Why is This a Sample Resume?

David’s resume is not an investment banking resume, but it is a good sample resume for any one in any industry. A good work history is the soul of a good resume. In this respect, David is perfect. His resume is also perfect in many ways. Let’s look at them one by one.

Education: Good education with outstanding results.

Age: David is 39 years old and has a young family. He is old enough to have sufficient experience to contribute, and he is young enough to grow with any organization. Due to discrimination law, personal info like age and status are usually not required, but David chose to disclose these on his resume, which is certainly appreciated by hiring managers.

Experience: He had three jobs only in 18 years of time, proven to be stable.

Career history: You can see distinct promotion records in the two companies he worked for. His AUM grew from A$200K to A$70m in eight years’ time while he was with Famous Chemicals. The number of people he managed grew from 18 to 325 in nine years’ time while he was with Famous Exhibitions. His responsibilities grew from a domestic account manager to president, bearing regional P/L accountabilities.

Look & Feel: A clean and tidy layout, easy for readers.

Length: Just right. David has 18 years of experience and he's targeting a CEO role, therefore a page and a half is fine.

Weakness: David didn’t include his contact info on his resume. Please make sure you won’t omit this when writing a resume.

Think Before You Accept A Lateral Move
Career tips from Anna Maria D’Souza

The other day I received a resume in which the candidate had four jobs within the same company in four years. Actually he changed job every year however without a single promotion. Hello, this isn’t a healthy trend. Unless you are on a pre-planned rotation trainee program, otherwise you have to be very careful when accepting a lateral move. Once is fine, but once a year is too much. David Smith’s resume is sure to make all the hiring managers eyes blink because he had distinct promotion in each of his move, not only upward movements, but distinct growth in AUM and the number of people he managed.

In any resume, hiring managers want to see upward vertical movements and not continuous lateral movements. Keep this in mind towards building your own sample resume.

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Sample Resume