Launch Your Resume

Welcome to Star Compass!

What’s inside this week:

🧑‍🚀 This Week’s Mission: Is your resume static or dynamic?

🌌 This Week in Space: Three things worth your attention this week.

🚀 Ask a Rocket Scientist: What have new subscribers missed?

🔭 Next Step: Your resume deserves continuous improvement.

I have been the hiring manager for hundreds of employees in my career. Most resumes increase the chances of losing you a job opportunity more than getting you one.

This is because they are often boring, static lists of tasks. They tell where you sat, rather than the action you took and the results you delivered.

Most think a long resume shows more experience. It shows you didn’t edit.

They are often too long. Early career resumes should be 1 page. Experienced professionals should stay within 2 pages. Your reader can’t scan a 5-page novel that lists everything you have ever done.

The first scan of your resume lasts seconds to determine if you are worth further consideration. After the first scan, you might get a deeper look of two to five minutes before an interview. Those short windows will either hook your reader or not.

To capture interest, your resume needs to be dynamic. It needs to make you a STAR!

STAR is an acronym that means Situation, Task, Action, and Result. It is a common interview method to answer behavioral interview questions (we will talk more in an upcoming Star Compass issue about interviewing). Many don’t realize STAR also applies to your resume, which is your first “interview” to get you an actual one.

Like your LinkedIn profile we discussed in last week’s Star Compass, your resume should be written with an accomplishment-first approach. You should state the results you delivered and why they mattered, not just what you were assigned to do.

It should not only focus on the past. You need to share not only what you learned so far, but how you plan to continue your career trajectory. Each resume you submit should be unique and tailored to the specific opportunity you are pursuing.

Content and relevancy matter the most, but don’t distract the reader by having anything that makes it difficult to read such as typos, misspelled words, poor grammar, or huge paragraphs. A resume full of mistakes looks unprofessional.

Keep it in a clean, professional format with consistent fonts and spacing. No fancy font type, or layout will get you the job. Write in the first person. Get a resume critique by someone with attention to detail and a willingness to give you tough love.

Lead with your name, your contact information, and your LinkedIn URL. Your phone number and email address are sufficient. Make sure not to use a current work email address. You don’t need to list your full physical address. City and state can be sufficient but may not even be necessary.

Follow with a professional summary. It is an excellent way to concisely convey information. It starts with a sentence or two (refer to the Find Your Sentence homework) that summarizes who you are and why they should hire you for the specific position you are interested in.

Then follow with three bullets showcasing your best achievements front and center so they are impossible to miss. Include details like the size of the teams you led, the results delivered, and a pattern of increasing responsibilities. The professional summary may be all that is read in the first review, and the second, so it is the most important resume section.

Yet despite the importance for experienced professionals, a professional summary may not be necessary for a new or recent college graduate with only a few years of experience. Writing a professional summary at this early stage of your career could lead to stretching or inflating what you know or have done. Instead, early career resumes should focus on the experience gained so far (so start with that section), even if it is only a few jobs or internships.

Professional experience is the bulk of any resume. It is a chronological listing, starting with your most recent and working backwards, of every job you’ve had.

The focus is on your current or most recent position; both the title and its bullets. Recruiters and hiring managers may not read further, except to look at the trajectory of your last three roles. They also will look at your tenure pattern with job-hopping of less than 18 months (unless opportunity-driven) or being stuck for 10+ years without a promotion, raising red flags.

For any experience beyond the most recent, only highlight significant or differentiating items relevant to the desired role. The last 10-15 years of experience may be all that you need, with older items summarized in your professional summary.

Education follows experience. If you are later in your career, where you went to school is less important than what you have done afterwards. For a recent college graduate, the opposite is true. Your education, internships, and significant class projects may be more valuable than random jobs. Early employment may still demonstrate important skills but only include if relevant to the job you are seeking.

Sections you can omit are hobbies and references available upon request. An activities, awards, or service section can be included, but again only if they are relevant or highlight a facet of yourself you want to showcase. These can include items like competitive sports, notable charity service, club leadership, or study abroad experiences that help separate you from others.

Your resume, like your LinkedIn profile, should be a living document. You shouldn’t only update them when needed for a job search. Set up regular times to improve them, whether you are in the market or not, to keep both fresh and relevant. Record your accomplishments as they happen. Writing this article reminded me I have some updates to make to both my LinkedIn profile and latest resume.

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📡 OPPORTUNITY: On July 20, the anniversary of Apollo 11, Jim Keravala, CEO of StellarWorld, posted a video imagining a family taking a vacation on the Moon. This video shows a vision for the future. Your resume should not be a history lesson. It should share a vision of what you can do for your next employer.

📚RESOURCE: To write a good resume or LinkedIn profile, you need a bullet-writing formula. This week's resource, Writing Bullets That Hit the Target, gives you a step-by-step guide for rewriting your resume and LinkedIn bullets.

Reply to this newsletter with the word TARGET, and I will email you this resource.

🌎 COMMUNITY: As I enter my third month of publishing Star Compass, I have learned a few things. I am not simply building a newsletter and subscription list. I am building a community.

At 339 subscribers and growing, with only 4 unsubscribed, I appreciate the everyone who has signed up. It is not just a commitment to subscribe, but a commitment to read.

My all-time open rate is 59.96%, well above industry averages of 20-40%. But the personal notes of encouragement are as meaningful as any statistic.

Starting with this issue, you will see a couple of changes. Each issue will have a simple poll at the end so I can get real-time feedback on whether the content is landing. I also will survey subscribers this week to learn more about you and what you want out of Star Compass.

Please use these two options to give feedback. Be generous about what is and isn't working.

What have I missed from earlier issues?

- New Subscribers

1. Find Your Compass (June 8). Your title is what you do. Your why is the reason it matters. This issue introduces the Start with Why framework to find your purpose.

2. Navigating Apollo 13 (June 15). Every career follows the Hero's Journey, and Apollo 13 is the clearest real example. This issue shows you how to find out which stage you're in right now.

3. AI: Hero or Villain? (June 22). AI can do a lot of what used to make you valuable. The real question is what's left that's uniquely yours. This issue helps you find your superhuman powers.

4. Find Your Heading (June 28). Where you live shapes your career more than any other decision. This issue shows you how to choose your “where” and maps the aerospace hubs worth considering.

5. Define What You Want (July 5). Before you apply anywhere, you need to know your requirements. This issue uses requirements definition to write down what you need and what you don’t.

6. Identify Your Landing Site (July 13). Random job-board applying isn't a strategy. This issue shows you how to build a target company list with a weighted trade study and a clear winner.

7. Swim in a Blue Ocean (July 20). The best roles are often filled before they're ever posted. This issue shares Blue Ocean Strategy, so you stop fighting for the same crowded roles as everyone else.

8. Establish Your Digital Presence (July 27). Your LinkedIn profile is your most valuable digital real estate. This issue walks through all eight parts of a complete profile.

Got a question about navigating your aerospace career? Reply and ask. I’ll answer the best ones right here.

Your resume and LinkedIn profile are not static. They are dynamic and continuously improving.

This week, for your three most recent roles, rewrite the three bullets that summarize each job using the bullet-writing formula (reply to this newsletter with the word TARGET to get it).

Feedback is a gift. Please be generous. Tap the poll or reply to this email. I read every response.