Susan is one of the most vibrant clients with whom I’ve ever had the privilege of working. However, her original résumé simply did not convey her expertise, passion, and commitment to the disciplines of agency and in-house marketing. Therefore, I made some strategic choices that pushed her out of her comfort zone.

Design Strategy

Orange is a bold choice for a résumé. I’m well aware of this, and I don’t normally use this color. But we needed to shake up her design strategy as well as her content. We talked about the colors that would represent her personality and her brand as a marketing professional, and we agreed that pale blues and grays simply wouldn’t cut it for her. So, we used a judicious splash of orange throughout.

I chose some visually compelling call-out elements as well. Her former manager had some terrific, quotable comments, so we put those into text boxes to make sure her future hiring executive understood the value she consistently provided. Her ability to deliver ROI is highlighted in the text and in a graph in orange and green—no reader could fail to see her contribution and understand it viscerally. Also, I called out her most recent award for quota achievement in a highly competitive, thin-margin industry to prove beyond a doubt that she was well-versed in marketing and sales.

Content Strategy

Again, the key issue with Susan’s approach in her original résumé was that she was not proving with solid metrics her successes as a marketing expert. We chose specific elements of her history that branded her with state-of-the-art expertise and proven, measurable outcomes. Each bulleted accomplishment statement starts with a key phrase that immediately identifies the specific domain of marketing expertise described therein. Where possible, we backed up those successes with verifiable metrics.