly built a large data center are often seen as castle builders from a bygone era. Many firms today are looking for I.S. executives who can create distributed environments that push Information Technology out into the organization (rather than ones that can build a single, large host site). It is important to identify the accomplishments that match the needs of the marketplace, and highlight those contributions rather than the ones that you merely feel good about. Third, John had provided a lengthy list of his technical merits (i.e., languages, architectures used, and so on), and created an impression that he was a technologist. Today's CEOs are looking for CIOs who are managers and have the proper business acumen. A technologist's resume sends a signal that such a candidate is not proper executive material. The CIO resume should focus on how technology was used to benefit the organization. Instead of indicating that you brought in CD-ROM technology to the firm, it is wiser to highlight the use of the technology and the corresponding benefits to the firm, such as implementing new marketing and sales applications that made use of CD-ROMs and led to improvements in sales revenues. Every piece of technology mentioned in your resume should have some tie-in to the business itself. Fourth, the resume should have a structured format that clearly demonstrates the range and depth of experiences. For example, I prefer a modular approach that has a summary page for the first page, then follows with details on subsequent pages. Thus, rather than limiting the resume to two pages, my modular approach allows you the freedom of getting across your main points on the summary page, then providing the back-up material as well. Fifth, do not leave out potentially useful material. In John's case, I discovered that he had spoken at industry conferences and had been quoted in industry publications, but had omitted such references from his resume. He told me that he left out the references because (a) he had forgotten about them until I began asking him questions, (b) he thought they were too insignificant to list, and (c) he didn't know how or where to list them on the resume. I helped John completely rewrite and restructure his resume (including adding the missing accomplishments). By the time we finished, a picture emerged of someone who really did have a great background and capability. I'm happy to report that John used the resume for his job search, and recently accepted a good CIO position at another major manufacturer. Conclusion To recap, I have seen dozens of CIO resumes that sadly miss the mark and leave a false impression about the job-searching candidate. It is important that CIOs keep in mind that their resume is a selling tool, and like marketing a new product, the CIO should work carefully and systematically to craft a resume that can actually make the cut. Use my brief tips and, please, get your act together and clean-up your resume. Your next job may just well depend upon it. For I.S. executives interested in a confidential review of their resume, I invite you to send your resume to me. Send a paper-based version to my mailing address, or send an electronic version to my Internet account at 71213.372@Compuserve.Com. Remember that your input is welcomed. If you have projects addressing the information technology area, and you would like to share this with readers of "Information Technology," please write to me at the address below.
Dr. Lance Eliot |