Solve your Resume Like it’s a Product
Your resume shouldn’t look like a Cheesecake Factory Menu. This story isn’t to hate on the Cheesecake Factory, the chocolate bread is an American favorite, and we all know that the Cheesecake Factory is the place to spot Drake (the famous Canadian rapper/former teen drama star)
But my argument is that the Cheesecake Factory has something for everyone. It has salads for your cousin whose on their keto diet, it has breakfast burritos for your brother whose hungover, it has elaborate seafood entrees for your fancy date night, and it has glutinous cheeseburgers that you’re only allowed to look at because your COVID-15 turned into a COVID-25. The Cheesecake Factory menu literally has something for every single person under the sun.
People love the Cheesecake Factory, and that seemed to have sparked inspiration for folks to make their resume look like their menu. People seemed to have loved plugging every single buzzword into their resume to beat the ATS. But that’s just not realistic, and it won’t help you in getting the job that you want.
While the ATS may screen and scan your resume for words that match the job description, it doesn’t mean that your resume won’t ultimately be screened by a human being. In fact, humans are the primary consumers of your resume, not a piece of software. And as many product leaders like to say, solve for the 80/20.
One of the most valued skillsets of product leaders is storytelling. It’s one of the first skills you’re evaluated upon when courting a new company, and it’s one of the more compelling skillsets as a product manager. While technical chops and a keen eye for UX are instrumental in being a respected and effective product manager, none of that matters if you can’t tell your story, and tell the story of your products.
Takeaway #1: Start with the Mission Statement
So that brings me to your resume. Solve your resume the way that you’d solve product problems. Start with the mission statement, why are you particularly suited to be an effective product manager? What is your strategic advantage?
It’s important to ask yourself what value you’d bring as a product person, and how you can speak to that with your experience and your successes. Practically, I always recommend that folks ask themselves the question:
- What would your engineers say about you?
- What would your boss say about you?
- How would you describe your approach to product?
The answers to those questions will help you better brand yourself and tell your story. Make sure that your resume reflects that experience.
Takeaway #2: Show Your Story
After you’ve established a theme, don’t just tell your story, show it. A good product manager is evaluated on their product’s performance. Show it with numbers, and be realistic about it. If you have increased onboarding throughput by 60% you better have a really good and realistic story to show for that. Don’t lie with your numbers, it’ll show with your experience, and people will definitely ask you about it.
But be realistic, you planned OKR’s for Q1 and completed 65% of your roadmap, that’s not bad. The simple fact that you have the leadership initiative to run OKR planning is a great accomplishment in itself. But the fact is that you need to show your lived experiences, and show your story in numbers.
I’ve seen so many resumes that claim that they’ve managed roadmap planning, lead projects to completion and developed countless dashboards. But none of that experience matters if you don’t have clear business goals that you’ve accomplished. The fact is that running scrum teams and leading projects is the bare minimum that a product manager should be doing. It’s a lot more valuable to show that you can bring teams together, drive consensus and move the needle for the business.
Takeaway #3: Practice Your Storytelling
After you’ve groomed your resume to be consistent and succinct, practice your storytelling. You should be able to tell your story quickly and in an articulate fashion. A good rule of thumb is to practice answering questions within 2–3 minutes. Even if a story is long and there’s a lot of required context to share, it’s even more important to ensure that you have the attention of your audience. Human beings can’t listen to a long drawn out story for more than a few minutes, especially when it isn’t about them.
Practice telling your story about how your experience brings you to the role that you’re applying to. Read about the mission statement of the company, and speak to how you can strategically position the company for greater success.
Finally, be genuine and honest. It’s important to be realistic about what you want out of a role, and what the company wants. Don’t groom your resume to fit every job description that you’re applying to, but do make sure that your resume is relevant for to the role that you want. Make tweaks to make sure that it’s relevant, but don’t turn your resume inside out for the job that you’re applying to.
