The Art of Downplaying

down·play
tr.v. down·played, down·play·ing, down·plays

To reduce the significance or importance of; to deemphasize: he downplayed the competing team's winning record.

Why Downplay?

Employers are interested in the value you can impart to their enterprise. As hard earned as your experience may be, they really don't want to sort through your career looking for the nuggets they need to bring you in for an interview. There are typically so many applicants that they don't have time to read anything that is not immediately pertinent to the position they are trying to fill.

Consider also, that typically the employing managers were not hired to screen and bring in new applicants as an end unto itself. They were hired to manage a team to accomplish something on behalf of the company. While they know that hiring the right people is very important, managers are still likely to regard the process as an administrative burden.

Your resume needs to cut to the chase and instill confidence from the get go. The employing managers would really like to get back to work with as much peace of mind as you can give them.

Let's return to our hypothetical mechanic we introduced in the Defining Resumes topic. Let's say he is applying to a job at the Mercedes dealership for a Transmission Specialist. Let's consider the bullet points he could use to sell himself. First read the bullet points on the left hand side in their entirety, then read them again. They do an adequate job of presenting his skills. Then read the bullet points on the right.

To view the bullet points click the Show character.

Transmission Specialist

Show Original Bullets

Successfully repaired transmissions of domestic and foreign manufacturers.
Generated additional business by calling customers with vehicles on recall and offering to do the repairs.
Conducted training seminars on BMW transmissions to the local BMW Enthusiasts club.
Received training from a wide range of vendors on the particulars of their products to include body repair, power train products to tire balancing.
Repaired alternators for Range Rovers by learning to read complex wiring diagrams specific to Range Rovers.
Completed all work within the allotted man-hour requirements of the company 97% of the time.
Completed advanced transmission instruction at DeVry Technical College.

Show JobTabs Bullets

Successfully repaired transmissions of Mercedes, Porsche, BMW, Volkswagen, and Audi among others.
Participated in the fuel pump replacement recall for the Daimler 123SE.
Conducted training seminars on BMW transmissions to the local BMW Enthusiasts club.
Received training from Bosch on the specifics of clutch degradation and the materials manufactured by Bosch to prolong clutch life.
Completed training from Heinrichs GMBH on the variations of transmission fluids and the considerations for using each type.
Completed all work within the allotted man-hour requirements of the company 97% of the time.
Completed instruction on the new Advanced Overdrive Technology pioneered by Daimler Chrysler in an advanced transmission training class at DeVry Technical College.

As an aside, the reference to Porsche, BMW, Volkswagen and Audi among others adds value of the mechanic's experience. The nature of automobile manufacturing is very nepotistic in that manufacturers on each continent by and large procure from manufacturers on that continent. Just as US automakers procure from US manufacturers, the European automakers procure from each other, e.g. it is unlikely any of these manufacturers procure spark plugs from any other source other than Bosch.

The JobTabs bullets on the right differ from the original resume on several considerations. The JobTabs bullets intimate the mechanic to the needs of the Mercedes automobile. While the mechanic is not misrepresenting himself on either resume, he is clearly intimating himself to all things Mercedes and downplaying a connection to anything else. By doing so, he is much more likely to appear as a Mercedes transmission expert. Clearly gone is any reference to Range Rover wiring diagrams. Instead of generalizing the training he has received from vehicle suppliers, he clearly specifies the training he has received related to transmissions or from European suppliers. Even the advanced training class he took is skewed to the demands of his prospective employer.

This job candidate has an edge. He has worked smarter - not harder. The organizational chaos that would usually result from this level of detail is nonexistent. If this job application doesn't materialize, at the very least he certainly has a new arrow in his quiver with which he can use to easily qualify himself for new opportunities. To illustrate, if the Volkswagen dealership began canvassing for a new Transmission Specialist how many bullet points would need to be modified to make our applicant an ideal candidate? Only two,

Participated in the fuel pump replacement recall for the Daimler 123SE.

Completed instruction on the new Advanced Overdrive Technology pioneered by Daimler Chrysler in an advanced transmission training class at DeVry Technical College.

While the mechanic would have to draw from his experience with Volkswagen automobiles to intimate himself to the Volkswagen job requisition, even these two bullet points are not too far off from what Volkswagen might want. As we have stated and will continue to state, the more you qualify yourself for new opportunities the easier it will be to qualify yourself for subsequent opportunities. At the risk of being very bold, the job search will actually be fun.

Conclusion

Creating a slew of resumes this specific and being able to readily gather and sell the gist of the resume, would normally be untenable without a tool like JobTabs. While anyone can start out extremely organized, eventually the labor of maintaining that level of oversight for a prolonged period is simply too taxing. JobTabs has only one mode; total organization - all the time.