How to Effectively Write the Resume
By Dan Safford

Clients want to see that you are proposing qualified people for the job and that they have the experience level appropriate to perform the work. Some clients go to the resume section first, before going to other sections in the proposal.

Keep this in mind: The key to a successful project is the team of people who will actually perform the work. This sounds so basic that it almost seems an insult to remind you of it. But it’s amazing how often this basic principle is ignored when it comes to the resume section of the proposal.

What to include. The client expects to see certain things in a resume. Sometimes she will require certain things. If that’s the case, give her what she asks for. If there’s no
such requirements, here are the basics:

• Name of the person
• Title within the firm
• Years of experience
• Education
• Experience

In addition, you should structure your resume to show the following:

The person’s responsibility on the project. What role will the person play on the project? Cite the role, then work from this to tailor the resume to show how well the
person is qualified to perform it.

How assigning this person will meet the client’s specific needs. Revisit your list of client concerns. Pick out the characteristics of the person’s qualifications and
experience that will link back to addressing these concerns.

How the person has gained experience on previous jobs. Don’t just cite work the person has done and expect the client to make the connection with his or her suitability to do this job. Pick out elements of the person’s experience that show how he or she is well-suited.

How the person’s past experience ties in with the role he or she will play on this specific project. Show the progression of experience and how this has prepared the person for this role on this project.

And last but not least:

TIE THE RESUME TO YOUR THEMES! Review your strategy and make sure each person’s resume is linked directly and explicitly with one of the major themes of your proposal.

What to exclude.

It’s a big temptation to cram the resume with items that make the person look good. Be selective. Here are some guidelines:

Cite only relevant experience. Don’t give a laundry list of the projects a person has worked on.

Limit the discussion of the person’s education. Just the facts: Type of degree, field, school, location, date. There’s no reason to discuss rank in class or special
academic awards.

Avoid lengthy lists of awards and honors. Cite them only if they have a particular relevance to the project or the client.

Omit lengthy lists of publications. List only those that tie to the work the person will do on the project. A long resume citing all the articles the person has published
is pretentious. And boring.

Exclude personal information. There’s no reason to include age, marital status, etc.

Exclude prior employment information. Don’t give a list of past employers unless it’s directly relevant to this project. And even then, you don’t need to make a separate and formal heading. Simply say that in a past job at (company name), the person served as (position) and performed (relevant duties).

You should also consider using photographs in your resumes. The client likes to put faces with names, to see the people they are reading about. This tends to humanize the words.

If you use photos, avoid the portrait-type head shot. These make the people seem stiff and formal. Instead, take a picture of the people doing work—at their desks (avoid looking posed) or at a job site (with work going on in the background).

You don’t have to develop a new resume—or take new pictures—for each proposal. What you must do, however, is tweak the resume for each proposal. A boilerplate resume—one size fits all—makes the client have to search for the relevant information.

You can be sure that she will not search too hard, if at all. So make it easy for the client to find exactly what’s relevant—why you selected this person to do this job.