"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." - Lazarus Long, Time Enough For Love, by R A Heinlein

By that standard I'm a human being, and resume-writing is taught for insects. Even just within IT I've performed the role of Director, Manager, Architect, Team Lead, Teacher, Mentor, that-which-hires-and-fires, Developer, Business Analyst, Systems Analyst, Client Relationship Manager, Project Manager... you get the idea. I don't have the vaunted "elevator speech," and I never will. I can't be reduced to a meaningful sound bite.

Job descriptions are written that way, too. "Five years of progressively more [very specific thing]..." That's fine if you have a specific career goal and your current or most recent employer(s) let you do it. No one tells you the most important thing: if you've have had anything other than a straight-line ride upward toward some lofty personal goal you've been chasing your whole adult life, your beautiful chronological resume is going to work against you. My career path has not been driven by "career goals." I don't have any. For Jedi like myself, the goal is to be of service, to make a difference. I don't have a "career path." My headline: "IT Renaissance Man." This is life for Heinlein's Humans, and Heinlein's Humans need some of their own guidelines.

In addition to generalization and adaptability, I know people in IT who've been experiencing ageism since their very early 30s. The more senior you are, the more cool things you've done... and the less likely anyone is to care. I pioneered online shopping before Amazon, created a star-schema reporting platform before Codd, and have spent much of the last 18 years consulting for a wide variety of businesses. My super power is telling when people agree (or disagree) and don't know it. And I'm a damned fine software architect and developer, too.

Nothing I've ever read about resume writing has been any help when it comes to content. We all know the basics of formatting: stick to one font, preferably a simple sans-serif in the 10-12 point range; but what about content? They say:

• Have a header and a headline that stand out.

The header is rather easy. That's formatting. I like to put my name in large red letters with small caps above a black line that contains my contact info in white text. That way the contact information serves dual duty separating the title from the body and saves space for storytelling. The word "resume" should never appear anywhere on any resume. We already know what it is.

The headline is tricky. Think long and hard about it. Try it out on people who know you, personally and professionally. You've got to be intensely comfortable with it and it's also got to get people's attention. Lots of words are over-used, and this really needs to stand out. It needs to show that you're different. "Team player," "driven," "Motivated," even "Passionate" are commonplace. You're a human being, not a job. Try terms like "adaptable," and "agent of change," and wrap them in words that tell not just what you do but why you do it. It's got to be a one-liner, a movie title.

I recently had a recriuter use a term to describe me that I've not used for myself in years. I like it so I've made it the headline of my resume. What people who understand you call you may work, or may give you inspiration, and it's where you should start looking for your headline even if you have one you like already.

After the headline you need one or two short paragraphs that are a plot synopsis and character outline for the show that is the rest of your resume. At the end of that, any reader who's never heard of you before should understand that you're MacGyver, what makes you tick, and what you can do for them. After writing a few dozen of these especially for specific jobs, you'll get a sense of the common things and you should be able to stabilize it. I have three: one for developer jobs; one for management (team, project, etc.) jobs; and one for director-level jobs.

• Put your job title on each job.

The job title is useless. I've only had 2 or 3 titles, ever, so what do I do, make stuff up? Even when I built the IT department for Worldshop, designed the system, hired the team, and served as lead developer and manager and architect... The job title is useless. Recruiters want to know "what your role was" at each job. I've never had just one role, and the rest of us Heinlein's Humans haven't, either. So what I do is I put a few bullet points under each job and start each of them with a role. The role is in bold for easy separation and scanning, and makes it easy to show that I don't pigeonhole. If they want to do that to me I won't fit. If they want someone who adapts and sees needs that others don't - and does something about them on his own initiative, then I'm that someone.

I only put years on it for dates, and I still lump it all under a heading: "Consultant. Grieg Pedersen Consulting. 1999-2017" Even though I have several years of direct-hire time in there. Within that I put a selection of clients and projects. No one worries about gaps between jobs when you do it this way. Instead of one for each job, I put a role in front of every bullet point. I've only ever had two or three official titles, but at every job I serve as a Systems Analyst, Business Analyst, Developer, DevOps, and often DBA.

• Tell your story. Show your career path clearly.

This is where the assumed chronological resume lets us down. Remember those bullet points, each with its own role? It's easy for that to take on a scattershot appearance. Resume readers are looking for the story. The bolded bullet point roles help a lot when you have to get through the ATS (Applicant Tracking System). Much of the time it's got to get through the computer scanner and get scored. Those scanners are counting instances of keywords and some even check for context. You cant just load up lines with keywords, you've got to make them make sense. I do stuff like this:

Business Analyst: Saved the company's classic car segment by questioning approved requirements. DevOps: Improved speed and accuracy of the software release build process by developing a thousand-line interactive Unix ksh script to automate the process and do extensive analysis of the results, preventing accidental rollbacks and release of unscheduled items. Developer: Improved decision accuracy by overhauling debt adjustment logic in OpenEdge 11.

So I use these resumes, loaded with keywords relevant to the specific job listing, to get through the ATS if I don't have a person to send it directly to. Then, if I can, I replace or augment that resume (which the system used to build my profile) with a completely different resume: one that really tells the story. For that I use a functional resume, since as a consultant I've had nearly 20 jobs in the last 20 years, ranging from 3 days to 5 years. I use it to tell the story, and I can do it in 2-3 pages depending on the role I'm applying for. I'm asked, "what kind of a role are you looking for." I find that question incredibly hard. I'm always looking for the role that allows me to make the greatest difference in a given environment with the skills I have. How can I answer that until I've actually found out about the company and its needs? Being functional it can go as far back as I like, even 30 years, because it doesn't have any dates on it. You can put a basic chronology at the bottom with your last 10 years. One line each. If they want more they'll ask for it, and that means your functional or hybrid resume has sold the story and they want to read it.

I recently took my functional resume and handed it off to an agent after spending a couple of hours customizing it for that particular definitely-not-a-specialist job. I got a phone interview the next day and took the chronological resume with me to the on-site interview the day after that. I left it with them, knowing that they'd use it to fill in the details of a story they already knew. Will I get the job? I don't know yet. It's only been a week and a day since they got my resume and they've followed up with my references. It looks good, and the job is a fantastically open-ended position that requires a developer, corporate linguist, business analyst, and more. I'm really excited about it.

Keep that chronological resume around, and keep one with absolutely everything on it. It doesn't matter if it's six pages, because it's there to be source material for you when you compy/paste/edit a new resume for each job you go after. And if at all possible, give it to a person instead of a web server. taht way you can skip trying to get past the keyword counters and concentrate on people.