QTBIPOC: Resume Writing Tips for YOU

I have looked at so many resumes this past year through my contract work with Teach For America and through my own small biz. It's a privilege to be entrusted with someone's professional story.

Here is my biggest takeaway (and this is not a new insight nor it is original): The "resume" is one of the biggest tool that perpetuates inequity in the professional world.

There are so many unwritten rules, tricks, strategies, and best practices when it comes to the job application space. The people who write impressive resumes grew up with privilege or have significantly proximity to privilege (race, wealth, class, gender, parents' education access, etc.). Yes, there are exceptions but I've reviewed maybe 100 resumes this year (I know this number is peanuts compared to recruiters and people who do a lot of hiring) and the trends are exceedingly very consistent.

There are so many incredible, brilliant, experienced, highly-qualified (over-qualified), equity-centered QTBIPOC emerging leaders who don't have support when it comes to how to navigate the unwritten rules of the job market. There is a lot of free helpful information on TikTok and Linkedin, but it's also overwhelming, especially if you didn't grow up with proximity to support on how to decode all these tips. My parents worked in corporate America, so I benefited from their knowledge and had A TON of privilege out of the gate. I still have proximity to a lot of privilege with family members on both sides of my family with advanced degrees and great jobs.

A resume is simply a measure of who has access and support to figure out how to write in that language of power.

If you are looking for a new job now, here are some common "mistakes"* that I see on resumes:

- Including an objective statement
- Including your full mailing address or not including a location at all
- Describing the responsibilities and duties of past work experiences similar to a job description
- Inconsistency with whether there are periods or no periods at the end of bullets
- Results not highlighted nor mentioned anywhere, either qualitatively or quantitatively
- Impact not highlighted or mentioned anywhere
- A long list of skills like "public speaking," "written and verbal communication," "Microsoft Office," "Google Drive"
- A long list of interests
- College activities and internships on resumes years after graduating
- A Canva-type template that doesn't work well for recruiting software that scan resumes

I will follow up with some tips, suggestions, and scripts around job readiness to try to get emerging best practices to QTBIPOC leaders in my communities. I feel very called to how important this work is.

* "Mistakes" based on what I have learned from recruiters and experts on current industry trends. There are no absolutes and opinions vary greatly on this subject!