Refresh your Resume

When is the last time you updated your Resume/CV?  

There was a little bit of chatter in the MSPGeek Discord last month about what actually needs to go on a resume.  (MSPGeek Website | MSPGeek Discord)

It got me curious: how many of my friends in the MSP space have an up-to-date resume, and one that they’re proud of?  

Uh-oh, have you not dusted yours off in a few years?

Let’s talk about why you might want to change that even if you’re happy where you are and some practical advice for updating yours into something you’re proud to showcase.  

What is a Resume and how is it different from a CV?  

Let’s start with the basics.  

A resume is a generally a concise document highlighting your professional experience, skills, and accomplishments. When I’m coaching others, I use the analogy that a good resume is just a firm handshake. It's what gets your foot in the door for hopefully further conversations. You’ll want your resume to be tailored to your current interests and objectives, whittled down to reflect your story and expertise.  

On the other hand, a CV, or curriculum vitae, comes from Latin words curriculum, which came from the original word currere which translates to run, as in a race; and vitae, meaning life. Curriculum has since been adapted as an educational term for what you’d be learning in a class or program, but it originally just meant “what race are you running?”  

With that in mind, a CV literally translates to course of life, and as such it’s a beefier document than a resume, reflecting a detailed account of one’s professional journey, path, and achievements, showcasing a full history of your education, research, and work. I coach my people to keep both on hand, considering the CV as the “source of truth” for everything you’ve ever done with complete timelines and full descriptions, and creating multiple child resumes depending on your specific job application or use case.  

In general, in the MSP (Managed Service Provider) space and in the employment arena, these words are often used interchangeably but I encourage you to default to providing a simpler resume, and as such we’ll be focusing on that term in this article. However, there are places and times that it makes sense to provide a full CV and we’ll address that as we go.  

The Value of Keeping a Resume on Hand

Having an up-to-date resume is a good practice to keep even if you’re not actively looking for jobs.  Some companies that bid for work include team member resumes and CVs as evidence of that company’s competence and fit to win a particular Request for Proposal (RFP).  

It’s also helpful because you never know when the random person you meet at a conference, church, or bar, likes the cut of your jib and wants your resume to see if you’re a good fit for their company!

If you’re in Sales or Marketing, knowing what your technical teams’ Resumes and CVs look like can be a wealth of data for building proposals or providing accomplishments to prospective clients. It’s worth seeing if your team has up-to-date resumes so you know the high points of their skills and accomplishments and can brag about them accordingly.  

So enough about the why of a good Resume. Let’s talk about the how.  

Building a "Good” Resume

As someone who has applied for many jobs, read a good number of applications for my own businesses, and coached others in cleaning up their own, let’s talk about what makes a resume or CV successful to me and how I applied those ideals in my own resume. As you’ve surely noticed, the word good is in quotation marks – every bit of advice in here is built on years of learning and experience, but is by no means dictatorial or the final word on the resume that will get you the job of your dreams.  

My goal is to give you inspiration on revamping and practical advice further editing your own! If you follow these ideas, hopefully, you'll take your resume from "meh" to "good" and as you build your idea of what good looks like, you can make it "great."

Here is my current resume, for reference:  

What are your first thoughts? It’s ok if you hate it, it won’t hurt my feelings. The fact that you’re thinking about what could be a resume is the exciting part for me. We’ll use my resume to tear apart some of these rules so you have practical ideas for what to do, or not!

Rules I kept in mind:  

1. You’re the Hero.  

2. Lead with action.

3. Context, context, context.  

4. Show your Work

You’re the Hero.  

For the uninitiated, Doctor Who is a BBC Family Show about a millennia-old time-traveling alien who consistently finds himself saving the human race while meeting historic people and events from the past, present, and future.  In the 2024 Christmas special, Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor finds himself trapped in a crappy hotel room by himself, for a year. “The long way ‘round” rings in the viewers’ ears as we are then escorted through the next year of the Doctor, watching his character development as he performs menial labor and often comical tasks. It’s heartwarming and tearjerking, and....

Don’t do that.  

Yeah, you heard me. Your resume is not the place for your growth or development. It’s not the place to give the ins and outs of your day-to-day. Your resume needs to be the high points. This is just the book cover, the summary, the short review enticing someone to pick you up and actually flip through the pages.  

Ways that you can do that include:  

• Use a “Summary” and/or “Objective”.
  What is your overall story? Are you a phenomenal Tier 2 Technician looking for her next role leading a team as a Tier 3? Are you hoping to transition to leadership with your people skills? Are you wanting to contribute to a team with your depth of knowledge of security infrastructures? What should the reader of your Resume see first, and how should they read your story?  

• Keep to the point.
  A rule of thumb often used is 10 years of work experience to one page of resume. IF you have more experience that requires more words, try to shorten it first. Or, include an appendix fully describing a project or situation.  

• Maybe a picture.
  Honestly, I hate having a photo on a resume, but I was applying for a job outside of my local area and industry I wanted something that showed my character. I left it on the styling because I’m lazy. Be careful with photos, they can seem unprofessional.  

We want to know that you can speak Judoon, have commandeered a TARDIS, and are adept with both psychic paper and a Sonic Screwdriver. We do not need to know that you carjacked said TARDIS, brought someone a cheese toastie and pumpkin latte, or snogged Queen Elizabeth.  If the devil is in the details, well, leave the details and the devil out of your resume, dude.

This example is a little silly, but the point remains that YOU are the hero and YOU write your own story. Make sure the readers of your resume know what that is. And regardless of what story you write, your resume should always lead with Action.  

Lead with Action

What have you done that you have control over? Your resume should show that you’re an asset to the teams that you’re on and that the work you’ve done has shown your strength.  

Instead of framing things as being a part of a project or that something was imposed on you, stretch yourself to consider the decisions you made and how they were impactful.  

Check your resume in a grammar checker for  “passive voice” and eliminate it from your resume as much as possible. Passive voice makes it seem like you are just that: a passive bystander to things that you created. This isn’t the place for modesty, it’s a place for groundedness and intentionality! Don’t be scared to show them what you’ve got! Here are some good rules of thumb for your resume:  

1. Start with action verbs: Use strong verbs such as developed, managed, increased, led, implemented, and optimized.

2. Ask 'who did what?': When reviewing your bullet points, ask yourself who is performing the action, and make that the subject of the sentence.

3. Quantify results: Adding metrics helps make the statement more assertive and shows the impact of your actions.

Here are some practical examples for how you can update passive voice with active voice.  

• Ticket System Implementation
  • ‍Passive: “A new ticketing system was implemented to streamline support requests.” ‍
  • Active: “Implemented a new ticketing system that streamlined support requests, reducing response times by 20%.”

• Customer Care ‍
  • Passive: “Client issues were resolved in a timely manner.”
  • ‍Active: “Resolved client issues within 24 hours, improving customer satisfaction ratings by 15%.”

• Report Preparation ‍
  • Passive: “Quarterly reports were prepared and presented by me for leadership review.” ‍
  • Active: “Prepared and presented quarterly reports to leadership, providing data-driven insights that influenced key decisions.”

• Training Employees ‍
  • Passive: “Training programs were created for new hires.” ‍
  • Active: “Created and led training programs for new hires, resulting in a 30% reduction in onboarding time.”

• Security Updates ‍
  • Passive: “System upgrades were performed to improve security.” ‍
  • Active: “Performed system upgrades to improve security, reducing vulnerability incidents by 40% compared to previous year.”

Of note, it is highly possible that you don’t feel like you have the numbers or the confidence to do this, today.  There is a certain amount of intentionality and care that is required to start gathering these types of Key Performance Metrics or goals. It’s possible that your management is tracking some of these things already and you can talk to your manager about their goals for your department and roll those into your own successes.  

Context, Context, Context

Know your audience and keep it relevant in all the ways possible, I’d specifically encourage you to consider context of content and context of delivery.  

Content

We allude to this in the section on being the Hero, but keep multiple versions of your resume on hand depending on the role and company you are applying for! Review the business’s website and job listing for key words, phrases, or values to show you are a good fit. Remove work experience that isn’t applicable to the role. Don’t keep things in if they dilute what you are actually seeking to present yourself as. Customize your bullet points: Swap in key accomplishments that fit the job description. If the role focuses on leadership, highlight examples of mentoring or leading a team. If it’s technical, detail relevant certifications, tools, and projects.

Formatting

Use consistent headers, bullet points, and spacing to make your resume easy to scan. Avoid excessive detail that clutters the page. Stick to clean, professional fonts and clear section breaks.  

Keep it simple, but don’t be afraid of a little personality: A pop of color, a different font, or slightly unique formatting can be memorable—but don’t overdo it. Use section dividers, subtle lines, or an (one!) accent color to guide the eye. Include icons for contact info if appropriate, but ensure they don’t distract (choose SIMPLE icons with only one color and make sure all icons are from the same family pack).  

Keep font choices professional yet modern, such as using sans-serif fonts like Calibri or Lato. In general, I recommend not using more than one typeface, and limit the times you change it. Regular, bold, italic should get you far, and try to keep font sizes to three variations: title (36pt), header (18pt), body (12pt). Keep things consistent like you would be if you were marking up a webpage or application. And please, whatever you do, don’t express yourself through clever or cartoony fonts, this is for business, not your personal art gallery.

Delivery

How are you submitting your application? In person, by email, through a digital system?  

Will the person be reading this on a mobile device or printing it out?  

If in person, don’t be afraid to print off a color copy on nice, weighted cardstock for an in-person interview, and bring copies for other people who may be in the room as well, for a peer interview.  

For digital submissions Check the format based on delivery method: Ensure your resume reads well in multiple formats—digital (PDFs), ATS-scannable text, and print. Run tests to see how it looks in each form.  Do screenreaders or convert to plain text to see (or hear) what a computer-read version of your document turns out to say. Does it make sense? If not, rework it.  

Show your Work

As mentioned multiple times in this article, your resume is a tool for opening doors, so don’t let it be a dead end for the reader. Where do you keep your portfolio or where should they go to find more information about you if this resume piqued their interest? Don’t keep them guessing, give them access! Some things you may want to include on a modern resume:  

• Links  
  • Github
  • LinkedIn Profile  
  • Blog or Portfolio

• Personal Projects or Achievements section
  • Speaking engagements
  • Community Volunteerism
  • Open Source Projects you contribute to

• References or Testimonials
  • While your references should be separate from your resume, don’t be afraid to list quotes from people about your work or link to reviews

Now, it’s your turn!  

What do you think? If you look at your resume, does it follow my suggestions of making yourself the Hero. leading with action, considering appropriate context, and showing your Work?  Where did I deviate from the rules, do you think it works for me, or not?  

On the flip side, what rules do you think I am missing?

I hope I’ve inspired you to update your resume and/or CV this month and to encourage your friends and colleagues to do the same! If you need help cleaning up your resume, you can find me on any of the social channels listed on my resume, or through Rising Tide if you want to pay me to just do it for you.  

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